By Steve Gillman
Why use lightweight and ultralight tents? Because a heavy tentis one of the biggest obstacles to lightweight backpacking. Youhave to cut the weight of the "big three" (shelter, backpack andsleeping bag) to really go light. How do you choose one, though?Start by asking yourself the following questions:
1. Are you claustrophobic? Some ultralight tent designs arereally just fancy bivy sacks. For those who hate tight squeezes,it will be like sleeping in a coffin.
2. How tall are you? If the length of the tent is only a fewinches more than your height, you'll be touching the walls. Thisprobably means getting wet from the condensation on them.
3. What do you do in a tent? If you just sleep, total floor andhead space are not important. If you normally play cards withfriends for hours, you'll need a design that allows for that.
4. Do you backpack in bad weather often? If all you plan to dois camp on nice summer nights, you can just look at the cheapestlightweight tents, and worry less about quality.
5. How much have you budgetted for a tent? More money equals alighter tent, but if you can't get it light enough on yourbudget, you may want to consider going even lighter - andcheaper - with a tarp shelter.
6. Which is more important to you, fast set-up or lightestweight? Hopefully you'll find a tent with the right balance, butkeep your preference in mind when shopping.
More About Lightweight Tents
Single-layer tents (without a rain-fly) will usually have morecondensation inside. This is true of even those that claim to bewaterproof and breathable. It is less of a problem with thenewer designs that have a lot of screen/ventilation area,because air circulation is as important as "breathable"material. These materials just don't breath that well anyhow.
Test your tent. It's no fun spending 20 minutes setting up acomplicated tent in the rain. Also, it can be worse thaninconvenient to tear seams because of a design that stretcheseverything so tight you have to fight with it. Try the tent inyour yard or living room, before you head into the wilderness.That way you can return it if it won't work for you.
There is only one totally enclosed 2-person ultralight tent thatI know of under 3 pounds. It's a single layer, but the forwardsloping door allows for a large screen area, to keep air-flow ata maximum. This keeps condensation to a minimum.
There are "floorless" tents, which are specially cut tarps whichtypically use your trekking poles for support. One of thelightest of these is a three-person design that weighs less than2 pounds. I haven't tried it, but it gets good reviews, and itis in the weight range I like for ultralight tents. You have tobring a groundsheet with this type, so figure that weight intothe decision.
Unfortunately, I've discovered the hard way - four tents andcounting - that you tend to get what you pay for withlightweight tents. That's one of the reasons I backpack with atarp.
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