Ultralight Backpacking Tent Recommendations?

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Jorts
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Re: Ultralight Backpacking Tent Recommendations?

Post by Jorts »

BD Beta Light both with and without the bug insert has served me well for many years. Conveniently ski/trekking poles support it. The insert is a tad on the heavy side but is just as comfortable as a beefier tent.
Traveling light is the only way to fly.
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Conor
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Re: Ultralight Backpacking Tent Recommendations?

Post by Conor »

another vote for BA's fly creek ul1. at 6'2", 220 lbs, I don't have a problem with the space. That's me though.

Once thing I have learned, it is really difficult to get much lighter for a full tent. I embarked on making my own shelters, and I made a cuben tarp which my wife and I used on the arctic circle trail, it weighs in at 12 oz with stakes, but no poles, no walls, no floor. We spent two nights under the tarp, and the remainder of the nights in huts. Simply doing a fabric weights and surface area calculation, there isn't much one can do to make the tent lighter without making tradeoffs. "single wall" would be hot and damp in my opinion (especially with cuben fiber), others are fine with it. If you can live without a floor or walls, you can obviously cut out weight. I prefer to not have my hiking poles be part of the tent setup as I don't like fiddling with it if the tent is there for more than one night.

You can pinch ounces by changing stakes, changing out the guy lines, removing tags, ditching stuff sacks, etc. But, at the end of the day you have the surface area of the tent material and the rest of the tradeoffs you are willing to make.

my tent line up is as follows:

* BA fly creek1 - easy backpacking, I wouldn't want to be stuck on a glacier waiting out a storm in it.
*Hille Nallo 3 - 4.5 ish lbs, when I share or need a beefier shelter, I've stuffed three good sized dudes in it and I didn't have to worry about us being blown off the mountain. excellent oz/person if sharing, great for "light" glacier camps
* Hille Nammatj 3GT - 8 or 9 lbs, I'm too lazy to look it up. exped, bombproof
* marmot limestone 8p "the taj mahal" - car camping

and yes, I know the taj mahal is a mausoleum
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lauradaughtry
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Re: Ultralight Backpacking Tent Recommendations?

Post by lauradaughtry »

Huge thank you to and much gratitude for you all and all of your thoughtful responses!!!
“There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot.” —Aldo Leopold

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Re: Ultralight Backpacking Tent Recommendations?

Post by John619 »

For ultralight tents I've had good luck with the Six Moon Designs Lunar Solo and Lunar Duo (although the Duo is not quite ultralight). I upgraded to a Zpacks Duplex last year and it has worked well so far. The Zpacks tents are very expensive but unbelievably light.

In winter and above treeline in high wind you want a more bombproof free standing tent (although in the 70's I used a North Face Sierra double A frame...). I still use an old Nolle 2 person 4 season (3 pole, 2 door) in winter conditions.
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Re: Ultralight Backpacking Tent Recommendations?

Post by JQDivide »

One thing to think about... not sure if said already...
Many of the ultralight tents need trekking poles to set up. If you are camping / basecamp and still want trekking poles to summit, you have to do something with your tent, take it down.
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Re: Ultralight Backpacking Tent Recommendations?

Post by marksilas »

"Many of the ultralight tents need trekking poles to set up. If you are camping / basecamp and still want trekking poles to summit, you have to do something with your tent, take it down."
If I am camping below tree line in my trekking pole tent, I can either just collapse the tent and maybe set a few rocks on it so it stays in place, or replace the trekking pole with a tree branch of similar length.
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Re: Ultralight Backpacking Tent Recommendations?

Post by uthorns22 »

I wanted an ultralight tent with poles without having to use my trekking poles for support. The Nemo Dragonfly or Hornet were my first choice, but could not find any stock. I ended up getting the REI Quarter Dome (weighs slighty under 2lbs) and it worked great for my backpacking trips this summer for Snowmass, Crestones, and the Chicago Basin, keeping me warm, dry, and protection from the thunder/hail storms in the Chicago Basin last weekend. Here is the link https://www.rei.com/product/147862/rei- ... -sl-1-tent
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Re: Ultralight Backpacking Tent Recommendations?

Post by John619 »

You can also get light weight standalone poles for many of the ultralight single wall tents to use instead of your trekking poles if needed.
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Re: Ultralight Backpacking Tent Recommendations?

Post by RhodoRose »

I got a Nemo Dragonfly 1P earlier this summer and I love it. Don't know if people would qualify it as ultralight, but it's pretty sweet. Incredibly light (~2 lbs), 5 minutes to set up and tear down, lots of head room, rock solid in heavy winds and rain, deep basin so no chance of water coming in, huge vestibule, good ventilation, nice light diffuser pocket, and the 1 person version is comfortably big enough for me and a 65L pack. Worth the cost.
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Re: Ultralight Backpacking Tent Recommendations?

Post by JohnnyLeadville »

Kelty...the elastic needed to hold the poles taught lasts longer than average from them in my experience and it is generally good stuff. Their newer 1 person tents look OK but I'm not sure how I'd feel about having a full size pack in there. Depends how tall you are maybe. I think it is worth it to stick to one person but that's just me. My one person tent is no longer made by them sorry:)
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Re: Ultralight Backpacking Tent Recommendations?

Post by Cthulhu 2008 »

Another vote for the Z Packs Duamid. 2 person/ 2 vestibules at under 20 oz. We've had no issues with ours with plenty of wind and rain, and some hail over the years (up to 10 night out per year since 2015 or so).
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Re: Ultralight Backpacking Tent Recommendations?

Post by trailboss88 »

I've been using a Mountain Hardware Nimbus UL 2. I got it last fall. It hasn't been on the market long. It's only 2lbs and packs down very small. So far its been good in wind and rain. It's not totally freestanding though, two rear corners need stakes and fly does of course. I did add an additional line loop on the fly sides to get it tighter. I had a one person tent before this for over ten years but I got tired of not being able to sit up and get dressed and no room for my pack if it was raining. The Nimbus 2 would be tight for two people but is a roomy one.
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