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That’s an excellent question. Adding to the confusion? You may be carrying extra stakes or a ground cover, and that can add weight. Plus, let’s face it, I don’t think every tent made by a maker is the same weight. Odds are good that they sample a batch, find the lightest, and use that as packaged weight.

The Utopia 2

The Utopia 2 ($275) is pretty much the lightest tent out there. It’s a real tent—tent poles, silicon-impregnated fly—but has no inner wall (it’s a single-wall tent) and no floor. Still, if you can live with that, for two pounds, ten ounces (packed weight, two pounds, seven ounces minimum weight) you have a tent.

I admit, I don’t find that kind of setup real practical—I’d be carrying a floor liner and adding a pound, just to keep my pad and bag off the ground.

So…I have thought this for a long time, and still think it. The lightest practical two-person tent is in my view the Clip Flashlight 2 ($199). Three pounds, six ounces (“trail weight”—no packaging or anything). It achieves this with a tunnel-tent design that requires you to stake it out. But that saves you a pole or two. Add light materials, and you have a light tent.

A worthy competitor is the Quarter Dome 2 ($270). A free-standing tent that comes in at three pounds, 12 ounces, which is pretty remarkable.

My own favorite is the Lighthouse ($430) a free-standing, single-wall tent with a floor that weighs about the same as the Clip Flashlight, give or take an ounce. Costs more, true. But it’s a tough, versatile, practical tent. I use mine for solo camping, as well as climbing trips with a friend.