Three-Season Tents
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Here’s our comprehensive guide for how to choose the right backcountry shelter
Everything you need to know before you head out camping this summer
Yes, it's possible to abandon the stakes, poles, and fly. Tuck into these alternatives next time you need some shut-eye outdoors.
I'm in the market for a small, light backpacking tent that won't break the bank.
Making a good tent requires compromise. In line with the old business adage “Good, fast, cheap: pick two,” tent designers generally aspire to two properties from their own list: light, roomy, and sturdy. Other trade-offs include the convenience of two doors and vestibules for the weight of the extra zippers and fly fabric.
Design and Technology Special: The world's most streamlined and innovative new gear, gadgets, tools and toys, including the Nemo Isopod 100 tent.
ϳԹ reviews the best gear in the 2011 Summer Buyers Guide, including the Easton Kilo tent.
ϳԹ reviews the best gear in the 2011 Summer Buyers Guide, including the Mountainsmith Morrison 2 tent.
ϳԹ reviews the best gear in the 2011 Summer Buyers Guide, including the MSR Hoop 2 tent.
ϳԹ reviews the best gear in the 2011 Summer Buyers Guide, including the Sierra Lightning HT 3 tent.
ϳԹ reviews the best gear in the 2011 Summer Buyers Guide, including the Big Agnes Copper Spur 4 tent.
I realized the knock on single walled tents is moisture and condensation. What are your thoughts on the new The North Face Phoenix 2 tent (made with DryWall membrane)? Would you recommend seam-sealing this tents or single walled tents in general? Bill Billerica, MA
What's the best tent for backpacking with my 75-pound dog who likes his space? Kelly Boulder, Colorado
If comfort is more important to you than weight, go ahead and buy a three-person tent for yourself and your mate. But consider this first: New pole connectors, like plastic hubs and sockets, have made tent walls more vertical, which creates more usable space in a two-person model without…
Backcountry Headquarters There are plenty of sturdy and roomy four-person base-camping tents on the market. What makes the Hideaway our favorite is that, while it’s downright cavernous it’s still light enough (nine pounds) to take into the backcountry. And once there, it’s a comfy base of operations, with two huge…
Light and Roomy Even when building a “value” tent, Big Agnes gets the details right. With amenities like a vestibule that turns into a shade canopy with trekking poles, high-visibility (read: trip-preventing) guylines, and mesh vents on baffles that help silence wind chatter, the two-man Lynx Pass’s only sacrifice is…
Lightweight Luxe This classic two-door, two-man, two-vestibule backpacking tent has been rebuilt with lighter fabrics to weigh in at less than most single-door ultralights. The Skyledge 2.1 shaves ounces by eliminating the tent’s corners; instead, nylon webbing connects the body to the tent poles. The 20-denier fly fabric needs to…
Ultralight but Sturdy A three-pound tent with two doors and two vestibules—there’s got to be a catch, right? Not exactly. The Rev 2 is impressively spacious for a two-man (42 square feet) and quick to set up. Because the canopy and the rain fly are clipped together, we easily pitched…
Airy & Durable Astute architecture students will notice it right away: The Sugar Shack employs elements of Romanesque groin-vault structure—a sturdy intersection of four arches that lends impressive strength to an airy roof structure. The result is nearly vertical walls that increase roominess, two massive doors, and enough square footage…
Mountaineering Master The second tent by pole maker Easton, the two-man, single-wall Si2 features the company’s proprietary carbon poles, which it claims are stronger than any aluminum pole on the market. We couldn’t verify that in the field, but thanks to a plastic bumper on each pole—where it crosses atop…
From game-changing new materials (like moisture-wicking cotton) to evolutionary leaps in engineering (like a rotating helmet for extreme crashes), the avant-garde of 21st-century gear has just one thing in common: a total disregard for the status quo.
There's the gear you want, and there's the gear you need. After much internal debate, we present the 25 products every guy should own.
