Ultralight Solo Backpacking Tent
Nemo Hornet Elite Osmo 1p
$550, 1 lb. 7 oz./657g
backcountry.com
From the Grand Canyon’s Gems Route to Montana’s Beartooth Mountains, Nemo’s top-of-the-line Hornet Elite Osmo 1p solo ultralight tent withstood winds gusting to around 30 mph/48 kph and shrugged off light rain, while providing comfortable living space, excellent ventilation, and a tiny footprint that enables pitching it on the most improbably small patches of flat ground—all in a surprisingly compact package that weighs less than the low-cut hiking shoes I wore in the Beartooths.
Two partners and I took turns sleeping in this solo tent (we also had a two-person tent on the trip) over five nights backpacking in Montana’s Beartooths in August, where we had strong winds and light rain at times, which the tent handled very well—although the strongest gusts caused the rainfly to flap loudly if we weren’t careful about getting a taut pitch. I also slept in it on two of five nights backpacking the Grand Canyon’s Gems Route in mid-April, where we saw winds gusting to around 30 mph/48 kph at times and about 90 minutes of rain early one morning.
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It’s worth noting that Nemo’s very similar, but somewhat heavier (and less expensive) Hornet Osmo 1p—with the same poles as the Elite model—withstood gusts around 40 mph/64 kph and driving rain for several hours in the Wind River Range, although I occasionally had to brace the walls with my hands to avoid damage during the strongest gusts, which caused the windward wall of the tent to bow deeply inward. (As I wrote in my review of the Hornet Osmo 1p, in fairness, most of today’s best three-season backpacking tents are not designed for wind that strong, and our camp in a lake basin at well over 10,000 feet was completely exposed.)
For starters, Nemo sets the Osmo tent series apart with its proprietary Osmo ripstop fabric, used in the rainfly and floor of the Hornet Osmo tents. That fabric combines 100 percent recycled nylon and polyester yarns to provide greater strength and four times better water repellency and reduce fabric stretch when wet by a factor of three, according to Nemo. Plus, Osmo fabric achieves that water repellency with a finish that’s free of PFC/PFAS chemicals and meets flammability requirements without chemical additives. I’ve seen no durability issues so far after using three of the Hornet Osmo tents.
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With the Hornet Elite tents, Nemo has pared down the design to create shelters even lighter than the standard Hornet Osmo models. While still a reasonably lightweight tent, the Hornet Osmo 1p ($400) weighs six ounces/165 grams more than the Hornet Elite Osmo 1p. That’s more than your ultralight headlamp and stove combined. The difference in weights between the Elite and standard Hornet Osmo 1p is entirely in tent fabric: The Elite uses a lighter version of Osmo and less of it because the floor measures three inches narrower at the head end.
As far as I’ve seen, the Hornet Elite Osmo 1p exists in its own category of three-season, semi-freestanding, double-wall, solo tents weighing under 1.5 pounds/680 grams (including only the inner tent, rainfly, and poles). While it’s not as light as non-freestanding solo shelters that pitch using trekking poles, it’s pretty darn close and significantly faster and more intuitive to pitch than that type of tent.
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At a minimum weight of 1 lb. 7 ounces/657 grams (again, just the tent, poles, and rainfly), the Hornet Elite Osmo 1p compares favorably against two top solo tents that share this semi-freestanding design and similar materials, both of which have slightly less interior space but a slightly larger vestibule: the Big Agnes Tiger Wall UL1 Solution Dye weighs seven ounces more (see my review of the Tiger Wall UL2 Solution Dye), and the MSR Freelite 1 comes in three ounces heavier while having the same floor length and peak ceiling height but less width at the head end (see my review of the Freelite 2).
With 21.8 square feet/two square meters of interior space, a 39-inch/98cm peak height, and a floor measuring 87×40 inches//221×102 centimeters at the head(it tapers to 32 inches/31 centimeters wide at the foot), the Hornet Elite Osmo 1p offers a relatively spacious interior and good headroom for an ultralight solo tent. It’s twice the width of a standard 20-inch-wide air mattress at the head and 12 inches wider at the foot, creating extra space for your stuff, and long enough for tall people: A friend who’s nearly six feet and broad-shouldered found it comfortably roomy.
The interior door is reasonably large for a tent in this weight class, for easy entry and egress—made even easier by having the door on the side rather than at the head end, which also improves ventilation. The vestibule has 6.9 square feet/0.6 square meter of storage, enough to keep shoes and a midsize backpack under one side of it.
While the Hornet Elite Osmo 1p has a good space-to-weight ratio for any double-wall tent, any tent in this weight class is targeted more to minimalists who prioritize low weight over living space—who will likely occupy the tent primarily during sleeping hours and often spend most of each day on the trail. And its small footprint comes in handy when the best spot you have for your tent is a tiny patch of flat ground.
The smart and easy-to-use door tiebacks are a nice detail. Inside, there’s just one storage pocket—typical of minimalist, ultralight shelters—located just inside the door, convenient for grabbing your headlamp or other small item from outside.
As with all tents using this basic semi-freestanding design, set-up is simple and fast. Y-shaped, color-coded DAC Featherlite NSL poles that join at a single hubbed intersection feature a center ridgeline that forks to two corners—a common pole structure that trims weight but requires staking (thus, it’s “semi-freestanding”).
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The short Flybar snaps into place across the main ridge pole’s high center point to pull the side walls outward, creating nice headroom. While that’s a common feature in backpacking tents, the Flybar’s flexible design makes it easier during setup than some others and distributes tension evenly. Triangulated corner guy-outs pull the lower tent walls outward to minimize contact between any condensation on the walls and your sleeping bag. Just four clips and three grommets attach the interior tent to the poles and the Hornet requires just six stakes. Cords on the interior tent’s two sides clip to the rainfly, pulling the walls outward, a smart feature in a tent where the walls are unavoidably close.
The 15-denier nylon ripstop with no-see-um mesh interior walls and the double-wall design of the Hornet Osmo series enable excellent ventilation—despite lacking the cross-ventilation of two opposing doors in the one-person models—aided by the bottom edge of therainfly being elevated off the ground to promote low-high air flow. In the Beartooths and Grand Canyon, we saw overnight lows in the 40s and 50s F/about 4 to 13 C, with never a trace of condensation under the rainfly, which tends to plague many ultralight, single-wall tents. Those are not conditions that normally cause condensation, of course; but my experience with the Hornet Osmo tents has demonstrated their ventilation: Sleeping in the Hornet Osmo 1p on the kind of calm, cool nights that do cause condensation buildup, I saw only minimal dampness on the underside of the rainfly—not nearly enough to drip or even rub off on a sleeping bag brushing against a wall.
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The Hornet Elite Osmo 1p does not have Nemo’s signature, unique large cutout in the rainfly at the head end of the tent, overlapping a solid panel on the lower part of that interior tent wall, to aid ventilation. Counterintuitively, the purpose is to reduce fabric weight because more of mesh—which is lighter—is used in the tent.
With all Hornet tents, the rainfly door zips open beyond the high point of the interior door, giving them a drip line that permits rain to fall inside. With a little care, though, you can enter and leave the tent letting virtually no rain inside, possibly by not unzipping the rainfly door entirely.
The packed size of 19x4x2 ins./48x10x5 cm makes it more packable than comparable tents. All new Nemo tents come with a 100% recycled fabric pole bag (instead of wasteful, single-use poly bags).
See my review of Nemo’s Hornet Osmo 1p and Hornet Osmo 2p and all models in Nemo’s Hornet Osmo series and the brand’s other ultralight tents at nemoequipment.com/collections/ultralight-tents.
Nemo Hornet Elite Osmo 1p
The Verdict
For lightweight and ultralight backpackers and thru-hikers looking for one of, if not the lightest double-wall, semi-freestanding, solo tent, one that’s easy and quick to pitch and take down, holds up in strong wind, and feels very livable, the Nemo Hornet Elite Osmo 1p belongs on a short list that’s very short.
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You can support my work on this blog, at no cost to you, by clicking any of these affiliate links to purchase a Nemo Hornet Elite Osmo 1p at backcountry.com, nemoequipment.com, or publiclands.com, or any Hornet Osmo tent model at backcountry.com, nemoequipment.com, or publiclands.com.
See “The 10 Best Backpacking Tents” and all reviews of backpacking tents, ultralight backpacking tents, backpacking gear, and ultralight backpacking gear at The Big Outside. See also “5 Tips For Buying a Backpacking Tent” and “Ultralight Backpacking Tents: How to Choose One.” (Both of those stories require a paid subscription to The Big Outside to read in full, which costs as little as $7, or under $5 per month for an entire year.)
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NOTE: I tested gear for Backpacker magazine for 20 years. At The Big Outside, I review only what I consider the best outdoor gear and apparel. See The Big Outside’s Gear Reviews page for categorized menus of all gear reviews and expert buying tips.
—Michael Lanza