backpacking tent reviews

Review: Sierra Designs Clip Flashlight 2 Tent

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Sierra Designs Clip Flashlight 2.
Three-Season Tent

Sierra Designs Clip Flashlight 2
$200, 3 lbs. 6 oz.
sierradesigns.com

After it was first introduced in the early 1980s, the Clip Flashlight became an iconic tent among backpackers and bikepackers—you’d see them everywhere, and I used one for years. So when the updated version was introduced this spring, curiosity and a little bit of nostalgia prodded me to try it out—and see how this classic shelter holds up in comparison to modern tents. On high-desert trips from southern Utah to southern Idaho in May and June, the Clip Flashlight held up well through serious wind and rainstorms. While I found faults with some aspects of its design, its strengths—and a good price—make it a backcountry shelter worth considering.

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The Big Agnes Copper Spur HV UL2 ultralight backpacking tent.

Review: Big Agnes Copper Spur HV UL2 Ultralight Backpacking Tent

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Ultralight Backpacking TentBig Agnes Copper Spur HV UL2$450, 2 lbs. 12 oz.backcountry.com I’ll tolerate reasonably close living quarters in a tent that’s lightweight and performs well in the backcountry, because I prioritize my comfort on the trail (read: light pack) and usually only crawl inside the tent to sleep. But not all of my backpacking companions share my tolerance for …

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Gear Review: Big Agnes Battle Mountain 2 Mountaineering Tent

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First campsite at 10,300 feet below California's Mount Whitney.
First campsite at 10,300 feet below California’s Mount Whitney.

Mountaineering Tent
Big Agnes Battle Mountain 2
$700, 7 lbs.
moosejaw.com

On a four-day, April climb of the Mountaineers Route on California’s Mount Whitney, strong winds raked our campsites—especially for two nights at our high camp at 12,000 feet, below Whitney’s dramatic East Face. But my teenage son and I hardly noticed the wind, sleeping like babies. On a trip where we needed a sturdy tent, but didn’t want to haul something heavy and bulky, the Battle Mountain 2 gave us a very livable shelter that’s significantly lighter and more compact than many competitors.

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Gear Review: MSR Freelite 2 Ultralight Tent

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MSR Freelite 2
MSR Freelite 2

Ultralight Backpacking Tent
MSR Freelite 2
$440, 2 lbs. 7 oz. (not including stuff sacks and stakes)
backcountry.com

How important is low gear weight to you—and what are you willing to sacrifice to hike with a light pack? Your choice of backcountry shelter can achieve the most significant weight savings and entail the greatest compromises. As someone who generally chooses lightweight gear, with its pros and cons, I took MSR’s lightest freestanding tent on a pair of backcountry trips for which tents like this seem well suited: I shared it with my wife on a mid-July rafting and kayaking trip on the Green River through Lodore Canyon in Dinosaur National Monument; and used it by myself for two nights on a mid-August backpacking trip in Idaho’s Sawtooth Mountains. I found the Freelite 2 has distinct advantages for a tent so light, while making relatively small compromises on space and strength.

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Gear Review: Big Agnes Fly Creek HV UL2 mtnGLO and Fly Creek HV UL3 Ultralight Tents

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Big Agnes Fly Creek HV UL3 in Panamint Range, Death Valley National Park.
Big Agnes Fly Creek HV UL3 in the Panamint Range, Death Valley National Park.

Ultralight Backpacking Tents
Big Agnes Fly Creek HV UL2 mtnGLO
$440, 2 lbs. 1 oz. (not including stuff sacks and stakes)
Big Agnes Fly Creek HV UL3
$450, 2 lbs. 15 oz. (not including stuff sacks and stakes)
moosejaw.com

As we searched for a campsite while backpacking in the canyon of Utah’s Dirty Devil River in late March, the wind picked up. Then the rain started. My wife and daughter pitched the new Big Agnes Fly Creek HV UL2 mtnGLO in minutes without having even looked at it before—a testament to its simplicity. Once darkness fell a little while later, they turned on the lights—the tent’s built-in LED lights, that is—and I think they promptly forgot there was a storm just outside their nylon walls.

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