Tent Musings

I started the month with a criteria. This criteria was to finally buy a tent to service my wildcamp needs, however, with all those on offer what exactly would prove to be the right one for me and my requirements:

-Stable in the wind

-Roomy enough for 2

-An extended porch so I could whip out the Jetboil if the weather outside dictaded as such

-Green (to blend in despite my Orange fettish)

-Relatively lightweight (current tent 5.1kg.... OUCH!)

I didn't have an unlimited budget yet I wanted something that was right.

I started with the North Face Tadpole. I knew of its weakness; an abundance of mesh so not so clever in the winter climes. Yet with the addition of a Nylon inner to their line-up in the last few years along with a zipped vent at the rear of the inner for ventilation this year I thought this warranted some looking into.

Indeed it was and for a while it was the forerunner culminating in me finding the 2011 Tadpole 2 DL for £169 (campfour.co.uk) last week. A bit too much dithering ended with a 'Out of stock' notification on their website. DARN!

In the meantime I'd looked into the Terra Nova Ultra Quasar having used one before with a friend. At 3.1kg I've no qualms when its potentially bombproof. It's a great tent, the dual porches really appeal to me (great for packing up at each end in your own time and not only that but for toilet trips n the night). Alas it's price tag really did leave it out of reach.

The Terra Nova Voyager perhaps.... tipping the scales beneath 2kg really appealed and knowing the quality Terra Nova produce put it in the running for sure but sadly it suffered the same issues as its cousin: I was out priced in this tent war.

On my searches I fell in love with the Crux X2 Storm. What a tent! I didn't care about the weight whatever it may have been. Posting on a German website showing it standing up to 120(ish)mph winds produced by a huge fan really got me drooling. Plus the cheeky vestibule at the back could come in handy surely! I found it for £350 which would have been a real push but searches found a few second hand ones. However I'd narrowly missed out on these meaning my search had to continue.

The Vango Spirit 200+ had alot to offer. I'd come across one some time in the past and loved the cavernous porch area. The weight was realatively low, mainly due to the fact it's a tunnel tent. At just under £200 it was an achievable winner and the tent I kept coming back to when others were potentially ruled out. Ultimately it's tunnel design is what worked against it for me, I have nothing against them truth be told bit when others I'd looked at were semi-geodesic at the least I did'n like the idea of making sure it was pegged and tensioned to the nth degree in an effort to try and prevent those long expanses of flysheet flapping in the well-renowned Lake District winds.

A few other tents came and went then something cropped up. It was an American brand previously dismissed, I'd not paid too much attention and if I'm honest was dismissive of it. I'm talking about the Marmot Grid. It actually had some pretty good write ups. For me, it's upper hand on the likes of the TNF Tadpole and Terra Nova Voyager was that it went up outer first. Luckily I'd never been forced to put up my friend's Quasar in any sort of inclement weather but I for sure didn't fancy any heavy rain leaving the inner a sodden, soggy mess.

Weight wise it was somewhat comparable to the Tadpole yet the Voyager won this battle hands down.

Price wise the cheapest I could find was £220, not a particular bargain. BUT... I stumble upon the Grid Plus, an extended porch version. There is a weight penalty for extra flysheet but only a £30 penalty to my wallet over the normal Grid. It's a relatively unknown entity and searches didn't bring much up in the way of reviews. A handful of comments on outdoors forums were useful and generally positive and strangely a japanese website contained an abundance of pictures some kind soul had taken and posted. Problematically my Japanese isn't so good so I don't know if what they were saying was positive or negative.

Google directed me to Amazon for £250 and with my Prime account in tact it could be here the next working day before 1pm for no extra penalty. Woohoo!!!!!