Boreas tents.

I have a Boreas Buttermilks pack. It is on the heavy side for UL but it ticks all my boxes, has proven very durable and is super comfortable. Helps that it looks cool too.

If Boreas hasn't gone off the rails and sticks with the same design philosophy that generated the Buttermilks, they could have a pretty nice tent that isn't too expensive, isn't too heavy, and is smartly designed.

That 1P tent sounds pretty neat – at 50" wide you could pretty easily squeeze two sleeping pads in there. Headroom won't be great for two, but 3.6lbs for two people in a double-wall tent is pretty nice.

My feeling about the Buttermilks, having used one as well, is the same as my feeling about most Boreas/Alite gear — competent and aesthetically innovative, but *just this short* of being technically well-finished. I suspect because their design ethos leads with a desire to please glampers and traditionally non-outdoorsy urban folk.

I guess I'm miffed because they're gorgeous tents. If they weren't gorgeous and the price of an equivalent BA Fly Creek, I'd be okay with design compromises. But at that price point, come on, give me a half-height inner and some lighter poles.

Will, I have been using the buttermilk for like, idk, about 1.5 years now. It's not a bad pack! Little things that seemed goofy and aesthetic to me have proven themselves.

The foam back panel, pretty and over-engineered, is actually a great leg sleeping pad and about as thick as my thermarest, so in the winter, it's exactly right comfort and warmth-wise. The little ridge on the hipbelt pockets makes 1-handed opening and closing easier, and the extra rectangular pocket in the front is very well-sized. All those hidden gear loops means I forget that they're there, but when it's time to tie on an extra sleeping pad for a friend, there they are!

There's lighter, yes, but for $100 on sale every now and again, it's really, really hard to do better. I think Granite Gear is the only company I'd say is in a similar place with design, price, usability, lightweight, etc.

Worth a look, definitely. This tent may be more than it seems. Isn't Boreas' design team all ex-veterans of companies like TNF anyways?

Somewhere in Gotham, a rapscallion speaks vague ill of the Boreas Buttermilks. Women shriek! Children cry! Small animals give one another disapproving glances! Who will avenge this wrong? Who will return justice to the night? There, on that rooftop! Is that a flash of cocksure grin? Do you hear that? Is that the delicate rustle of used but clean and reasonably priced merino briefs? Could it be? :)

Tae Kim, their creative director — great guy, lectured a bunch at CCA here where I got my Design MFA — is a TNF vet. Most of the rest of their staff are industry. Don't get me wrong, I applaud what they and Alite are doing, the more people outside the better, but I feel like they have the design skill to make slightly lighter, better finished things, and don't. Market, maybe.

Sometimes, I wake in the middle of the night whispering "Boreas!"

Somewhere, a thread has begun.

Market is a big one. Every once in a while, some devastatingly grounded soul like Roger Caffin or Bob Gross reminds us all that the bulk of the outdoor market's cash comes from rich people in Denver with their yachts parked on the local reservoir.

They'll probably be the demographic forever. At least when a line does get drawn, the products aren't absolute car-camping garbage. These aren't Columbia tents.

What's with all the (gratuitous?) seams?
And the uber over-built poles?

My apologies for the negativity, but can't imagine why anyone would choose these over the Hubbas.