Comfortable 1P Tent Specs

@Volker64 knowing your preference for rectangular-footprint, and crossing-X poles, the Mountain Hardwear Aspect 2p might be a contender. As we’ve discussed privately, it’s not my “perfect” tent for lack of some nicer details, but it does check a lot of boxes. It’s light, rectangular, double-wall, fast to pitch, inner-first pitch, etc. The body is not “fully” mesh, but it’s mostly mesh, and seems to breathe well enough anyway. It has a 41″ peak-height, which is an improvement over the Tungsten 1p. At the real width of 46″ or so, you can fit your 30″ pad inside with plenty of extra room. You would be welcome to borrow it for a trip if you wanted…

While I was slightly disappointed after playing with it (again, for lack of fancy “features”) I still consider it a strong contender for a possible 3P tent purchase in the future.

I always come back to SlingFin too. The Portals & CrossBow are heavier than what we’d want to call ”ultralight,” but they are superior to much of the market in many ways, and have outstanding features that make them extremely versatile. (If not expensive, once kitted-out…)

The other tent that comes to mind, is the Big Agnes Tigerwall 2p. White not free-standing, nor rectangular floor, it stays well under 3lbs, and offers a 52/42″ width, and meets your minimum 39″ peak-height, with a big wide brow pole. It’s biggest “fault” that I can see, is that it uses a lot more fabric vs. mesh, than what you would prefer. REI still shows having the Dyneema/Carbon version in-stock, if you really wanted to roll the dice on durability, in exchange for minimum weight…

There are also the front-entry, semi-freestanding tents too, but I will not discuss those options at the moment, as I don’t think you’re interested in a front-entry tent, preferring to stay with side-entry designs.

Hey bradmacmt,

Thanks for sharing your experiences. You’ve known how to keep it ultralight since well before the era of dyneema. Hard for me to comprehend sleeping in the summer with just a tarp and groundsheet without any sort of bugmesh.

I hardn’t heard of the Big Sky International Evolution 2P. I see it’s currently sold out but I can see why you recommend it. A bit lighter than the Durston X-Dome 2 but without the wonky geometry. The specs do look fairly close to what I’ve specified while keeping to a sub-$500 price point.

The Tarptent Double Rainbow Li is an interesting option too. I first came across the Double Rainbow in a video Erik Hanson did with Miranda Goes Outside where she used one per Erik’s suggestion. I see the double wall version is currently sold out. It also appears to not be freestanding.

[OFF TOPIC]

I’ve noticed the text box for composing a post in these forums seems very constrained. I can only see 4 rows of text at a time while I type. Perhaps this is by design to discourage long posts. But I find it limits ease of composition, as well as clarity, depth, and smoothness. I think these forums would be much more active if the text box allowed you the room to view a few paragraphs of text at a time as you type. It seems to encourage a short attention span.

//Rant Over

I hadn’t noticed any hand preference on the door design of the X-Dome. I guess you’re saying it rolls up to the left side while most tents have the vestibule flap roll up to the right side? Seems like it will balance out.

As a left-hander, I will say I’ve noticed I do tend to prefer sleeping bags with a right zip because it’s easier to reach across my body with the opposite arm while laying on my back to unzip than using the arm on the same side of the zipper. And I also sleep on my right side more than my left which leaves my left arm free to unzip.

Good point Jerry,

Yeah the greatest strength of any pyramid structure is also it greatest flaw. The design allows a single pole which is very light as well being very aerodynamic for wind and great in snow and rain. But this comes at the cost of placing a pole right in the place you would most like to be – the center where the height is the greatest, and forces you to avoid it by dealing with sloping sides on 4 walls.

The dome style frees up the center at the cost of having to have a heavier and more complicated support structure for the outer walls to keep the center unobstructed.

Trekking poles tents often deal well with this issue by using two poles to create an A-frame across the width of the tent. As long as the tent is long enough, and/or there is some type of pull outs – as on the Offset Duo, you don’t have the ends too low to your face or feet when lying down, and when you sit up, you can enjoy lots of lateral headroom as well as the maximum peak height.

True Brad,

I am still looking for a lighter freestanding double wall solo tent with a smaller footprint than typical 2P but closer to 2P size than 1P. I’ve also wanted a comfortable meshy 2P double wall freestanding without a taper for years so I was excited when I saw the 2026 Tungsten UL 2P finally got rid of the tapered floor. It’s a bit heavier than the lighter hubbed freestanding tents because it uses a full x-braced pole structure which in my opinion provides a bit more strength and rigidity in the structure absent any staking. I’ve been very happy with the 2P. The comfort to weight ratio is quite acceptable except for long trips or when summer heat makes any extra weight feel like a crime to carry. So the Tungsten 2P is my current favorite tent in my quiver for most conditions when I want to balance weight with comfort and good ventilation.

The cold wind of the darker months does makes the full mesh more of a liability. But as the warmth of my sleep system has improved I feel able to tolerate more mesh in the winter or even leave the inner at home to save on weight. And as more of my gear overall has been upgraded to lighter weight versions, I feel I can better enjoy the comfort and extra weight of a freestanding tent over the feather weight of a trekking pole tent with its limitations in ease of pitching.

[OFF TOPIC]

I’ve noticed the text box for composing a post in these forums seems very constrained. I can only see 4 rows of text at a time while I type. Perhaps this is by design to discourage long posts. But I find it limits ease of composition, as well as clarity, depth, and smoothness. I think these forums would be much more active if the text box allowed you the room to view a few paragraphs of text at a time as you type. It seems to encourage a short attention span.

//Rant Over

@Volker64 I had the same frustration for a while, until stumbling onto a fix. Unfortunately, you have to do it every time, but if you place your cursor over the bottom-right corner of the text box, your icon will change,  and you can click and drag the box down to expand it, and view more text as you type.

See attached, circled in red.

Beautiful JAshley

Thank you so much. It’s hard to keep up with all these tiny graphical doo-dads designed to keep the interface buttoned up. So glad I improved upon my ignorance by bringing the issue up.

Yes, the Aspect 2 does appeal more after finding I still want something smaller than the Tungsten UL2. But they are still both close enough in size that I could rule it out. But if it had full mesh it might just be the one that beats out my Tungsten or anything smaller.

I had considered the Slingfin Portal 2 in depth before deciding on the Tungsten UL2. It’s a similar taper used by Big Agnes and Nemo on many tents. But I decided that felt too cramped for what I was looking for (I already have 3 tents that taper), and I preferred the vibe and symmetry of a rectangle. As I consider a more minimalist size tent now the Portal 2 doesn’t seem so tiny anymore. But as with the Aspect it is still a bit too similar in size to my Tungsten to be worth pulling the trigger. Alas I already have far too many tents. I should sell some of them sooner rather than later to be well ahead of when hydrolysis will inevitably set in – in spite of always drying them out immediately at home and storing them uncompressed in a loose trash bag with silica packets. All of them are 4 years old or less which is still pretty early in their life span.

Most of my tents are 2P which works well if I ever decide to get a dog in the future.