Yama Swiftline 2P

We have about 30 nights in the Swiftline.

Condensation hasn’t been a problem. Yes, you will get condensation in some conditions, but we’ve never had it dripping on us. No doubt this could happen if a humid, still night was followed by wind but a wipe down with a cloth would solve it. The net at head and foot end also does a good job of preventing you brushing against the fly there and the offset poles give good headroom. The tent opens up almost 360 degrees for ventilation when it’s not too cold. However, there are no vents for when you have it completely zipped up, though it is possible to use the pegging points on the doors on the vestibule side to overlap them and get good weather resistance without closing the zips.

We’ve found it liveable in the rain thanks to the large vestibule that protects you’re gear without getting in the way of the doors. We’ve only had it in moderate wind with strongish gusts, but it didn’t give any cause for worry, as long as it was well pegged-out (as with any trekking pole tent). It feels very solid. Pitched with the vestibule into the wind probably wouldn’t be so good, though. Also, with the wind coming from the head end, it can be wise to partly zip up the vestibule door, otherwise the wind blows onto the inside of the vestibule, turning it into a sail.

It’s is a well designed shelter with some ingenious touches. The negatives, IMO, are that the trekking poles are used point up (which I don’t prefer, but the grommets means it is probably the stronger way to go), the doors are a bit loose when rolled up (we use a couple of plastic clips to get round this), and I think it could do with a mid-height tie out on the vestibule. Some might find the inner a little narrow for two but it’s been fine for us. We switched out the cords for a thicker line which we feel is more secure in the line-locs.

Edited to add: Ours is the first version. I believe it recently underwent a little tweaking.

Youtube review here.

@Dylan: I already saw the video, thank you though!

@William: thanks so much for taking the time to detail all this, the sort of insight you can only get after a few nights in the tent.
You mention ventilation in the rain with this overlapping idea, on the opposite did you ever manage/had to shut out a cold breeze (the whole design looks pretty airy which is good, but sometimes one want to keep cold wind out).

If you had pics of it in action, that’d be awesome, I still have a bit of trouble wrapping my head around the geometry of the whole affair! (please don’t feel obliged though, you’ve already been very helpful)

Ok, here are some photos. To help with orientation, the shorter, lower side is the one with the extra strip of white silnylon. Of note is that you can pitch it with it completely opened up and only two pegs, plus the two apex guys. This isn’t mentioned in the pitching instructions nor in the video linked to above.

The photo below shows the foot end with just the vestibule staked out

Below: back and shorter side.

Below: short side, foot end and vestibule.

Below: looking directly at the vestibule.

Below: fully opened up (2 pegs + apex guy lines).

“You mention ventilation in the rain with this overlapping idea, on the opposite did you ever manage/had to shut out a cold breeze (the whole design looks pretty airy which is good, but sometimes one want to keep cold wind out).”

I suspect that tolerance of breeze is one of those things that varies from individual to individual. I know that when I first started using single skin tents the slightest breeze would disturb my sleep. Now, I notice it much less.

With that caveat out of the way: Compared to the Zpacks Duplex,our most used tent, the Swiftline is less draughty, which is one reason we prefer it in winter. With the doors on the longer side overlapped, you probably get even better draught protection since one flap shelters the other. We recently had it like this when the terrain didn’t give us room to peg out that side fully; wind gusts of perhaps 30mph were hitting the tent from that side with temperatures of minus 8 centigrade without it being uncomfortable. However, with the doors like this, rather than zipped, you probably reduce the storm-worthiness as you won’t get optimal tautness.

William, thanks for posting all of these pics! We’ve had our eyeball on this tent as well. Since you mentioned the Duplex, could you offer any real world comparisons between the two? Aside from weight, of course…

Indeed thanks a lot for the pictures (gorgeous places by the way).

For others following this thread: I was emailing the Yama folks and they mentioned this long set-up video where you get to see a lot about how the shelter works.

They also told me they would be transitioning from silnylon to silpoly soon, which might be a plus or a minus depending on what one is looking for.

I considered the Swiftline recently, but instead went with the Tarptent Saddle 2. The single wall roof scared me given the humid SE conditions I hike in.  I’ve been happy with it so far.

Ryan