MSR Hubba Hubba HP Tent Review

This is a preview of a member exclusive premium article.

The Hubba Hubba HP is Mountain Safety Research’s (MSR) lightest two-person free-standing tent. By the use of new strong yet lightweight materials, they have come up with a double-wall tent that has a trail weight of 3.85 pounds (1.75 kg), a savings of 8 ounces (227 g) over the standard Hubba Hubba 2P tent that it is based on. Even lighter options can be had by pitching in one of the freestanding tarp-shelter modes, with optional footprint or just the fly and poles alone. While not the lightest tent in its category, it may be the most capable. During the course of the testing, it was used in full-on winter conditions where it shined (even though the sun did not).

ARTICLE OUTLINE

Introduction
Specifications
Design & Features
Performance
Assessment
Dare to Compare
What's Good
What's Not So Good

# WORDS: 3620
# PHOTOS: 7

--- End of free preview ---

Member Exclusive

A Premium or Unlimited Membership* is required to view the rest of this article.

Membership Login

* A Basic Membership is required to view Member Q&A events

This topic is empty.

Viewing 25 posts - 1 through 25 (of 28 total)

1 2 →

Author

Posts
Apr 13, 2010 at 2:24 pm #1257681

Addie Bedford
BPL Member

@addiebedford
Locale: Montana

Companion forum thread to:

MSR Hubba Hubba HP Tent Review

Apr 13, 2010 at 4:05 pm #1597605

CW
BPL Member

@simplespirit
Locale: .

Where did the Scarp 2 weights come from? Seems like they're about a pound too heavy.

Apr 13, 2010 at 4:23 pm #1597615

D G
Spectator

@dang
Locale: Pacific Northwet

Scarp weight appears to include the crossing poles.

Apr 13, 2010 at 4:24 pm #1597616

CW
BPL Member

@simplespirit
Locale: .

Interesting. Those aren't part of the standard package/configuration and the price doesn't indicate their inclusion. One of the two should be updated and a note added that they're optional but included in the comparison.

Apr 13, 2010 at 4:28 pm #1597620

D G
Spectator

@dang
Locale: Pacific Northwet

I agree, the footnoted descriptions of the listed weights (for example trail weight) would seem to indicate that the weight of the poles should not be included, since they are not required for the basic setup.

Only reason to include weight with poles would be to compare all the tents in "freestanding" mode.

Apr 13, 2010 at 7:46 pm #1597702

Raymond Estrella
Member

@rayestrella
Locale: Northern Minnesota

Hi guys, just found out this went up.

No I have it completely wrong. And I have no idea where it came from.

It should have been this:

Listed trail wt: 3.37 (1.53)Only total weight listed
BPL trail wt: 3.26 (1.48)

That is what I have on my huge comparative table for all the tents in the upcoming SOTMR. I really don't know how the other numbers got there.

I have had a lot of Tarptents and have never seen one over the listed weight. All have been within an oz under, never over. My Hogback is 0.3 oz under listed.

I am sorry for the mistake, it was certainly not intentional. Thank you for bringing it to my/our attention.

Now I need to go back over hours of accumulated data…

Apr 13, 2010 at 7:57 pm #1597704

Raymond Estrella
Member

@rayestrella
Locale: Northern Minnesota

OK, this was bugging me and I have been going over it.

The upcoming SOTMR looks at the Scarp in 3-season mode. In this comparison I included the crossing poles and said so in the paragraph above the table. I did this as I have had the CS and Hubba HP in winter conditions which the Scarp does as long as it has the poles.

So the numbers were right with the optional poles.

But thanks for keeping me on my toes.

Apr 13, 2010 at 10:03 pm #1597770

Amy Lauterbach
BPL Member

@drongobird
Locale: San Francisco Bay Area

Thanks for a great review.
It only matters to a subset of users, but the color of the fly is not compatible with stealth camping, another thing for the "not so good" list.

Apr 13, 2010 at 10:11 pm #1597773

David Ure
Member

@familyguy

Sadly, MSR sells the Hubba HP series with a green fly and dark green floor in Europe.

Apr 13, 2010 at 11:10 pm #1597787

Rog Tallbloke
BPL Member

@tallbloke
Locale: DON'T LOOK DOWN!!

If anyone wants a green one, I'll do the shipping thing.

Apr 13, 2010 at 11:45 pm #1597797

Mark McLauchlin
BPL Member

@markmclauchlin
Locale: Western Australia

Nice review Ray, more keen than ever to get one for hiking with the kids.

Keep it up.

Cheers

Apr 14, 2010 at 7:24 am #1597848

David Ure
Member

@familyguy

Hey Rog, I am going to keep that in mind!

Apr 14, 2010 at 9:19 am #1597879

P. P.
Member

@toesnorth
Locale: PNW

Nice review, as usual, Ray. Thanks.

Apr 14, 2010 at 9:48 am #1597885

christopher culvern
Member

@culcn

first off, great review. however, i was curious how you got the floor area for the big agnes. i know there are two dimensions but is this the usable floor area, or min, or max, or actual calculated area?

Apr 14, 2010 at 11:16 am #1597913

Dan @ Durston Gear
BPL Member

@dandydan
Locale: Canadian Rockies

For the Big Agnes floor area, when I multiply the floor length (90") by the average width (52+42/2 = 47) I get 4230 square inches which corresponds to 29.375 square feet since there are 144 square inches in a square foot.

From the looks of the article, Ray is probably doing the same math and just rounding to the nearest square foot, since all the tents floor area is only listed to the square foot.

Apr 14, 2010 at 12:53 pm #1597959

nanook ofthenorth
BPL Member

@nanookofthenorth

great review but how is it in hot and hot/humid weather?

Apr 14, 2010 at 2:13 pm #1597991

Raymond Estrella
Member

@rayestrella
Locale: Northern Minnesota

Thank you guys (and gals),

It is calculated area, and yes I just round off to the closest sq ft. I go by their numbers to start with, checking it once I get a sample. If their numbers are wrong it gets changed and recalc’ed, which then changes all the weight/area ratios. It can be a pain. Thank goodness we don’t track volume…

I only had the tent in late fall and winter so no data for hot, humid areas, Robert. We are limited to the time we have to use an item unless we drag out the review. As we are looking at a very large amount of tents in a relatively short time (8 months) we have to work with the window we have.

That said I would “guess” that it would do well. If it were not raining I would set it up in those conditions sans fly. If raining I have to say that the ventilation scheme is as good as I have seen, but I really don’t know how it will work for you.

Apr 14, 2010 at 2:45 pm #1598014

P. P.
Member

@toesnorth
Locale: PNW

Ray,
Do you think that the Hubba Hubba HP would be significantly better in shoulder seasons than the Copper Spur UL2?

Apr 14, 2010 at 4:15 pm #1598062

Raymond Estrella
Member

@rayestrella
Locale: Northern Minnesota

I have a lot of experience with the CS in winter conditions and yes, I really do think the HP is better. I was so impressed with it that I sold one of my 4-season tents and rotated this into its place. My plan is to use this for all but dead-of-winter or harsh locales (extreme winds, monster snow fall, etc).

Apr 15, 2010 at 3:05 am #1598240

Mike Lamper
BPL Member

@lamper

That is very odd.

I ordered mine from http://www.cheaptents.com last April – he sent me the one he was going to use for display as I bugged him about wanting it so much.

Mine is Yellow and very bright! Looks awesome in my photos with a lantern inside.

Also, last summer I used the HP in the tarp mode with footprint and its very comfortable. The extra room you gain in the vestibules with no inner is great and gives easy access to bag and even cook inside.

For night when humidity is high I also use a TI Goat Ptarmigan bivy as a sleeping bag cover against the damp.

Works a treat!

Apr 15, 2010 at 5:34 pm #1598474

Richard Sullivan
BPL Member

@richard-s
Locale: Supernatural BC

My wife is threatening divorce below 65F but your ex is good down to 17F? :))

Apr 15, 2010 at 7:01 pm #1598493

Raymond Estrella
Member

@rayestrella
Locale: Northern Minnesota

Ha!

Now that we're not married she "needs" me to take her hiking. (She is more into biking and doesn't have BPer friends.) It works well as I get another body to test how the tent works for two and handles condensation. Win win…

She is going to help me test the SD Strike in 9 days. Thanks Jenn. ;-)

Apr 15, 2010 at 8:20 pm #1598514

Bob Bankhead
BPL Member

@wandering_bob
Locale: Oregon, USA

NEVER mix the two. To do so brings a whole new definition to the terms "spontaneous combustion" and "critical mass".

If my wife were to ever agree to my running off to the hills to share a tent (or anything else) with my ex-wife, I'd take that as prima facea evidence that my 2nd divorce was just around the corner.

You might want to rethink this one!

Apr 16, 2010 at 1:43 am #1598560

Mike Lamper
BPL Member

@lamper

Did someone say "Ménage à trois" :)

Apr 17, 2010 at 1:37 pm #1598966

Benjamin Brand
Member

@stern-sirius

First of all thank's for the review!

It's interesting to compare the "Hubba Hubba HP" to the "Tarptent Scarp 2" and the "Big Sky Evolution 2P".

Which one would you choose first for mountain trips?
Author

Posts