Freestanding Double Wall Tents – A Cursory Review of 1P/2P Offerings from Mountain Hardwear, The North Face, and Nemo

A few months ago I contacted Backpacking Light about doing a review of the best superlight tents on the market. I wanted to see how tents have evolved since I stopped designing them in 2010. I was delighted that they said yes! I should tell you a bit about myself: I am a seasoned outdoor industry designer; I worked at Mountain Hardwear from 2000-2010, TRX Head designer, 2011-2012, Header Designer at Trinity Design Collaborative, 2012-2103. I have also been a pro level 24 Solo Mountain Bike racer and Ultra Marathoner for years. My ethos is to try and work hard, get past the marketing gimmicks and hype - get to the science of the product being an improvement or not. I have been fortunate to learn from some super smart people over the years. I have been afforded the opportunity to design fabrics, injection molded parts, tents, sleeping bags, suspension trainers and a lot more. Currently, I specialize in helping start ups refine their designs and bring their product to market.

The purpose of this article is to test and review the three best superlight tents in both the one-person and the two-person variety. For the past few weeks I have been testing the following tents:

• Mountain Hardwear Mega UL 1
• Mountain Hardwear Mega UL 2
• The North Face Mica FL 1
• The North Face Mica FL 2
• Nemo Equipment Obi 2P

The tents were tested over several weeks in the mountains of southern California during several storms that varied from heavy gusting rains to heavy wet snow. The tents were also tested in the desert environment of Red Rocks Nevada. The following is my review of the tents after using each of them over the course of several nights.

ARTICLE OUTLINE

• Introduction
• Mountain Hardwear Mega UL 1
  • Poles
  • Fly
  • Small Parts
  • Overall Rating: 5
• Mountain Hardwear Mega UL2
  • Poles
  • Fly
  • Body
  • Small Parts
  • Overall Rating: 5
• The North Face Mica FL 1
  • poles
  • Fly
  • Body
  • Small Parts
  • Overall Rating: 4
• The North Face Mica FL 2
  • Poles
  • Fly
  • Body
  • Small Parts
• Nemo Equipment Obi 1
  • Poles
  • Fly:
  • Body
  • Small Parts
  • Overall Rating: 3
• Nemo Equipment Obi 2
  • Poles
  • Fly
  • Body
  • Small Parts
  • Overall Rating: ??
• Summary

# WORDS: 2330
# PHOTOS: 11