hey Miranda here we at the coop love a good backpacking tent
it's your portable home in the outdoors but with so many options to choose from
how do you know which one is right for you well let's talk about backpacking
tents
the first thing to consider in choosing a tent is capacity or how many people
plan on being in the tent if you only ever plan on solo backpacking you can
get away with a much smaller tent like this one then if you think you'll be
sharing your tent with multiple people tech manufacturers will let you know how
many people attend is designed for write in the name of the tent so for example
this is the REI co-op Half Dome one plus which is a one-person tent and this here
is a Half Dome - behind me we have a three percent as well as a four person
version of this tent while this number is good for getting a general idea of
how many people will fit in the tent there is no standard across
manufacturers so while this Half Dome is a two-person tent this Big Agnes Fly
Creek is also a two-person tent so obviously there's a big difference in
size you may also want to choose a tent that's one larger than the number of
people you plan on having in it in case you'd like to have a lot of extra space
or if you plan on backpacking with a dog or it's small children
the next thing to consider is seasonality or when you plan on using
the tenth three seasoned tents are the most common types of backpacking tents
like this one here this is a great choice for most backpacking trips and a
lot of people will use them even for camping which is what I do these tents
use a light pole structure as well as lightweight materials and they have a
lot of mesh for ventilation with their rain fly they're totally waterproof and
when they're staked up properly they'll withstand most summer storms however you
can get the wind coming up underneath the rain fly and going through the mesh
so they're not a great choice for winter environments are really cool brother
invites that brings us to mountaineering tents mountaineering tents use a robust
pole system with a lot of intersections which is going to give the tented
strength and they also have really durable materials which are designed to
take heavy snowfall and high winds they have a lot less mesh than we see on a
three season tent and all of the mesh is closable this will help trap the warm
air inside the tent which is going to keep it a few degrees warmer this tent
doesn't currently have its rain fly on but with the rain fly and has even more
durability against the heavy winds these tents are really great for
mountaineering as well as for high alpine conditions while these tents are
good for the heavy rain and heavy snowfall and a lot of storm systems they
are just too heavy and too bulky for most three season back packers so this
is on the heavier side of three season tents and it weighs about five pounds
whereas this tent weighs nearly ten pounds if you're looking for something
kind of in between those two there are extended season tents like this tent
here this one has slightly more poles or a few more poles than you see on the
three season tent and the slightly heavier structure it
has a lot more mesh than you see on a mountaineering tent but it's all
closeable so you can again trap that warm air inside which is something that
you can't do with a three season tent this tug weighs in at about 6 pounds or
a little over 6 pounds that's seasonality
once you decided what size and style of tent you want the next thing you want to
do is strike a balance between weight and comfort or livability of the tent
when you look at a tent will be two different weights listed the first is
the minimum trail weight and then you have the packaged weight of the tent the
minimum trail weight is going to include the tent body the rain fly and the poles
all the things that you need just to set it up the package weight adds in the
stuff sack the pole bag as well as the stakes and the pole repair or any
guidelines that come with it I generally don't carry the stuff sacks with me but
I'm definitely gonna carry the stakes as well as the repair so your trail weight
might be somewhere in between these two numbers if you're splitting up the tent
with friends so you're backpacking with other people you want to aim for around
3 pounds per person ultralight backpackers however we're
gonna go for something a lot lighter closer to 1 pound per person this is
just the way to the tent though you don't want to simply consider weight
when you're picking a tent when you start cutting weight there are a few
trade-offs that you need to be aware of durability is one concern heavier weight
materials are generally going to be more durable than light weight materials so
light weight tents are more prone to snags and tears and may require some
more maintenance on trail generally speaking they're not going to withstand
as much abuse as heavier material as well
another thing that will affect the weight of a tent is whether or not it is
freestanding freestanding tents as the name implies will stand on their own
when they're set up with the pulse so you can see here on this tent the poles
go to all corners of the tent which allows it to stand on its own non
freestanding tents like this one here will require stakes to stand up tents
like this require easy ground to stake and if you take the stakes out of the
tent it'll just fall over a great thing about freestanding tents is that you can
set this up in a pinch and climb inside if bad weather rolls in you'll still
want to stick it out for maximum ventilation as well as strength but it's
a little bit easier how much that set up there also semi freestanding tents like
this one here so this tent will stand on its own
just the pole system you can see in the front you have poles that go to the
front two corners but you'll want to stake the back two quarters in the tent
and utilize the fly to guy out the sides to maximize the interior space of the
tent which leads us into livability
not all tents are equally roomy and comfortable some tents will skimp on
features to save weight while others have a ton of extras to make them
comfortable one of these features is having dual entry or two door entry into
a tent this is especially great if you're
sharing a tent it gives you and your buddy your own entryway and exit so
you're not crawling over each other for midnight bathroom breaks in addition to
having two doors sometimes we'll have two vestibules
or covered outdoor spaces that allow you to store your boots as well as your gear
to keep from cluttering up the inside of the tent this tent has two doors as well
as two vestibules and i have the back one set up and then the front one here
is just rolled up if I did want to use this for storing my gear I could unhook
this and then stake it out and have a lot of extra space another important
thing you'll want to consider in choosing a tent is the interior space of
the tent if you look at the specs online you'll see the dimensions of the floor
plan as well as the peak height of a tent but that's not going to tell you
the whole story some tents will have sloping side walls which drastically
cuts down on the head space but also saves you some weight let's show you an
example of that this tent has those sloping sidewalls so you can see that
the sides of the tent come up to a point this cuts down on weight but it
drastically reduces the amount of head space that you have this is a really
nice ultralight two person backpacking tent and well it's perfect for sleeping
it's not great for hanging out other tents like this one will have vertical
sidewalls this gives you a lot more interior room and a head space in the
tent and it allows you to sit up in tent which can be really nice if you're
reading a book a few other features that you get with tents are pockets remember
with any of these things you're adding a little bit of weight to the tent but it
can be really nice for organizing your gear so this tent has pockets on the
sides as well as a pocket up here for storing the door when it's rolled back
and then you also have pockets for headlamps or anything else again all of
these extra features are going to add some weight so it's a trade-off between
the livability and the weight of the tent once you've chosen your tent we
recommend getting a footprint footprints our tent specific and they're designed
to protect the bottom of your tent from rocks and will extend its life if you
want some more information please subscribe below or check out either of
our two videos we'll see you guys later oh and remember if you want any help
setting up a tent go into any REI and they'll be happy to set something up for
you so you can check it out