Nemo Kunai 2P Mountaineering Tent Review
Bottom Line: A versatile, innovative and aesthethic tent that is light weight while still holding onto all the features you’d expect in a true 2-person, 4 season tent that will see you through the heat of Summer into the depths of a snowy Winter. First Impressions and Observations: As soon as I held the Nemo Kunai 2P tent in my hands my first thought was: “Yes! A tent that finally comes in a truly usable stuff sack”. I’m not going to lie, the stuff sacks that come with most tents usual disappoint me. Most times they are nothing more than a basic sack with a draw string to close them at the top. Nemo has provided, as standard, with the Kunai 2P tent a stuff sack that is not only waterproof, but allows for airspace to be compressed out and it has a glow in the dark map of popular constellations on the inside! Tent manufacturers take note, this is how you impress a camper before they’ve even had a chance to actually look at the tent. The Kunai 2P tent and pole set Awesome compression stuff sack “Recharge with your headlamp”. Neat! Pitching the Kunai 2P Mountaineering tent is extremely straightforward also. It has two main poles that cross over the main tent body and then an additional brow pole to increase head room at the tent door and provide extra height to the vestibule. The main tent body pitched The front brow pole on the tent Swivel Hub on the Kunai 2P Tent Fully sealed up inside this tent gets warm fast! I can see how the double walled design will make this an amazing tent in Winter. But what about Summer? The venting system to make this a true 4-Season tent, and not just a Winter Tent, is quite remarkable and innovative. Venting on the entrance door Looking down the end of the tent Struts that hold a part of the door open Door vent with strut from the inside Vents have been installed at both ends of the tent, but more than that, struts have been installed into the fly to allow for the vents to be held open, increasing airflow. Awesome! Inside the tent there are pockets where you’d need them. A pocket on each side of the tent down low for a phone or wallet and overhead pockets for a headlamp. If you turn your headlamp on and place it in the overhead pocket it diffuses light around the tent. Side stash pocket Top pocket in the Kunai 2P Tent Space is at a premium inside the tent, but this is understandable as it’s meant as a...
Therm-a-Rest NeoAir XTherm Review
Bottom Line: Super light, super packable, very comfortable, air mattress. Might need to be babied on uneven or sharp ground to avoid puncturing it and it does make a crinkling noise when you move around on it but overall it’s an amazing piece of gear. Highly recommended. We use ours 12 months a year. How I chose it: Before buying this pad I had been using a Big Agnes Insulated Air Core, the largest one they sold. It weighs ~0.9kg and took the better part of 10 minutes to blow up, usually leaving my lips feeling like rubber but it was really comfortable. I slept like a log. I still use it now for car camping. But, there came a time when I wanted to climb higher in the mountains and do it faster and to make that endeavour easier I started to research ways to reduce my pack weight. The Big Agnes was also too large to fit in the tent I wished to buy, The Sierra Designs Convert II. I needed a pad with a mummy shaped design that took up as little space when inflated as possible. After some research I decided upon the Neo Air XTherm. Some friends I knew were already using it and it came highly recommended online. Inflated and in use in an MSR 3P Tent Relaxing and warm on top of snow. Directly on snow in a snow pit Observations since using it: I’ve used this pad exclusively since purchasing it for every backpacking trip that I’ve been on. It’s incredibly light and packs down really small. In regards to comfort, which is subjective, I’ve found it to be reasonably comfortable. It inflates quickly. It is recommended in Winter to not inflate these pads by breathing into them as the water vapor from your breath will condense back to a liquid when it cools and remain in the pad. Therm-a-Rest supplies a stuff sack with this pad that has a valve attached to it so that you can inflate the pad by opening and closing the stuff sack and rolling the air from it into the pad this way. I’ve never used this method of inflation. I find it slow and laborious compared to just blowing into it. I’ve been using the pad through all 4 seasons for the last 2 years and, so far, I’ve noticed no water staying inside it. Pros: Light: The regular size, which I bought, weighs 430g’s/15oz’s. For a pad that inflates to 6cm/2.5” thick which can be used through the depths of Winter on top of snow and ice this weight is simply amazing. Packable:...
Sierra Designs Convert 2 Tent Review
Bottom Line: A spacious yet lightweight 2 person, 4 season tent. Burly fabric, vents well. I’d recommend it. There are some design elements that I don’t personally like, but can live with. Modular in design. If drawing an analogy with a blade it would be more of a multi-tool than a simple full tang knife. How I chose it: What I was looking for was a single walled tent, burly enough to be used in a snowstorm on an exposed ridge crest but also capable of being used through the shoulder seasons and sometimes in the summer. Liveable, but not so large that creating a platform for it would take a long time. I also wanted it to be light, <5lbs at least. After doing some extensive research into 4 Season tents (This spreadsheet of tents proved invaluable although it isn’t exhaustive so I’d still do some additional research), I settled on a shortlist of 3 tents. Black Diamond: Eldorado Mountain Hardwear: Direkt 2 Sierra Designs Convert 2-Person Tent The Eldorado is a bomber tent, and was a serious contender. But, it’s expensive, it doesn’t come with a vestibule (you have to buy it separately) and, even though it has more total real estate inside compared to the Convert II it didn’t have the extra space where I wanted it. The Convert II has 2 inches of extra headroom over the Eldorado and it’s 3 inches wider, which reduces the possibility of touching the sides which will get wet from condensation in a single wall tent. The Direkt II is the Ueli Steck tent, so it had that going for it. I quickly decided against it though. It’s amazingly light, with a packed weight of 2 lb. 15 oz, but I wouldn’t consider it a true 4 season tent. It’s a pure high Alpine Mountaineering tent, or Winter tent. There is no mesh on the entrance so I don’t know how liveable it would be during the shoulder seasons or bug seasons. It’s also small. It was designed with Ueli in mind and he’s a small guy, but I just couldn’t imagine squeezing two average sized people into it. It is 4 inches shorter than the Convert II and a whopping 9 inches narrower, ouch! Dimension Comparison Length (in)Width (in)Height (in) Convert 2855445 Bibler Eldorado 875143 Direkt 2814545 Using the top vents to look out Showing the size of the entrance Fully set up with guy lines Interior with all vents open Room enough for two with some wiggle room Here are some reasons why I decided upon the Convert II. It had the right mix of light weight...
