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Nemo Hornet backpacking tent

Gear Review: Nemo Hornet Ultralight Backpacking Tent

Value Rating: 6 Durability Rating: 6 Overall Rating: 8 Location of Test: Pacific Northwest, Rocky Mountains Duration of Test: Many 1-10 day trips Product Name: Hornet 2 person ultralight tent Product Brand: Nemo Best Use: 3-season backpacking Size: 81.5 x 50.4 x 42.6 inches. Nemo Hornet backpacking tent The Full Review: As of 10 years ago, Nemo was a relatively unheard-of brand. Standing for New England Mountain Outfitters, this New Hampshire company has been breaking into the backpacking limelight. Their tents are known for their unique and thoughtful features as well as lightweight construction. Some features include multiple conveniently placed pockets for storing small items like a headlamp, book, notepad and pen, keeping your tent more organized saving you agonizing time looking for something small that has now disappeared underneath you or your sleeping pad (we’ve all been there. It’s annoying). There is also a luminescent pocket at the top of the tent for a headlamp to fit into, which helps distribute the light throughout the tent acting as a lantern. The lightweight, strong aluminum poles snap in with the DAC pole system, helping keep the tent and poles very secure, even in high winds and snowfall. Nemo Hornet backpacking tent Although the Nemo Hornet tent is rather small for a two-person design, it’s done so with the purpose of weight savings. The body is predominately mesh with a lightweight material low denier material at the bottom. It has two side access doors, with a nice sized and fully adjustable vestibule on each side once fully staked out, allowing you to leave your gear outside of your tent itself. I’ve used the vestibule to make coffee from my sleeping bag on cold or raining mornings quite easily. Nemo Hornet backpacking tent The rain-fly design may be my favorite part of the entire tent. Once you stake out the 6 major points (two corner points near the feet and head area, and two vestibules above each door), the rain-fly can be tightened and fine-tuned with a very easy to use pulley system. Instead of struggling to tighten the fly by re-staking individual points, you can just pull the small cord attached to each stake point to tighten that area of the rain fly. This helps speed up the setup process- especially while setting up camp in adverse weather, as well as makes sure your tent is ready for a quick pitch if a random storm blows in.
The Good: Ultralight, feature packed and very roomy if using it solo. Accommodates two people well as long as you're fine with space being at a premium. Easy to use fine-tuning rain-fly, DAC pole design, pocket rich interior. Nemo has phenomenal customer service. The Bad: Although not much of a problem, I’ve found that if not properly staked out or guy-lined out in heavy wind and rain the fly will stick to the body and slowly let drops of water in if the rain-fly and body are touching each other. Proper staking and a DWR spray coupled together fixed this problem. Because this tent weighs in at just 2lbs, it is obviously made for ultralight backpackers, and being ultralight will have some durability flaws. I’ve noticed two small stress holes forming in the mesh coming off of the seams that bind the mesh to the seams. Not a massive problem, and it hasn’t gotten worse since, but being ultralight means the materials used are going to inherently be less durable. The Bottom Line: An ultralight, feature packed 2 person tent. Best used for backpacking. Nemo Hornet backpacking tent
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