Sneak preview: Tents at the beach
Testing tents at Golden Gardens park in Seattle. Photo by Allison Woods.
Our next issue of Washington Trails is out in July, and I’ll be writing about what I always write about in July—tents. I use a variety of methods to test the gear I review for Washington Trails, and one thing I always like to do is set up all of the tents together and do some direct comparisons.
Recently, I took advantage of the killer weather and headed down to Golden Gardens, my neighborhood city park in Seattle. WTA member Lawrence Love volunteered to assist me. We proceeded to set up each of the four tents, attempting to do so with minimal help from the other person, and without reading the instructions. I’m always interested in how intuitive tent setup is, and have gone so far in the past as to ask a couple of my friends to set up a test tent sans instructions, and in the dark. They gamely obliged, and I was really tickled to see how well they did when the sun came up. It’s also a hallmark of good design that such a feat can be easily accomplished.
What are desirable attributes for a tent? The first thing I look for is ease of setup. One of the shelters we played with was actually pitched inside-out, and you know what? It didn’t make a bit of difference. That’s solid design. It was nearly impossible to tell that it was wrong—the only telltale sign was that the guy loops were hanging on the inside. Once the tents were up, we dragged our sleeping pads inside to check out the space and features. First impressions are everything here. So how’s the door? Is it easy to open/keep open, and is it a graceful entry, or does it make you say, “good thing I do yoga” as Lawrence did.
Once inside, we proceeded to sit, lie down, open and close vents, and stash things in pockets, if there were any. Is there enough space for two (or however many the tent will hold) plus sleeping bags and a little bit of gear? How difficult will it be to get out in the middle of the night for a pee break? Will I be able to find my headlamp if I need to get up? These are the questions we asked today, and the same ones you should ask when shopping for a new tent.
Another important factor in selecting a tent is how comfortable you will be if you get pinned down by some weather. Can you sit comfortably and play cards? Will you get drenched getting in and out of the tent? A tent is a long-term purchase, and likely one of your most expensive pieces of gear, so think about it carefully.
The last thing we checked out was how easily each tent was to take down. Case in point: I took down two shelters and put them back in their stuff sacks in the time it took Lawrence to get one tent put away—almost. I don’t know about you, but the last thing I want to be doing in the backcountry is endlessly fiddling with my gear. Look for the full tent review in the July/August 2009 issue of Washington Trails, coming to a newsstand or mailbox near you in a few short weeks.
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