Vango Goes Ultralightweight For 2007

We're just back from yet another outdoors trade show - is there no end to them? - this time down near Coventry and the thing that made the deepest impression on us was a new ultra-lightweight tent from Scottish brand Vango.

The Ultralite 100 pictured isn't due out until early 2007, but we reckon it looks like an ideal lightweight starter tent for those who've been havering on the brink of going ultralight, but have been put off by the expense.

It's a single-skin, one-person tent that weighs in at a claimed 900 grammes and will cost £130. It looks pretty carefully thought through as well with a neat tent-top venting system topped by its own short cross pole obviously aimed at keeping condensation down.

There's a central transverse hoop - reinforced with a lightweight version of Vango's tension band system - supplemented by two short vertical end poles to keep internal space as useable as possible. Keeping the weight down on a relative budget means that there's no porch, which may put off some potential buyers, but if you look at it as a more useable alternative to either a bivvy bag or a tarp, you'll be close the mark.

It looks nice too, the tent at the show was a neat limey green shade which coordinates with Vango's matching Ultralite packs and sleeping bags.

Like we said, not out until early 2007, but our gut feeling is that Vango is on to a winner here. And, well, it actually looks sweet, if you see what we're saying. There's also going to be a two-person version weighing around 1300 grammes, more about that soon.

More about the current Vango range of tents and equipment at www.vango.co.uk