I bought the 200 version of this tent for my coast to coast trek across the pyrenees. I had no illusions that it would be comfortable, but weight was an big deal for me, this tent only came in at about 1.400kg.
I have to say the tension cords inside were great, they tightened up the single skin very well and it put up with some very high winds quite easily, they also made great little drying lines for damps socks! I did swap the corner and guy pegs for some longer more durable lightweight alpkit titanium pegs but I kept the smaller Vango ones for everything else in between and it gave the tent more secure pitching.
The foot print on the tent was small as well, which allowed me to camp in some quite tight places.
However I am now looking to upgrade my ultralight 200 to something with 2 skins. THere are a few reasons for this. It is single skin which means the condensation can get really bad, I actually used my biv bag on some occasions to protect my down sleeping bag! I sleep and run very hot so produce plenty of condensation in a single skin tent. Yes some nights were ok depending on conditions, but it's something that I no longer want to put up with.
The other 2 major problems, and the are major, is there is not mesh inner door to keep mozzies out, so the tent is either open or closed, so that doesn't help with venting and also you loose any fantastic views you might have. Secondly there was no porch, so kit is either in with you or stuffed under a small end flap outside. Also cooking is then a problem in bad weather. I had to have the door open and lean out into the poor weather to do any cooking or just wait for the storms to pass before having hot food!
In all it served it's purpose, but I would only ever use this tent again after checking weather conditions and also for no longer than a weekend.
RIght off to look at everyones thoughts on lasers, heliums and aktos!!!
Posted: 03/02/2010 at 08:15
