The North Face Tadpole 23

Ian Maw
Reviewed: 14 January 2011

GOOD Used in white out strormy conditions combined with 2 man hooped bivy within.

Still a great backpacking tent after ten years being repaired for rips and niks new set of poles from being blown a mile away in white out, ending up in icy river. Used this light wt tent 20 or so times since and still great. well treated despite accident. Loads of use left love it.

All rounder used in summer mountains and windy winter conditions has performed well even compared with real mountain tents.

david robinette
Reviewed: 16 August 2010

great tent for two people, roomy and well equiped

easy to pitch, ive never had a problem when pitching in the rain. stable, ive never used the guylines, even when very windy. very light when split between two people. good ventilation, with two people, just leave the door unzipped a bit at the top. compacts very small

porch not large enough for two 60l bags (i put mine in a cheap giant drybag just outside. door overlaps with inner so in the rain the inner gets damp.

i do love this tent, it has served me well on many occasions. alot of people say it is a two person at a pinch, but i found that even with two 6" people in its not too bad. just a thought to anyone over 6"3, look at the bull frog as its slightly longer, i can stretchout when lying down in the tadpole, but only just. the inside pockets are ideally placed, just dont put anything over heavy in them(camera) as i did because the mesh has stretched making them baggy. it compresses down a surprising amount meaning that i find the bag it comes in redundant, prefering instead to stuff it into a small drybag. i replaced the pegs after one trip having lost them all on a incredibly windy and hard packed campsite in the peak district, i now use the alpkit tikes. as the tadpole is my first 'proper' tent i dont know how it compares, although my friends eurohike backpacker has done everything mine has done and failed most times, but i would recommend it as a tent

Steve Thomas 3
Reviewed: 15 June 2008

BRILLIANT

Light, fast to pitch, large feel to it.

Ground sheet is a little porous. Not as fast to pitch as earlier model which had the ability to leave the poles in.

A great tent, I am on my second. The first was beasted in Africa for 9 years. My present one is going well after a few years. I wish they had kept the leave the poles in idea from my earlier model as it made pitching the tent really fast. But that it development!

Steve Germaney
Reviewed: 13 June 2008

LIGHTWEIGHT, SOLID, AND ROOMY

Lightweight, packs down pretty small, large enough inside for two grown men(!) Easy to pitch

The groundsheet is a little on the flimsy side, but then again, what do you expect for a lightweight tent!
If I'm being really picky then it could be better is it was outer erection first.

A good light tent that at a push can fit 2 larger than average blokes for a few nights! I especially like the luminous zip pulls, a nice touch when wild camping for inevitable toilet trip in the middle of the night. It wasn't the most waterproof of things a couple of months ago half way up snowdon, but that may have been down to the downpour and me pitching it in, what became, a stream!
I would definately buy another!

GG64
Reviewed: 05 May 2008

STONKING

simple to pitch and tension fly, cheap. Nylon inner is best for uk climate, plus it has option of mesh door and optional mesh vent at rear. 2.2kg is a good weight, but not lightest

door should be either like TN voyagers ot Lightwave G1ion

great tent. Mine is the TADSPOLE NYLON model, which is better suited to UK esp winter