It’s cheap to count on a couple of teething issues with an organization’s new product, much more so when it is a class the model hasn’t ventured into earlier than. That’s what I anticipated once I first heard about Sea to Summit’s new ultralight tents: the freestanding Telos and the marginally cheaper, semi-freestanding Alto. But the corporate, which generally makes out of doors stuff sacks, sleeping pads, and tenting cookware, got here proper out of the gate with among the best tents in the marketplace.
I examined the Alto TR1, however each of those are high-end, light-weight tents geared toward backpackers keen to pay a premium to trim weight from their masses and those that do not thoughts being gentler on their gear than automobile campers.
Three-Season Home
Photograph: Sea to Summit
At 33 ounces, the one-person Alto TR1 is without doubt one of the absolute lightest double-wall tents. It’s a three-season tent, so it is appropriate for spring, summer season, and fall situations. The interior wall is made principally of mesh, so you possibly can hold the door zipped shut in heat climate to hold out the bugs and nonetheless stop the inside from getting stuffy.
Above the sleeper’s head there’s a big vent within the outer wall that may be propped open or closed. For balmy nights, it did an excellent job of ventilating the tent, although bugs liked to crawl and fly in there and roam round between the interior and outer partitions of the tent. They could not get contained in the precise tent, because the interior wall was nonetheless sealed up, so it did not current a lot of an issue past seeing a bunch of gnats hanging over me within the mornings. I’d have preferred a mesh panel over the vent opening to stop this.
The TR1 is not the one Alto tent. There’s additionally the Alto TR1 Plus, which is what’s referred to as a “three-season plus” tent. It provides 4 ounces and does away with a lot of the mesh on the interior wall to take care of colder temperatures. You may also discover bigger, two-person variations: the TR2 and TR2 Plus.
Standing Tall
Photograph: Sea to Summit
Being a semi-freestanding tent, it is potential to principally arrange the TR1 with out pulling out the guylines and staking them down. Mostly. It’ll maintain its normal form, however you may want to stake out sure corners of the tent to maximize inside area.
I introduced the Alto TR1 to Hawaii on hikes alongside the Kalalau Trail on the island of Kauai and the Muliwai Trail on the island of Hawaii, in any other case often called the Big Island. In each spots, I arrange camp proper alongside the water on the north coasts and was handled to, at instances, ferocious winds and all-night storms.
