It’s affordable to anticipate a few teething issues with a firm’s new product, much more so when it is a class the model hasn’t ventured into earlier than. That’s what I anticipated after 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 a few of the best tents in the marketplace.
I examined the Alto TR1, however each of those are high-end, light-weight tents geared toward backpackers prepared to pay a premium to trim weight from their hundreds and people who do not thoughts being gentler on their gear than automotive campers.
Three-Season Home
Photograph: Sea to Summit
At 33 ounces, the one-person Alto TR1 is likely one of the absolute lightest double-wall tents. It’s a three-season tent, so it is appropriate for spring, summer time, and fall circumstances. The inside wall is made largely of mesh, so you’ll be able to maintain the door zipped shut in heat climate to maintain out the bugs and nonetheless stop the inside from getting stuffy.
Above the sleeper’s head there’s a massive vent within the outer wall that may be propped open or closed. For balmy nights, it did a good job of ventilating the tent, although bugs beloved to crawl and fly in there and roam round between the inside and outer partitions of the tent. They could not get contained in the precise tent, because the inside wall was nonetheless sealed up, so it did not current a lot of a drawback past seeing a bunch of gnats hanging over me within the mornings. I’d have favored 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 inside wall to cope with colder temperatures. You may 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 largely 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 known as 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.
