Mountain Hardwear Taurine 2
Mountain Hardwear's Taurine 2 tent offers roomy protection from the elements. This four-season tent weighs just over 8 pounds, yet offers 33 feet of floor space that seems even roomier because of the Taurine's copious storage pockets. Featured in Backpacking.com's annual gear guide, Backpacking's Kelly Bastone lauded the Taurine's status as a "a four-season tent that can handle horrid conditions." Bastone commented on the tent's stability and large poles, which held up against "ripping winds [that] raked this tent in southeast Alaska" during testing.
Nemo Losi 3P
At just over 3 pounds, Nemo's Losi 3P tent provides an ample 50 square feet of space, and its Jake's Foot pole-anchoring system makes it easy to set up. An "Outside Magazine" selection as Gear of the Year, the Losi was praised by "Outside's" Frederick Reimers for its "efficient architecture, ultralight poles, and thinner fabrics" and the fact that it managed to be "as big as many four-person tents but weighs the same as some built for two." In addition to space, Reimers noted that the Losi "easily weathered 30-mile-per-hour gusts on the Missouri River."
Marmot Aura 2P
Marmot's Aura 2-person tent is outstandingly light (4.6 pounds at its lightest, 5.1 pounds max weight), but it's no lightweight when it comes to performance. A featured selection in Outdoor.com's Gear Guide, reviewer Frederick Reimers noted its sturdiness, saying that "it's plenty sturdy, easily withstanding 50-mph winds without guylines." It holds up in various types of weather as well, noting its "affords clear star-gazing in dry but buggy weather," but "when skies went gray, testers stayed dry, thanks to steep, drip-free walls."
Article Written By Billy Brown
Billy Brown is an outdoor sports writer living in Northern California.
An avid rock climber and trail runner, he's been writing about outdoor activities, fitness and gear since 2005. He regularly contributes to "The Record Searchlight," uncooped.com, and Trails.com, as well as other print and online publications. Brown holds a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from Simpson University and is a NASM-certified personal trainer.
