ATEPA 1-Person Ultralight Backpacking Tent

Full disclosure: I am not a backpacker, so if I've missed any critical details important to backpackers, my apologies. What I am is a tent camper, with a beautiful tent I love that is neither light nor packs down small. So recently, I've been on the hunt for something smaller that can be stashed in the car as an emergency tent, will accompany me on flights to future destinations, and just serves as a little...less than my primary tent, which is bordering on glamping. This tent surpassed my expectations.

My first test was to open the bag, which, to my surprise, appears to be a dry bag/compression sack, with a rolled opening and compression straps. I especially liked that it had a handy carry handle on one end (how is this not a standard thing?). It was wonderfully small, and could easily fit in an airline carry-on. It also weighed almost nothing! So far, I was impressed.

The next test was setting up. I purposefully didn't read the instructions, but the tent went together easily and intuitively. The poles are aluminum and very slender, with connectors that slipped inside rather than outside, for a streamlined result. The tent clipped easily and...done! It wasn't as fast as my hub-style tent, but it also weighs about 22 lbs. less, so it was a very fair trade. I did note that everything was neat and tight as I unrolled it, which made me wary about trying to get the tent back into the bag later.

Once set up, I climbed in and was surprised at how roomy the tent actually was (feeling claustrophobic was a concern, but it was not at all tight-feeling). The zippers seemed smooth, innner seams were taped and looked secure, and the toggles and vents worked as they should. The inner tent is almost completely mesh above the floor level, which should make for nice ventilation and probably great stargazing. The fly was very generous, with plenty of room to stake outward for a vestibule. I was surprised to find a footprint flap for the vestibule area actually attached to the tent itself. Overall, I was very pleased with the total set-up and my comfort level. I did not use tent stakes in my living room, of course, but was surprised to find that the included tent stakes (which I usually toss in the garbage without even opening the bag) were actually small aluminum stakes (which is what I replace my cheap OEM stakes with after I toss the bag). I would still probably opt for slightly longer ones, since these were only about 5", but I'm also not planning to backpack with this tent and these may be adequate for that purpose.

The final test as breaking down and repacking. Disassembling the tent was as straightforward as assembling it. I folded both the fly and the tent four-fold (folding in half lengthwise, and then again), placed the collapsed single pole and the stakes in the middle, and began rolling. I was pleasantly surprised at how tightly it rolled, and I loved that it also came with a velcro strap to secure the bundle so I wasn't trying to hold it all together with one hand while replacing it in the bag with the other. Once in, I was happy to see that the rebundled tent slid right into the bag, and I only opened up the compression straps a tiny bit to buckle them again, then easily retightened them back to pretty dang close to the original size.

What I did not test is how well the tent handles rain, because it isn't expected to rain in the near future. I can say that I have no reason to expect any leaks, given the level of thought and care afforded to all the other elements of this tent. I can confidently say that I would pack this for a venture in the desert during dry season, or anywhere rain isn't in the forecast. I do think it will be waterproof, but I can't really review that because I haven't verified it for myself yet. Still, I'm actually pretty impressed with this very lightweight tent, and look forward to packing it along on my next adventure.