Tents

Hi Guys

So I'm doing the GT in a few weeks time. I am wondering which tent would be recommended? 360deg Lightweight. We are planning to do it in around 4 days. You might say leave it at home, but from a safety perspective I believe its important.

Secondly does anyone have a bivy bag etc they may want to sell. Something lite? Under 500g?

Thanks

I use a 360 Degree Cool Mountain II and its a great tent. It has survived through hail storms, strong winds and rain etc. Never had a leak or any buckling in the wind. I have never tried the Lightweight though.

I know what you mean by concern of safety - I find whenever I try to do something tough with carrying extra safety weight (e.g. a tent) I get into trouble because I don't cover enough ground. If it was me I would just take a 300g bivy bag or plastic survival bag and a GPS with cave co-ords along the way. But that's just me.

MMO stocks bivy bags - the MSR E-Bivy is about R1400. Its about 300g, looks good - its on my to-buy list.

Good luck and have fun

Great, thanks.

I also own a Cool Mountain II. Been amazing, only issue has been bent poles after about 20cm of snow gathered on top!

Bivy has been on my list for a while. 300g verse 900g for the tent. Fair saving when you going super light. Will look into the MSR.

I recently helped my Dad buy a tent, and we looked at both the 360 degree Cool Mountain and the Lightweight . On paper my Dad was very keen on the Lightweight as it is quite cheap for such a light tent, however when we got to Outdoor Warehouse and saw it pitched he immediately decided that it was not the tent for him. It is not free-standing (it has to be pegged out in order to be pitched at all). It is also very, very small. Honestly I would say that this tent is like a roomy bivy, not a 2 person tent. My Dad ended up purchasing the new model of Cool Mountain tent (Outdoor Warehouse had two versions of the cool mountain: the 'old' version in a red stuffsack and the 'new' model in a yellow/orange stuffsack). I'm not sure how the new model differs from the old one, but here are some cool (excuse the pun) features that I liked on the new model: the tent floor is made of reflective material to increase warmth; a mesh gear loft is included with the tent; the stuffsack has a "roll and clip" closure instead of a drawstring (better at keeping dirt out of the bag); there are two doors and two vestibules. This tent hasn't been used yet, but I will post an update about it once I get some feedback from my Dad

Here is a picture of the new model Cool Mountain that my Dad sent me. The colours are slightly different (I believe that the older model was red):

Unfortunately I have to add here something about the 360Deg cool mountain.
It is a great tent and lasted me around 3/4 years of Drakensberg/Magalies hikes... Until the poles shattered at a connection point on top of Mweni one night. If it wasn't for some duck tape and tent splint we would've been in some trouble. After the incident I checked the poles and most of them showed fatigue like cracks at the ends where two poles connect (Not the terminal end of the poles, where it connects through elastic). I believe the material used for the poles might just have been balanced a little bit more toward weight than strenght.
Great tent! Just carry enough duck tape

Same here - I got mine in May 2012 and its also the orange one.

I had a thought about light vs comfort options... how about a bivy bag and Poncho/ tarp combination. This would still be very light and could facilitate eating or even cooking in harsh weather?

Sounds interesting, but definitely not for a full gale. Not that its any easier to set up a tent in a gale.

I want to try out the bivy bag route some time later in the year - perhaps a re-do of our last attempt on Corner and Leslies would be a good spot to test this. Especially seeing as there are backup caves if it goes wrong...