Find the right one Backpacking tents are always tricky. You have to balance the size and weight of the packaging with livability and how it performs in wind and rain. I’ve been making mistakes with solid tents, which is why I fell in love with Hilleberg Akto, but I’m not always need Akto.
There was only one short season around my woods’ neck, called summer, when the chances of storms were less likely and the temperatures were less than the speed of the 1960s. This is the flagship ultra-light single character tent I’ve been using Lunar Solo, June design. After a weekend and early summer trip to the northern woods in Wisconsin and Michigan, it proved itself a capable shelter. It weighs only 2 pounds, has a small packaging and has checked many other boxes on my tent wish list.
Enough space
Photo: Scott Gilbertson
No tent can rule them, and trying to find one is a mistake. You’d better use two tents, know the limitations of each tent, and use each when it’s best for work. That said, I love Akto, but I also think that when you give your lights better than a severe storm, the June-designed Lunar Solo is perfect for summer travel.
This is not to say “Moon Solo” won’t let you dry. meeting. Silicone nylon or Silnylon is waterproof enough, although you either need to seam yourself with some seam grips or have the Six Moon Design team serve you before shipping it, which is $35. My test tents are coming to seam sealing, but older and can remember that you have almost had to seam every tent when I have done enough time to say that if you choose DIY, it’s not difficult.
The Moon Solo is a single-wall, single-pole tent designed to pitch with a hiking pole. This makes for a small and light tent, but also has two potential drawbacks: structural integrity and condensation. More information in a moment. Once pitched, the Lunar Solo offers 26 square feet of living space and 49 inches of peak height, and the vestibular offers 8.5 square feet of additional gear storage. Overall, I found the moon solo to be spacious for a person with equipment. The rear wall expands slightly, allowing you to hide your often needed items without pushing it to the wall of the tent.
Unless you want to go with the Cuben Fiber/Dyneema tent, the 20d Silnylon and mesh wall feel as durable as anything you find at this weight, but in my opinion, the high price of Cuben puts it in a different category. Lunar Solo’s flooring is a more robust 40 fans (40D) and has a bathtub shape to help ensure water doesn’t get in. The rear of the Lunar Solo has a 6-inch mesh section between the floor and the main wall to aid ventilation.
No matter how many Guyling points it offers, any single pole tent will struggle in the wind. When I was blowing on the exposed shores of Lake Superior, I did find the compression of the moon solos very much. Admittedly, this is not a great campground from a perspective of seeking avoidance, and if I didn’t test the windproof of the tent, I would have chosen one. But it does convince me that the Lunar Solo needs a hiking pole or heavier tent pole than the super light pole provided in June design. (I did a big part of the test while I was backpacking on my bike, so I didn’t have a pole for hiking.)
