UKC

Anyone used one of these? My initial impressions off the website are spacious, well featured but a bit heavy.

They also look like you have to put them up inner first?

Anyone know about these points or any others?

In reply to dutybooty: I just got one last week and have spent 5 nights in it with my wife in the lakes. It took me a long time to pluck up the courage to buy one as there are so few reviews on the Internet.

http://www.ukclimbing.com/gear/review.php?id=4375

http://gregannandale.com/thoughts/gear/alpkit-zhota-tent-review/

http://www.thealtai.co.uk/blog/alpkit-zhota-tent-review

We are mainly planning to mainly use it as our big car camping base camp tent after alot of nights In our much smaller marmot Grid. There are only two of us and it feels massive. My wife can even just about stand up in it.

At ~ £450 there are are plenty of other often smaller option eg the Terra nova ultra quasar ( £485) http://www.theoutdoorshop.com/showPart.asp?part=PN5645

Overall the tent is amazing! It is very large, easy/quick to erect and it looks bomb proof. This bad boy wont be going anywhere in high wind or snow. The inside pockets are very useful and the build quality as with all alpkit stuff is extrely high. It is like a palace for the two of us and could easily sleep 4 people in either direction. We got a lot of people coming over to ask us about the tent.

The only very small negative is that it leaked quite badly the first night when it rained! I emailed alpkit and they said they were aware of the problem and have sent me some seam sealer for the affected areas ( where the fly is attached to the inner) I just wish they had advertised this fact before I had orders . It will be a 5 minute job to rectify. They even offerd to seal it for me. This caused is a wet night when 4 inches of rain fell.

I'm terms of weight I don't think it's heavy at all compared to similarity sized mountain tents. (See ukc review). You could easily split it between three to carry.

Alpkit Zhota: 4.84kg / £450
Mountain Hardwear Trango: 3.1 - 5.28kg/ £699
Terra Nova Hyperspace: 5.2kg / £700
Macpac Hemisphere: 5.3kg / £799
Hilleberg Saivo: 5kg / £925

To conclude I am extreamly pleased with my purchase and it has exceeded my expectations, at the price you wont get a similar sized or quality mountain tent. I have spent many hours on the Internet looking and despite the small leak I am not disappointed and would highly recommend the zhota it'll easily stand up to anything you'll throw at it.

What were you planning on using it for?

In reply to simonhicklin:

Thanks! Very useful response.

Am I correct in thinking its inner up first?

I was thinking of using it as a mountain base camp tent. So a fair walk in, tent goes up, tent stays there, long walk out.

Just very worried about getting the inner wet (putting it up in rain/snow) and having to deal with it for a week/two weeks etc

In reply to dutybooty: it's inner first but the inner is very waterproof. We've only put it up 3/4 times and already we can do it in less than 10 mins. It would be hard to pitch alone. When your pitching the inner you can throw the fly over to keep everything dry.The ventilation is good so everything will dry no problem.