UKC

A two-person model weighing only around 1kg, the Freelite 2 also makes a luxurious - and highly portable - shelter for one, finds Toby Archer. If you're after a tent that's both ultralight and airy for summer, MSR's Freelite series is worth a closer look.

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Very comprehensive review Toby. Seems like the same basic design as my Big Agnes Tiger Wall 2 but with a narrower spreader bar, the weird cutout (does it really save that much weight? Nemo do it on their tents too) and a higher price tag.

Have used mine in April and I'd agree the mesh design gets chilly in the breeze!

I'm in the market for a new tent and, having been on a recent trip to Scotland, I have one major concern about lightweight tents that aren't designed in the UK: are the mesh inners generally midge- or only mosquito-proof? A tent that isn't midge proof would be utterly useless in Scotland, I might as well just stick to my army surplus bivvy bag.

Generally they are midge proof. They call it "no see em" mesh. 

I haven't used it Scotland Alan, but I have used it in midgy conditions in the Yorkshire Dales, and once zipped up, no problems at all. 

Sounds great, apart from the inability to keep you warm and dry 🙄

Or take a side wind 

As the happy owner of a Big Agnes Tiger Wall II, I’m not in the market for what seems like a very similar tent. Interesting that the two design features that possibly make it 100g lighter than the Tiger Wall increase condensation and make it more difficult to keep water out. 

A damn good review. Brilliant stuff.

That really isn't what I said, it has kept me both warm and dry on a number of occasions now. It's not perfect, there are a couple of annoying issues that I point out, but that's not the same as saying it doesn't work in its role of being a very lightweight shelter, because it does.

Bizarrely, or not really because Big Brother Google is always listening - this popped up in my YouTube recs today https://youtu.be/QCSyVRINK-A?si=62YfOYo6aFAEivk6 

As the owner of a MSR Hubba NX which broke a pole and ripped the fly sheet in a modest wind last night I would give a US-designed ultralight tent a solid ‘avoid’ for UK use. 

What is a modest wind?

Didn’t have an anemometer but having spend many a night in inclement weather, this wasn’t too bad.

One mans modest in another's gale force.........

A fair observation.

As an aside what are tent recommendations for sturdy tent. Budget not important.

I'm not doubting you, but that sounds odd. Do you think the pole had a fault in it, broke and then cut the fly?

This is the third MSR tent I've reviewed, Elixir, Zoic and now the Freelite - all have been used in moderately crappy weather without structural issues like this. 

I don't want to suggest this is the case with you Dizzy, but sometimes you see tents pitched by other people and think "hmm, that's not going to end well when the weather craps out". I still think that most tents when well pitched stand up to a surprising amount of weather, which is why when a well pitched tent does fail it often seems like it's a fault. For example a few years ago when lots of people seemed to have the poles fail in Terra Nova tents in a bit of wind, even in models that I know stand up to blizzards because I've used them in that weather - like Quasars.

Completely fair comment. I hope I can get the balance right in pitching a tent in the right way. While we have all seen shockers of badly pitched tents I rather believe if I can’t do it properly after 40 years of practice them maybe the tent is badly designed in the first place. This was pitched in a peat so pegs needed to be weighted by stones. I wonder if this contributed (although can’t see how). 

Surely says Hilleberg?