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 in a solid tent, which is why I like Hilleberg Akto, but I don’t always need Akto.
There was a short season around my woods’ neck called summer when the chances of storms were less likely, and temperatures were less than the speed of the 60s. This is the flagship ultra-light 1-person tent I’ve been using Lunar Solo, Six Moon Design. After a weekend and early summer trip to North Forest in Wisconsin and Michigan, it proves itself a capable shelter. It weighs only two 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 a tent 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 Sinilong) is waterproof enough, although you either need to sew it with some seam grips or have the Six Moon design sew for you before they ship, which is $35. My test tent reached the seams, but I was older and could remember when I had to seal each tent when I had to say that if you chose DIY, it wasn’t difficult.
The Moon Solo is a single pole tent with a single pole that is intended to be pitched 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 with a peak height of 49 inches and the vestibular offers 8.5 square feet of extra 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 an asylum-seeking point of view, and if I weren’t testing the wind power of the tent, I would have chosen one. But it does lead me to believe that the Lunar Solo needs a hiking pole or a June design that offers the super light pole (I did a big part of it in a test on the bike sticker, so I didn’t have a hiking pole).
