The best ultralight tents worth carrying

This super easy to set up, tear down, and pack away tent is one of the absolute favorites among Triple Crown hikers (Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail, Continental Divide Trail) for good reasons, but it is not for everyone. It especially shines in its simple design and ultralight construction from waterproof Dyneema composite fabric.

The ZPacks Duplex also saves weight by omitting tent poles — you use your trekking poles to set it up. This may be a problem for people who don’t use or like trekking poles since they’re absolutely required. Calculating overall weight is also a bit more difficult for this tent due to the variable weight of different hiking poles.

Additionally, the Duplex doesn’t come with the eight tent stakes required to set it up. Instead, ZPacks offers six different tent stake options ranging from $1.95 each for aluminum pegs to $3.95 each for carbon fiber ones. This adds $15.60 to $31.60 to the overall cost and 1.76 to 4.48 ounces to the overall load. The overall cost of the tent, stakes, and trekking pole adds up to more than $800. Want a groundsheet? Add another $125.

The Duplex’s weight savings largely come from its waterproof Dyneema composite fabric, which has an extremely high strength-to-weight ratio that can handle high wind and does not tear easily. It also doesn’t absorb water and has no DWR coating to wear out. I really appreciated the Duplex’s dual doors and vestibules and also the bathtub floor construction and full seam taping to make sure the interior doesn’t get soggy when it rains.

One note, Dyneema is semi-transparent in bright sunlight but has enough opacity for privacy. Setup is relatively straightforward and simple: Lay it out; stake out the corners, set up two trekking poles, and run and stake the guy lines out. Since this tent is not free-standing, you might need to get creative if the ground is too hard or rocky to drive in the eight guy line stakes. In these instances, some users tie the tent to rocks. It’s also a single-wall tent, and these tents tend to get more interior condensation than double-wall tents.

For an additional $149, ZPacks offers a new modification to this tent — a freestanding flex kit consisting of four 90-inch carbon poles that provide an exoskeleton and omits the need for trekking poles. It adds an additional 10 ounces to the overall load, provides additional versatility, and isn’t the most intuitive to set up the first time, so watch the video. This tent is ideal for ounce-conscious long-distance thru hikers looking for a comfortable tent.

MSR has been making quality backcountry tents for years, and the FreeLite is a solid improvement over its well-loved Hubba Hubba design. Like many ultralight tents, the FreeLite saves weight through considerable use of mesh fabric for the tent walls and fewer structural poles. It’s a semi-free standing tent, meaning that you’ll have to stake it out at points to keep it upright. The frame itself isn’t enough to keep it standing.

I appreciated that the FreeLite has a true rectangular floor for additional interior space and better livability, and the new model comes with an additional three inches of headroom. The bathtub-style floor is fully seam-taped and waterproofed with an Xtreme Shield DWR coating. I also really liked the dual-door system. Anyone who has spent considerable time in a tent with a buddy knows what a pain in the ass a one-door tent can be having to crawl over the other sleeper. The overhead gear loft and mesh storage pockets provide good interior organizability.

The FreeLite is also fairly intuitive to set up and easy to unpack and repack. Much like the Sea to Summit TR2, you stake out the corners, extend the Y-shaped pole structure, and then connect the tent body to the poles with quick clips. The rainfly provides a small vestibule at each door for each sleeper. The mesh tent walls provide excellent ventilation while keeping bugs out. The double-walled design also helps reduce condensation inside the tent. This tent is a great option for backpackers looking to save weight and maximize interior space.

The majority of ultra-lightweight tents are semi-freestanding, meaning you have to stake them into the ground for it to stand up properly, so it was refreshing to find a solid free-standing UL tent at under three pounds. I have used a Mountain Hardwear Trango 2 four-season mountaineering tent for years, so I was excited to see how the Aspect 2 would perform.

For the Aspect 2, Mountain Hardwear uses lightweight mesh for the walls and a seal-coated nylon for the floor. Additional weight reduction is found in the DAC Featherlight NFL poles, saving about 16 percent weight over a standard pole. The sides of the tent are pretty vertical. This, plus the rectangular floor, provides a lot of interior space — it feels roomy. The tent is also designed with dual dry-entry doors, which is a big plus if you live in rainy areas.

The setup is pretty easy but has a few tweaks I haven’t seen on other tents. Instead of clips on the tent, the poles have J-hooks that attach to a loop of cord bar tacked to the tent body. The interior has storage pockets near the floor and two along the ceiling, with the standard loops to allow the addition of a mesh gear “attic” at an additional cost. The fly attaches easily and provides excellent coverage of the tent body. The fabric is light and silicone-coated. It’s not taped like many other flies. Instead, Mountain Hardwear used a special hydrophobic polyester thread to seal the stitch holes without adding weight.

The tent also comes with high-quality stakes, a reflective guy line, a pole splint should a pole break, and a seam grip to seal the fly if desired. This tent is great for late spring, summer, and early fall backpacking and summer road trips.

When it comes to ultralight backpacking, comfort is generally one of the things sacrificed to save weight, but that’s not the case with the Alto TR2. This product arrived in a neat, well-designed two-part cylindrical “fair share” storage system that allows you to split the load with a buddy — it’s a two-person tent after all. To save weight, the tent is semi-free standing, so you’ll need to stake out and tension the corners first, and then connect the aluminum pole tent frame to the body via easy-to-use quick clips.

I tested ease of use by seeing how quickly I could set up the tent without reading the instructions, and I had this tent up in about four minutes — super easy. The rainfly is even color-coded with the tent body which makes attaching it and staking the three guy lines out fast and easy.

The other thing I really appreciated about the TR2 is that it has two doors. Zippers can be heavy, so it’s tempting for many tent makers to go with one door, which is super inconvenient if you have to get up at night. Sea to Summit’s TR2 high doors come with nearly vertical walls so that the interior actually seems larger than it is.

Another weight-saving design feature is that the majority of the tent body is polyester mesh. This adds an insane amount of ventilation that you’ll appreciate on hot, humid, and buggy evenings. While all that mesh saves weight, you’ll have to be a bit more careful than you would with ripstop nylon walls to make sure you don’t puncture it.

Also, because of all the ventilation, this tent will sleep colder than others, so I’d use this as a three-season tent and wouldn’t take it winter camping. With that said, the TR2 is super versatile and can be configured in four modes: tent body-only mode for dry stargazing nights, tent with a fly for rain or cooler nights, partial fly mode, and fly-only mode as the absolute lightest option. This tent is ideal for long-distance backpacking.

REI is known for making reliable and affordable lightweight tents, and the Quarter Dome SL2 is a real contender. While not as light as some other options, it nearly matches its competitors in function, and at $379, costs several hundred dollars less.

The SL2 is a semi-freestanding tent, which means that the poles themselves aren’t enough to keep the tent fully upright, and staking the bottom and using a few guy lines is required. One of the nice features of the SL2 is its versatility. It can be used with the footprint (protects the floor from puncture at an additional cost), with the tent body and fly for maximum weather protection, or with just the fly and footprint if you’re not too worried about the rain and want to leave the tent body at home. If it is raining, it has a quick pitch option where the fly and footprint can be set up first, providing a dry area to then set up the tent.

Like most of its competitors, the SL2 has a dual-door design for increased livability, a full seam-sealed bathtub-style floor to keep water out, and a single hub color-coded tent pole design, which is super easy to deploy and set up. The large mesh walls provide outstanding ventilation and stargazing opportunities, and the 38-inch peak height feels pretty roomy — provided you’ve properly staked out the corners, especially near the foot box. You’ll make two trips around the tent setting it up — four stakes for the tent body and four more for the rain fly. The two vestibules provide a fair amount of storage area — about 21 square feet total. Since the tent floor is tapered, this limits interior sleeping configurations. Like all lightweight tents, you have to be a bit more careful not to puncture the thinner materials, so I’d recommend purchasing the footprint for an additional $65. This tent is a good option for backpackers looking for a light tent and also to save a few bucks.

When you’re not sleeping two to a tent, it doesn’t make sense to carry all that extra weight and space. Whether you’re going alone or you’re a third wheel on a trip, there is a time and a purpose for solo tents, and Nemo makes one of the best on the market.

The Hornet 1 is the smallest of the Hornet series, which also comes in a two-person variant for $40 more. Made of quality lightweight materials like the premium 10D silicone-coated nylon fly, 15D bathtub-style tent floor, and the DAC Featherlite poles, the Hornet is an easy-to-set-up, strong, and highly weather-resistant tent. Because the materials are thin to save weight, they also tend to be transparent. To ensure privacy, Nemo uses white mesh on the sides and black mesh on top for stargazing.

The Hornet also uses a proprietary pole clip to help better shape the tent to ensure maximum interior volume. The large door and vestibule provide easy access and the premium fly design ensures fairly rain-free entry and exit.

I also appreciated the ease of setup for the Hornet. All poles connect to a single hub and each end is color-coded to the tent body connection points. The pole clips quickly connect to the tent body and the fly is connected to the poles via Velcro straps and clipped to the corners. As a semi-free standing tent, it’s important to stake out the corners and fly. This provides strength in the wind and also helps keep the rain out and condensation to a minimum. If you’re concerned about things poking through the floor, a special footprint ground cloth is available for $39. This is an ideal tent for solo long-distance backpackers.

Ultra-lightweight tents can also mean ultra-small, or it can mean we gotta be ultra-careful so we don’t poke a hole in this thin-skinned thing. Worse, it can mean we have to drop some ultra bank to pay the ultra price tag. That’s not the case with the Sierra Designs Meteor 2.

While I like my ultra-lightweight tents to be three pounds or less, sometimes the weight saved isn’t worth it in terms of livability or durability, and with a $249 price point, Sierra delivers a really nice lightweight tent that’s affordable, too — less than one-third of the cost of our premium pick. The Meteor 2 follows many of the same design cues of other semi- and fully-freestanding UL tents: It has a mostly mesh tent body, dual doors and vestibules, and a fully waterproof bathtub-style floor. Where it packs on a few ounces is in the increased durability of the tent floor — at a fully 68D thickness and heavier poles. You’ll appreciate it on sharper terrain and when the wind is really blowing or under early winter snow loads.

The rectangular floor allows for more room to spread out and not be so close to your tentmate. The steep wall angles and 41 inches of headroom also add to the roominess of the interior. The tent is easy to set up and pretty intuitive. I was able to set it up in about five minutes without reading the instructions. The rain fly design is nice in that it can be attached and then rolled back on clear nights for a view of the stars.

Also, the tent is super easy to take down and fast to pack away — you just drop the poles and stuff the tent into a patented Burrito Bag, and you’re off. This tent is a great pick for backpackers who want a more durable yet still lightweight option at a very affordable price point.

Some hikers I know prefer to sacrifice comfort for a lightweight shelter, so they simply carry a tarp that is held up at each end of their hiking poles and staked into the ground at each corner. While I prefer a proper tent with a floor and mesh walls to keep the bugs out, the tarp tent is popular enough that I felt compelled to provide you with an option here.

SJK has been making gear focused on the needs of hunters and fishermen, and their Satellite Tarp fits the bill. It’s made from light but durable 70D waterproof polyester and weighs just under two pounds. Making a shelter with it is super easy — you can either stake out the corners, set in your hiking poles at the apex and then guy line them out, or run some paracord between two trees for the ridge and then stake down the sides.

It’s also durable enough to use as a ground tarp for cowboy camping under the stars. When I hammock-camp, I always bring along a tarp like this to put up over my hammock just in case it rains or to keep the wind off of me. What’s especially nice about this tarp is that it has four additional guy-out points to allow 7.5 inches of the material to be folded under on both sides to improve weather resistance. It packs down to the size of a Nalgene bottle and comes with 10 aluminum stakes and eight guy lines. This tarp is a great option for minimalists or hammock campers looking for lightweight rain and wind protection.