Here Dunkel reports in more detail about her experiences:
“When you’re looking for your first ultralight backpacking tent, you don’t really know what features you can live without. With the Nemo Hornet Elite, I still have all the amenities of most car camping tents – a top pocket, some freestanding poles, a rainfly, and a vestibule – just in lightweight materials. It’s semi-freestanding, which means you’ll have to stake out some parts to fully set it up, but that’s easy and a small compromise considering how well it packs up and carries. It’s a good middle ground between heavier freestanding tents and tents that are set up with just trekking poles.
I went for the one-person size, which is *roughly* the size of a campervan, but happily, at 5’6″ I have room at my feet to stow my backpack if I want. That or the vestibule under the rainfly also works perfectly. I haven’t had any problems with condensation getting in or rain (although I’ve been lucky and only had to endure a few drizzles on trips in this tent).
It doesn’t come with a footprint, but honestly I just cut a blue tarp to the right size and it worked perfectly (you can get the official footprint here). And while this is definitely a backpacking tent, I love it so much that I also take it with me on car camping trips as long as I’m camping alone. Next up is Joshua Tree!”
Get it from Nemo for $549.95+ (available in one- and two-person versions).
