Choosing Your Backpacking Tent

If you’re planning on going hiking and camping anytime soon, you will need a lightweight backpacking tent that you can set up easily and pack up quickly. Of course you can always choose to spend the night without a tent by either nesting in your sleeping bag or using hammocks. However, the problem is that it is usually too warm inside your sleeping bag and too cold in your hammock. In addition, you’ll have a problem if it starts to rain at night.

Since modern backpacking tents have seam-sealed rain flies and are completely waterproof, you won’t have this problem. You won’t have to worry about the walls of the tent getting wet from condensation, because backpacking tents have sufficient ventilation.

Some people are concerned about bringing along a tent because they fear that the backpacking tent weight would be too much to handle. This may be true in previous years, when such tents are too heavy and cumbersome to bring along. However, modern backpacking tents are very easy to carry along because they are made from fiberglass or nylon shells. They are also quite straightforward to set up because the break-down poles have bungee cords. This allows all the pieces of the backpacking tent to snap together quickly. Most tents can easily be set-up by a beginner in a few minutes by reading the guide, since they have color-coded snaps and poles.

If you’re looking at buying for first backpacking tent, you need to consider the kind of weather conditions you will be faced with during your camping trips. If you only hike during summer, you can use a regular A-frame waterproof nylon tent or a plastic tube tent. If you hike regularly regardless of the season, you would need a sturdy nylon tent that can withstand the elements. These usually weigh anywhere between 8 to 15 pounds.

Backpacking tents usually come with extendable frames and cook vents, so that you will be able to cook without any problems while out in the wilderness. The price for a regular tent is usually between $150 and $350, though there are some that can range up to $900.