Tent/sleeping bag/pad advice

I am trying to get some advice on lw tents. Looking for a 2 person, price doesn't really matter, I just don't want to spend a ton on one. I have been looking at the big agnes brand. Want one where the fly doesn't have to be staked. Of course the lighter and small the better....

Secondly looking for lw summer bag. I love my 15 degree bag but do get hot in the summers when I use it.

Also looking for a comfy lw/compactable sleeping pad. I have a thermarest that I take on normal weekend trips but am looking at getting into longer treks and want something a little smaller.
Thanks for the help!

Its really hard to tell someone else what will suit them, you really have to learn what the options are, research them and figure out what is important to you. Do you use trekking poles and want a trekking pole supported shelter, or do you want a free-standing. How important is double wall, weight. Do you want down or synthetic bag, what weight and $ range are you looking for. There are too many options to just start throwing things out.

As far as trekking pole supported shelters go, you need to know what a single wall is , and the drawbacks, do you know what "misting" is, are you familiar with how to control condensation, etc. If not you need to learn before being swayed by the UL weight of those.

For some, weight trumps all, they will learn to live with inconveniences and limitations in shelter and sleeping gear to be light, fast, and comfortable on the trail

For others, they wont make those sacrifices, so the are heavier, and slower.

Big Agnes Fly Creek UL2, Thermarest Neo Air, Marmot Plasma 30

If you want a tent that doesn't need the fly staked, it means you won't have a vestibule. You might have a small overhang, but that's it. Like this:
Attachment 15727


The other option is to get a single wall dome tent, but many of those require staking of the vestibule. The Black Diamond Lighthouse is one such tent that doesn't require staking, but you'll notice that aside from being single walled, it's a very similar structure as the one above.

In any case, you should stake your tent. Always. If you want a vestibule, you need to stake. Even tents that only require a stake or two to be minimally set up usually have more usable interior room when you use more stakes to fully guy it out. I've used both tents above, so I know that's true. If you want your tent to survive high winds, you'll definitely need stakes. Again, I have experience with both of these tents in that situation. Actually, I can tell you the REI tent was a limp noodle until I fully staked it out, and then it was rock solid. What's worse is that the guy lines were flagging tape. Flagging tape is very weak, and I was doing it as a joke, but it made a huge difference. That should tell you about the importance of using all the guy lines.

I get very apprehensive when I see people asking for tents that don't need stakes to be set up.

Anyway, let us know what you really want, and I'll see if I can come up with better tents than the two I named.

If you want cheap and light, six moon designs skyscape scout is 34 oz and $125, uses trekking pole support.

Get a Mountain Hardware Ultralamina 45 for about $95 from sierra trading post using coupon too. Thats a 1.5 lb summer synthetic bag, and a UL tent for a shade over $200. The bag is a true summer bag, good to about 55F comfortably, so dont go thinking it will take you down to 30 though.

You posted in the Straightforward forum, so I'm going to provide you with specific recommendations:

The lightest tents leverage high-tech fabrics such as Cuben fiber, but are very expensive. Take a look at the sil-nyl Tarptent Squall 2 at 34 oz. If you want to compare weight, price and features, take a look at the zPacks HexaMid Twin.

I highly recommend the Western Mountaineering HighLite for summer camping (35F, 16 oz!, $285 at www.backcountrygear.com). Great bag at an incredible weight. I've had it down to 40F with long underwear and it worked well.

For a sleeping pad I've been very satisfied with my Thermarest NeoAir Short, with the padded framesheet of my pack under my feet (8 oz, $130, 2.5" thick), but you can go with the full-length regular size also (12 oz, $160). BackcountryGear has 19 of the old short model (9 oz) on sale for $78.