Mountain Hardwear Halcyon Tent

[vsiddhartha]

Anyone here have experience with the Mountain Hardwear Halcyon 1 tent? I'm trying to decide between it and the Big Agnes Seedhouse 1 (non-SL), and there's not much real-world user info on the Halcyon out there.

Thanks.

[vsiddhartha]

Well, I guess I'll be the first. :)I just received the Halcyon yesterday. My initial impressions after having set it up in the kitchen (damn rain): For the price, it’s a great tent. The tent body is freestanding. It looks awkward because it’s so tall and narrow. With the fly on, the shape is much better. The absolute minimum number of stakes required to set it up with the fly would be 2, one on each side of the fly. Most of the time I’ll probably use 7 stakes (5 on the tent body and 2 on the fly). Everything fits together well and is easily made taut, with clips and loops in the right places. Construction seems pretty solid. The material (68D) seems very durable. I probably won’t use a footprint. Completely mesh roof and walls should give great ventilation. The inside tent area is small…no space for anything but sleeping. But, I can sit Indian-style with headroom to spare, and my knees just touch the sides. Plenty of height to change clothes. This is really nice. The 12 SF vestibule is enormous, and side entry is convenient.

At this point, I’m pretty happy with it. It’s very similar to the MSR Hubba in shape and dimensions. It does weigh in at a packed weight (everything that came with it except the directions and tags) of about 3 lbs 13 oz though, so it’s a bit of pig and about half a lb heavier than the Hubba. For the price I paid ($125 shipped, backcountrygear.com), it’s a good deal. I’ll mostly be using it for motorcycle camping trips, so the weight is not an issue for me. I plan to get a lighter tent for my (hopefully) 2010 thru-hike. I’ll try to post up some more after I’ve used it a bit this summer.

[FamilyGuy]

Good stuff - keep us posted on the pros / cons as you continue to use it.