Mountain Hardwear - Mineral King™ 3 Tent

Must haves (I’ve passed over and returned tents for these) Poles that clip instead of slide into sleeves. Makes setup/takedown super fast and easy.  High Quality zippers/fabric/hardware Full rain fly with vestibule for shoes. Double doors.  Good ventilation and plenty of mesh. Available oem Footprint Nice to haves: (Increase comfort and usability but aren’t total dealbreakers) Headroom is important to my family, but not a big deal for me personally.  Straight walls which keep the interior feeling open.  These two hit all those marks for me: Mountain hardwear Mineral king https://www.mountainhardwear.com/p/mineral-king-3-tent-2102591.html Marmot tungsten https://www.marmot.com/equipment/tents/4-person/tungsten-4-person-tent/SP_1031644.html

Are you carrying that bad boy alone? Far? 7lbs for a solo backpacking tent isn’t messing around if you’re going more than a few miles. I’m not knocking the tent & that’s a great deal! I still use a 7lbs 10 year old 3p mountain hardware tent when I can split the weight or for super short hike ins. For solo backpacking, I landed on a lanshan 2 (weighs 2lb 11oz) a few years ago it works perfect w/ the $30 carbon fiber hiking poles from Costco. Have fun!

I have the 3 person Mineral King and it’s a great tent. If you are using it for backpacking it’s a tad on the heavy side, but it’s a great tent.

Mountain Hardwear Mineral King 3. I love it because it's big enough to car camp with, but I can also easily throw it in my kayak and remote camp with it. I also didn't want an ultralight option because I wanted something that would stand up to my dog. They also make it in a four season version.

I have a mountain hardwear mineral king. They’ve since released a 4 season model but I have used mine in over a foot of snow below 0°F. On mine you can roll back half the fly to stargaze/ look around.

Was going to say this. Mountain Hardwear Mineral King is pretty good as well.

MSR or Big Agnes for backpacking get my vote. Mountain Hardwear also make some nice backpacking tents. Nemo and Marmot would be the next ones I look at. I love my MSR and Hardwear tent. if you want to go ultralight, just stick with a two person and you’re gonna be really snug but totally doable if you’re with a partner. I’m 6 foot three and I have slept in a two person MSR tent with another 6 foot three person. Go with the three person if you want to compromise comfort while in the tent for added weight. Chances are you will be splitting the tent up into two separate packs to offset the total weight or you’ll carry it yourself and have the other person carry other stuff to equal out the weight. It may not seem like a huge deal, but when your backpacking every little bit counts.