Star River 2-Person Backpacking Tent (210T)

I own the non-UL version of this one https://www.naturehike.com/products/star-river-2-person-ultralight-backpacking-tent?_pos=1&_sid=a0b2d3088&_ss=r It’s a very practical tent Freestanding, Dual side doors, Setup inner first, or outer first, Only setup the inner on hot summer nights

Great to hear! I just received my mongar 2 UL and can't wait to test it out tomorrow. The Star River also looked great! I have the older 210T model. I opted for the Mongar because it offers a bit more fabric in the inner tent, just like my old Star River and has a lot more headroom making it a very roomy tent

I'm looking to reduce weight in my backpack. Currently I'm using the Naturehike Star River 2 which is a great tent and has worked well for me! However it weighs 2.6 kilogram or 5+ pounds including ground sheet. Before this, I've used their Cloud up 2 tent which was also great but lacked headspace so it was basically only for sleeping in it. Since I have very good experiences with the Naturehike tents I figured I wanna try their new Mongar which is a lot lighter. Almost 2 pounds lighter than my current tent. I didn't go for the Mongar before because I preferred a little less mesh. Exactly what the Star river 2 offered. The new one seems to have a bit more closed fabric The new Mongar seems like a great tent! But I have some concerns/questions about it. Firstly the 15D nylon. Does it sag when wet? This was the reason I opted for the 210T polyester on the Star River 2 and it hasn't let me down yet. Some people I know use MSR's and they sag quite a lot, even touching the inner tent which causes dripping. I truly want to avoid this. This is also a reason I'm looking to a Durston X-mid 2 for instance which doesn't say but has different challenges like not being free standing. I'm also wondering if with the new design the inner tent will get wet on the long ends of the tent. Seems like the fly doesn't go fully over the long ends which exposes the inner tent more? And what about setting it up fly first? For instance when it's raining? Not sure if this tent can do that. Lastly I'm wondering how easy it is to set up the sunshade canopy. It looks like an awesome option! Anyway, if You've been using this tent or can tell anything about it I'd love to hear! It seems like a great alternative to some other UL tents for it's price so far. 👍🏼

I agree on the Naturehike products. I've been using the Star River 2 for 2,5 years before now upgrading to the Mongar 2 UL. It's great but did sag quite a lot. Always had my star in polyester. The outer and inner are really close together so touch sometimes. But for the rest a great tent! I might want to go all the way one day and get a Durston X-Dome 2

I've used both the Star River 2 and the mongar 2 UL. Of course different tents. What I've seen is that I loved the Star River 2 in polyester since that was really water repellant and didn't sag when wet. It was also pretty easy to set up. I've tried the mongar 2 UL as a replacement for my Star River 2 and although I loved the weight savings, it didn't fully feel as an upgrade. The material was very thin so rolling up was a pain. Also it really needed some tweaking and finetuning before I got the seams aligned with the poles where as the star River was just easy to clip on. Both were quite easy to use though. I went for the Star River 2 compared to the regular Mongar 2 because it has a bit more fabric under the mesh for a bit more wind protection and privacy. The same goes for the Mongar 2 UL vs the Star River 2 UL but funnily enough it's reversed there, where the Star River 2 UL is full mesh and the mongar 2 UL isn't. The plus side on both mongar models is that the fly is symmetrical, so you can't pitch it incorrect, where as the Star River 2 had 1 bigger and 1 smaller side. Also the Mongar is quite a lot wider, especially in the new UL models where the Star River is very very narrow on top. If weight isn't an issue I'd definitely recommend the regular Star River 2 or the regular Mongar 2 in polyester. The Star River 2 has performed amazing for me and easily kept dry in heavy rain for multiple night without splashing into the inner tent and was very wind resistant as well. I did end up selling the Mongar 2 UL because the fly literally sagged onto the inner tent, dripping condensation all over my gear including down sleeping bag. Also the fly was insanely close to the inner tent, so a slight adjustment or sagging already resulted in them touching. I kept the Star River 2 as I never had any issues whatsoever apart from some more headroom. But my main tent is the Durston X-Dome 2 now which is best of all worlds. [Here you can see both tents pitched ](https://imgur.com/a/6gjc3p4)

So basically you're now doing car camping (which is a lot of fun btw) and want to aim more towards shorter trips with friends or alone? It's quite difficult to give specific recommendations, but there's kinda a rule of thumb. You have the big three: sleep system, shelter and backpack. These give you either a great camping experience, or a miserable one. Of course smaller things like cook kit, a good flashlight etc is important, but smaller and not as easy to do wrong. For shelter I'd pick a tent personally. If you want to go alone: aim for a 2P backpacking tent to give some extra room for your stuff and to pack. For 2 persons, pick a 3P tent for the same reason. I can highly recommend Naturehike as a brand to start with and test the waters. Depending on your climate maybe the Mongar 2 or Star River 2. I started with this brand and it's well regarded, lightweight, easy to use and not expensive. If you want to go all the way I'd recommend Durston (X-Dome 2 or X-Mid 2), Big Agnes (Copper spur UL2) and Nemo (Dagger Osmo 2p, Aurora 2p or hornet 2P) For sleep system this gets personal. But a few things are important. Comfort, warmth, weight and packability. Again you have so many options and everyone has different needs. Make sure your sleeping pad is R rated to about 3 or 4 at least for late spring until early fall. Also make sure your sleeping bag has a COMFORT rating that's lower than your expected temperature. In practice it's mostly colder than you expect. For a pillow you can either go very comfortable, or more lightweight. Again brands like Nemo and Big Agnes are good. Therm a rest, sea to Summit, and others also offer good sleeping pads and bags, though expensive. Backpack, again choose if you want more ultralight or more feature packed. Having less weight makes a huge difference on long trails, but will be neglectable when doing car camping. The comfort of a pack is also very personal. I'd suggest trying out a few at an outdoor store close to you. I did test some gear, from cheap to a bit more expensive and been down the same route. Starting out as you, and doing it more and more often, upgrading the gear along the way. If you have any questions or want some suggestions, feel free to send me a DM or just respond to this text :)

For real!! I've searched for an upgrade on my Naturehike Star River 2 for quite a while and this one basically ticked all the boxes for me. And truly I don't know what else to wish for in a tent. I did order a 3FUL ground sheet which covers most of the floor though. And it can be a big footprint, but really everything else is just perfect!

Hey everyone! Recently I acquired the new Mongar 2 model from Naturehike called the 'base'. This is basically everything the UL and Pro version offers, but in a 210T polyester. It comes in at around 2.5kg so I mostly take this on short hikes and when going by car. For true hiking trips I'm using a Durston X-Dome 1+. I want to share my thoughts with you, since I think it's a very good tent for beginners and overall backpackers. Oh and btw, this isn't like a sponsored review, I just like to share my thoughts and opinions. Obviously bought this with my own money. I also wanted to do this write up since there's literally no actual information or review online about this tent (yet). It's very hard to find more information about it than what's provided on their website. So with that out of the way, I'll walk you around the tent in detail: **Specs and what's included** The tent weighs in at 2.5kg and 2.75kg with the groundsheet. That is with 12 stakes, 4 guylines + adjusters, the fly, inner, poles and stuff sacks. The tent is 10cm longer than the older model at 220cm long. The tent's inner is 130cm wide and it's just above 100cm of peak height. I paid 120 euro's for this tent which was an insane price. The fly material is polyester. I came from an almost identical Star River 2 (same color, materials and weight) and I swear by polyester. Much easier to dry, doesn't sag etc. The material can feel a bit heavy or cheap, but it's more robust than my 15D polyester on my Durston so obviously it's heavier but also more forgiving in rough terrain. The mesh feels absolutely great and bomb proof as well. Fly material doesn't sag and it quite nice to use. The tent also offers 2 vents on both sides for good airflow. I didn't have any condensation issues thus far, which is also nice. What I also like a lot is the extra yellow fabric around the whole inner. One of the reasons I went with the Star River 2 instead of the old Mongar 2 model a few years ago, was that the Mongar was mesh only. I know your sleep system will provide the warmth, but being protected from sand, water splatters and wind while sleeping is a quality of life thing in my opinion. This new tent now also includes that same fabric which goes all the way around the inner as you see in the images. **Ease of use and setup** The tent is dead easy to pitch. You can pitch it in a few ways, but traditionally you peg out the inner, clip the poles into the metal inserts, attach the clips to the pole structure, put the fly on top, clip that to the 4 corner clips and stake it out. However with the ground sheet you can pitch it fly first in the rain, which is a non negotiable for me at this point, especially in Northern Europe. You can use the new feature, the canopy, with 2 stakes, 2 of the included guylines and 2 trekking poles. Personally I think it's a funny feature, but in reality I don't use it that much. It makes it harder to enter the tent from the outside. One BIG thing to note and what I've experienced is the distance between the fly and inner. I've tried out their UL Mongar 2 which was nylon, and that fly was so close to the inner, that I barely had one or two fingers space between them. WHen the nylon sagged, the inner and fly kept touching and condensation would drip into the inner tent and my stuff. With this one it's much further apart and the fly doesn't sag, so I'd never have that issue with this one. To me that was one of the most important things on this tent to check. **Zippers and hardware** The tent uses SBS zippers which run incredibly smoothly. They are pretty big/solid as well (I think #5 in size). One runs horizontally and one at an angle to the top. The fly uses the same zippers and those for the canopy are a bit smaller. For the clips you have nice and solid clips on the inner to attach to the poles. They make a firm click sound and won't ever come loose accidentally. I especially like the metal corner clippy things and the red ones on top for the crossbar. They feel like quality and the poles stick in there nicely. Talking about the poles, they're upgraded since the poleset on the Mongar 2 UL had some issues I've heard. These are much more firm. The fly has adjusters which run and work smoothly as well. It's cool to be able to clip the 4 fly clips to the ones on either the groundsheet or the inner tent. Either way, when clipped in either of those, you get a nice freestanding tent which is easy to move. **(Interior) Space** One big selling point of this type of tent design is the huge amounts of room you have in there. Compared to my Star River 2 which had sloped walls, these go vertical, giving a lot more headroom. In the images I have my Sea to Summit Ether Light XR in LxW (long wide) with a liner around it. You can see how much space there is still left around it on both the head/foot end and the width. The tent would easily fit 2 people with wide pads, but for me alone it's a palace. I like that I can stow away the backpack and clothing on one end, and have my phone and sleeping stuff next to me. **Pockets , washing line and hook** This tent offers superior pockets over both the old Mongar models and my Star River. You have a total of 6. On the head and foot end it looks like you have one big one on each end, but they're actually divided by two. So in my case I had all my stuff sacks on the left side and my watch and headlamp on the right side(see images). Also there are two nice pockets on the roof which have a smart barrier so a phone or powerbank can't slide out. All the 6 pockets have a little triangle hole where you can loop a charging cable through which I thought was very neat. Also nice that they already installed a washing line. It runs all the way around the 4 sides of the inner and also across the whole width of the tent. I found it very useful to hang my mini towel after washing the dishes with it or some dirtier or wet socks. There's also a pre added hook on one side of the inner. I had the same one on the old Star River 2 and always hang my Flextail Tiny Pump 2X on there which works great. **Other features** One of the unique things with these naturehike tents is the canopy. Like I said in the beginning it's pretty cool to have the option to have, but it's a bit fiddly and makes accessing the tent a bit harder (you have to duck down earlier). The canopy is only on one side and you can roll up the material to get it out of the way iof you want to use the door normally. To set it up you close one zipper (smaller one) and attach the loops on both sides to the tip of a trekking pole. Then you can guy out a longer line to add the necessary tension on the canopy. It does make the tent look very cozy, not gonna lie. Also another thing that I only noticed later, was the option to keep the doors open slightly for more ventilation. Not sure how to explain, but you can see it in some images. Basically there is a little toggle that you can attach the under side of the door to, so it stays a bit more open. Nice addition if you ask me. **Verdict** For only 120 I think this is one of the best tents to get if you can get by the weight. There are much lighter options out there (Lanshan 2, Mongar 2 UL, Cloud Up 2 etc) but nothing that comes close to the ease of use and the feature rich design of this tent. That it's polyester only makes it better in my opinion. So worth the extra weight penalty for me (if I go by car or small walks like I mentioned at the beginning). It's easy to set up, break, pack in it's stuff sack and everything is included. Truly I can't find anything really wrong with this tent and think all the upgrades it has over the old Mongar 2 design is better. The canopy is a hit or miss for some though. Thanks for making it this far and if you have any questions regarding this or the other tents I've mentioned, feel free to ask them! :)

Naturehike is da bomb imo….. I have a gen one star river still going strong after multiple years of 5 day plus hikes

I love my regular star river 2….. only negative is the zipper doesn’t go along the bottom of the tent so it is a pain to put boots on in buggy conditions. Other than that it’s amazing. The UL version does fix this but you do loose some of the bomb proof design as a trade off

I have a cloud up 1, star river 2, and a friend just got a mongar 2. It's essential to get through silnylon fly IMO. I've been through hours of rain and have never had a drop in my tent. OP, look at the mongar 2. I believe it's smaller and the side entry is a huge improvement. It also has a lot more room under the fly for gear.

Dunno am pretty happy with the light weight naturehike river star 2