Ultralight Trekking Pole Tents

If you’re like most hikers, your shelter is the heaviest piece of gear you carry so swapping out your old tent for a trekking pole tent is a quick way to cut weight. A trekking pole tent is a shelter that replaces the traditional pole structure of a tent with trekking poles and most are non-freestanding, meaning they must be staked out correctly to maintain their shape. 

They are not as hard as some think in setting up and after a couple of practice runs on the lawn at home figuring out how long to make your poles and where to place them, how to guy out the tent etc most have it well sorted before heading to the hills.

So some advantages of trekking pole tents are weight saving with no tent poles, packability as no rigid poles to pack, often pitched fly first so your inner tent stays dry and roomier as most big brand tent manufactures are reducing interior space to save weight.

If your a bike packer then don’t worry, most brands like Durston, Zpacks, Tarptent and Six Moon Designs all have the option of using there own lightweight carbon fibre or aluminium poles.

Most of these brands use cutting edge fabric’s like Dyneema Composite Fabric and Ultra TNT with high strength and waterproofness, but usually come at a premium price. Sil-Poly rather that Sil-Nylon which tends to sag when wet is also becoming more popular and these tents are usually more affordable.

Be sure to check out Packgeargo’s range and give us a call if you have any questions!