ALPS Mountaineering Glacier 2

I purchased this tent on the ALPS Pro Tester Program with 40% off cost. I set the tent up Wednesday to seam seal the floor seams and Friday my girlfriend informs me one of the poles "snapped" and "tore a hole in the pole sleeve directly over the door". When I arrived at her place Friday afternoon I inspected the tent for myself and indeed one of the poles did snap right in half (very strange) and tore the pole sleeve.

I immediately called Brian at ALPS Mountaineering, informing him what took place and he told me to return the tent back to ALPS so they "can look at it". He told me he "would send me another tent". However I notified Brian if I could exchange the tent for one of ALPS Cascade Packs instead to test. The Glacier is using scandium poles instead of aluminum poles (that the ALPS Taurus, thank God still has!). In my opinion, those scandium poles are not strong and are apparently far too brittle than the old standby aluminum poles.

I'm kind of disappointed with this particular ALPS product seeing all my other gear I purchased from ALPS Mountaineering has served me well thus far.

I would highly recommend the Taurus over the Glacier Tent simply because the Taurus uses the aluminum poles, which have proved to be reliable. To sum it up, thank God this didn't happen on one our camping trips, especially with all the rain Ohio has been getting lately!

Update: January 16, 2007

I purchased another ALPS Glacier after my bad experience with another tent of the same model three years ago. I decided to give it another try.

So far the tent is performing wonderfully. It holds up to snowloads quite well plus it is stable in high winds. Condensation is kept at a minimum due to the panels that can be unzipped to expose the mesh on the backside and roof panels. Smart design. There is plenty of room for two personages thanks to the steep sidewalls. Overall great tent. Fairly light weight for an all-season tent at under 7 lbs.

The tent worked well for our needs in a high wind, high altitude environment.

Our problem was with the fly. The plastic window in the fly fractured and fell apart during the first use of the tent. It seemed to be very brittle, and may have become that way while being carried into a backpacking destination.

The venting worked well, and the tent held up well in high wind. The weight of the tent for this kind of design (4-season) is great.

We returned the fly to Alps for another, but the replacement had manufacturing errors, and we were unable to use it. We returned the tent to the original dealer.

They have some good designs, but their quality control may need improvement.