ALPS Mountaineering Zephyr 3.0

Summary

Enough room for 2 to sleep comfortably. Zip down doors on each side of the tent for easy access. Plenty of room for a backpacking pack and boots under each side of the rain fly. The fly comes already sealed and has worked well so far.

I've been through 2 rainstorms which lasted all night and I've had a couple tiny drips which needed to be resealed which was simple to do. Got it on steepandcheap.com for 87 bucks so if you can find it for under 100 it's a great buy. Lightweight tent as well for backpacking.

My wife and I spent 7 nights in this baby. Rain, frost and sunshine.

Frost — 10 degrees warmer inside than outside temp.

Rain- her sided leaked a little. 9 hr rain. I resealed the seams and waterproofed it again. Hope it is ok.

Sunshine as you see no rainfly 3 nights!!

GREAT tent for the money!!

As the pic shows no room for extra stuff...lol packs small

I am very pleased with this tent!!!  I am new to backpacking so I have only used a few tents but I must say that not only am I impressed with this tent but my buddies are as well!!!  They use North Face and Sierra Designs and tell me that for the money my tent is superior!!! 

The real pleasure of this tent is the company that stands behind it....I had this tent for about 6 months and noticed a small rip developing in the corner. Emailed Alps Mountaineering, told them my problem and within 1 week I had shipped it off I received a brand new one!!! 

Alps Mountainering is a company that stands behind their product and in this day and age that is more valuable than anything to me!!

I've spent 5 nights in mine so far, 3 in moderate to heavy rain. For the price, this can't be beat. I was looking at the REI 3-man Quarterdome, but I saved about $200 by going with this tent at a claimed 3 oz weight penalty. It was totally worth it.

I will focus more on the shortfalls of the tent rather than the performance (which was quite good) since that's what I like to read in reviews. Unless you are really close to your tent mates, this is better suited to 2 people and not 3 (as with most 3 man tents).

We did take on a very small amount of water. I used the specific Alps Mountaineering footprint and it extended about an inch beyond the foot end of the tent allowing the rain fly to drip onto it. Due to the shape of the ground under the tent, there was some puddling between the footprint and the tent. After 2 days of rain, some water soaked through the floor. If I had paid closer attention, this was avoidable, but who wants to inspect that they have the perfect site when it is already raining before the tent is up? It wasn't bad, just worth mentioning.

The vestibule openings are designed such that, when they are opened in the rain, water can drip in the tent. Solution: don't open the vestibule all the way. If you are not into staking down your tent, with the rain fly, this tent requires no less than 3 stakes. Not a big deal unless you are camping on rock. No stakes required if you don't use the rain fly.

As I said before, I focused on the negative for most of this review. This is a very good tent. It held its own at Canyonlands NP this past weekend standing next to an REI Half Dome (2-man) and a North Face single-wall (2-man) tent. I was completely pleased and find it hard to justify the price of any other tent in the same weight class . The weight of a 2 person tent, more space, and cheaper.

BTW: I called Alps Mountaineering. If you see tents at other sites named either the Zenith or the Zephyr, they are the same tent.