User Review: Big Agnes Seedhouse SL2

Big Agnes Seedhouse SL2
Above: The current Seedhouse SL2, which may differ slightly from the version reviewed.

Reviewed February 25, 2009 by Jas

Rating:
Design: freestanding
Sleeps: 2
Ease of Setup: Very easy
Weight: 1.5kg
Price Paid: $300

I bought this tent for the 2007 OMM (Original Mountain Marathon) in the UK. Mountain marathons are running events, for teams of two, usually over two days with a camp in the middle, 10 to 30+ miles per day, and all gear must be carried. Weather in UK hill/mountain areas is unreliable and can be very wet and windy. A good MM tent must be light, strong, waterproof and easy to put up.

The benchmark MM tent is the Terra Nova Laser: the lightest models are around 800g. However, they are not long enough for a tall man like me: I didn't fancy not quite being able to straighten out all night. I've also read that they're fiddly to erect. The Seedhouse SL is significantly heavier (about 1.5kg), but still pretty light between two people. I'd seen them on the internet (they're practically unheard of in the UK) and a tall friend recommended them to me.

The night of our MM camp was wet and windy, as is often the case! The tent was a doddle to erect, didn't move about too much in the strong winds and kept us completely dry. It's about as roomy as my North Face Westwind, which weighs twice as much and is no more stable in bad weather. So, we had a good night's sleep and ran all the harder on day two for being well rested!

It doesn't get a lot of use, but I've had no reliability problems.

I don't know of another tent that offers so much space at this sort of weight (there may be other US makes I'm unaware of), and I'm very impressed by the weatherproofness and stability.

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