Kelty Gunnison 2.3

Good tent for the young and agile, not so much for the rest of us.

I really just wanted to add to the reviewer who said that he found getting into and out of this tent too much of a challenge for his 60+ year old frame. At about the same age, that was the biggest reason I took this back to REi after its one night test run.

Fortunately, or un-, depending on your point of view, that one night in the Smokies in late winter (i.e. mild temp., strong rains), showed me just about everything I needed to know. The tent had some very attractive features:  two doors with vestibules, good headroom, little roof vents that were very easy to open and close, and especially, a door that could be staked out as a temporary small shelter.

After having slept through strong rains without even the whisper of a leak, and loving how much interior room there was in a tent this small, I discovered that getting out of the tent in the rain without letting in water was impossible. The way the doors zip up creates a space above the floor of the tent that lets water in. Or maybe I'm just clumsy—I'll leave it to those more experienced with this type of tent to decide.

The deciding factor for me was that that same structure made the jackknife exit  (bend double, walk hands forward, straighten up) I've gotten too old for on my Moss tent necessary for this as well: with that door configuration, I couldn't kneel, straighten up a little and exit almost or fully standing, as I can with my larger tents.  The reviewer for the Gunnison 4.0 described this problem very well - and that was a larger tent!

I also thought the square flap was too low to the ground to cook or sit under comfortably. That was the biggest thing that attracted me to this tent in the first place. The three-person would probably work for this, but, without actually trying it out, this one seemed too low.

I did like the twist-on, twist-off clips, but -hated- that hub. Maybe practice would have helped, but with thunder and lightening coming on right speedily, all I wanted was fast, easy pole breakdown and that hub really got in the way. Really not a fan of octopus style pole assemblies.

Another nice thing was the included, perfectly sized footprint. Since this was a test run, I used the whole thing on top of another footprint so as to be able to return it if need be. The footprint is very thin, but used carefully, should be able to do its job.

No pictures, since it's already back at R.E.I, but did want to add to the other older reviewer's experience.