User Review: NEMO Morpho AR

NEMO Morpho AR
Above: The current Morpho AR, which may differ slightly from the version reviewed.

Reviewed September 18, 2007 by Bart

Rating:
Design: Air Supported Hoop-Tent
Sleeps: 2
Ease of Setup: Easiest set-up of all time
Weight: Trail Wt 2.2 kg (4.8 lbs)

I know, you're thinking gimmicky right? I have owned and used pretty much every tent design on the market from the Eureka Timberline to the Mtn Hardwear EV3 and I rank this as the best tent I have ever owned. I have spent about 25 nights in this tent so far. It's done great in hot buggy muggy weather (Northern Ontario) and never leaked a drop despite being through several heavy downpours. So far, none of the storms have produced enough wind to actually budge the airbeams. They are solid and strong. I believe you would have to damage the airbeams deliberately to do them harm. Poking a knife at them doesn't do anything.

Set-up is a breeze. It's one piece so once the corners are pegged you just use the pump and up it goes. 45-50 seconds is an average time, faster is possible. During one storm, I climbed inside and pumped it up from within the shelter. The looks on the faces of my comrades with their conventional tents was priceless. The pump packs flat and weighs about 4oz (included in the trail wt).

The inside is roomy for a 2 person tent. I'm 6'2 and have plenty of room to spare. It's the first tent I've had in years that didn't have a conventional vestibule, but there is enough storage inside that I didn't miss it. You can clip the fly back in what Nemo calls the exofly if you want to cook or sit under shelter during the day. The inner tent body clips back out when it's bedtime.

The Morpho AR is kind of a hybrid in that there is a fly and inner tent from the shoulders up. Shoulders down it is a single wall waterproof breathable fabric. The tent is ultra-waterproof. Breathability is exceptional. My first night with the tent was windless and muggy so I was thinking there would be some condensation based on past experience with single wall tents. To my surprise the inner walls were bone dry in the morning. I managed to get some condensation only once so far. It was hot and humid and a sudden cold rainstorm cooling the outside walls produced some light condensation (during the day while we weren't inside it). The side vents are situated perfectly so that it all ran out on it's own anyway. Again, great design if that was intentional.

Two minor complaints were that I found the compression bag straps for the tent are actually a bit too long and the bag got a small rip. I'm pretty careful with gear so maybe a heavier fabric for the bag would be better? No problems of any kind with the floor of the tent though-and I never use footprints. The tent will go smaller and the extra straps are excessive and get in the way. The velcro that holds out the side vent stiffeners rubbed the mesh in the vents a bit. They look a bit worn. It's not serious, but it put a couple of small pulls in it here and there. The door used the same mesh though, and it's holding up just fine.

The door and fly options are great. The tapered shape is a good compromise between weight-saving and providing good living-space for two people plus gear. It's not the lightest tent on the market, but more like an ultralight tent that can handle the heaviest weather you can throw at it with super-simple set-up and takedown. By the way, I use a tarp or a bivy on some trips too, but when the weather or the bugs are really bad I find this works a heck of a lot better. I bought this to be my mountaineering and winter tent too. I'm looking forward to seeing how it performs.

I liked this tent so much, I bought a Nemo Gogo (the solo/bivy version) a few months later.