Noall Mountaineer II

Summary

As a 4-season tent, it is bombproof and endured some wonderful CO and WY winter adventures. Moving to AZ and pushing it into much warmer 2- and 3-season uses, rendered it overkill.

This was an excellent tent when it came out, well designed, well constructed for 4- and 5-season use. Very easy to pitch, whether in the dark or in a snowstorm, very easy two pole sleeve design. Once the fly was guyed out it was a taut little structure with a silhouette designed to shed snow load. Loved the blue color too, amazingly peaceful during those days snowed in.

It was an easy tent for me to ventilate during the winter resulting in minimal condensation. Maybe a little on the heavy side per sq footage yet once again, it was a bombproof tent, tolerating some intense gale force winds and snow loads.

When I moved to AZ and stopped winter ascents and mountaineering it was too warm with insufficient air movement. It was sold to a couple of young pups who planned to use it just the way I had, winter mountaineering and ice climbing.

I've used this bombproof tent for five years and can't say too many bad things about it. It's been used in the Andes of Argentina mostly, where the winds seem to be always strong....up to 100 mph. I bought it with extra heavy duty poles which makes it much stronger than necessary and which makes it a bit heavier, but with 2 - 3 climbers sharing the load, it's bearable. The colors are pleasant (yellow, turquoise and teal) and the detailing is very well thought out with two vestibules/vents, and two lower vents at the ends. Lots of strong guyline tieouts hold the whole setup tautly. I'm sure it will last for many years and I'd recommend it to anyone who is serious about high altitude mounataineering. Noall is a small family-run business, hard to find in comparison to the myriads of dealers who sell SD, NF, etc. tents, but well worth the investment.