User Review: Sierra Designs Meteor Light 2

Sierra Designs Meteor Light 2
Above: The current Meteor Light 2, which may differ slightly from the version reviewed.

Reviewed November 27, 2001 by Tom

Rating:
Design: three season freestanding tent
Sleeps: 2
Ease of Setup: Easy
Weight: 7lbs
Price Paid: $240

It's a wonderful tent. It's easy to set up, with only three poles. Two are slip-ins, and the last is a clip in. The toughest part is getting the fly on the right way. It's not quick--or maybe it's me--but the fastest I've set it up is about ten minutes.

I've used it nearly every weekend this past summer (June- late Sept), and so far it's showing no durability issues whatsoever. The two doors are great if your partner is a frequent night-time bathroom runner, or if you both want to sit up in the tent with the doors open and view stars for a while before sleeping. The mesh ceilling allows some views, but nothing as detailed as stargazing.

It's rain worthy. We got caught in a summer storm in the Wallowa mountains at about 4,000ft, and it varied from a torrential downpour to a strong rain for 16 hours. At times we could see the lightening through the tent fly walls, but it remained water tight. The only pproblem was that after 14 hours or so, the fly started to soak, and new rain drops were hitting with such force that it would cause a spray onto the mesh cieling, which then dripped into the tent. Bummer. We solved this by pulling out one of those blue tarps, and setting that on top of the fly. It was an unusually hard rain storm, and only after 14 hours did we have problems. Also important is to remember that the guy cords start to stretch when wet, and one must get out there and re-tension the guy cords.

The large fly vestibule was great for holding lots of gear dry, while we holed up inside. The storm flap on the fly zipper does easily get caught, but there's an easy way of using one's finger to keep in out of the way.

It's a little on the heavy side, but for two people that can split the weight, we think it's a great tent. Though we don't mind being close, it's also nice not to be stuck on top of each other when it's raining for a long time, and the extra weight/space makes it worthwhile.

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