"The lightning is a great lightweight tent" - Review of Sierra Designs Lightning 2 Tent - 2 Person 3 Season

We used this tent for 6 weeks straight in the high sierra. It is exceptionally spacious for the weight and packs small in a separate compression stuff sack we bought. It has a lot of mesh so it is really nice on warm nights with no fly, but we also had rain, hail, and wind storms and it held up really well for a 2-pole tent. Under some of the higher wind conditions it looked slightly stressed, even when fully guyed, but then again it is a 3-season tent, and no damage ensued, so it was fine. The only negatives we noted were that it doesn't vent well with the fly on and closed, so a lot of condensation forms on the inside of the fly under certain conditions. Perhaps if it had a two-way zipper on the fly door it could be vented better. The other thing is that the fly sags a bit when wet on the narrow ends of the tent and sometimes comes in contact with the tent walls. Perhaps we didn't have it staked out optimally but we sure tried. Extra guy points on the bottoms of the ends of the fly would help with this. It didn't pose much of a problem though. The large door is nice. Two people can sit side by side while putting on shoes, etc. Overall we were very happy with this tent and look forward to a lot more use in the future.
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