"Shoulder-season special..." - Review of The North Face Tadpole 23 Tent 2-Person 3-Season

I've had a soft spot for this tent ever since a buddy and I took a late season Sierra high country trip. He was bragging on his ultralight tarp shelter and mocking my "heavy" tent all the way in. He was hatefully smug about it until that night when, at 10,000 feet, a storm hit bringing very cold temps, high winds, and SNOW! While he fumbled for nearly an hour, wet and freezing, trying to rig his pathetic tarp (so he could cower under it in his wet down bag in his wet clothes on bare WET ground...ultralight indeed), I changed into warm dry clothes, brewed a hot cup of tea, and sat it out in total comfort in my Tadpole, singing along loudly to my iPod to maximize the revenge factor. It's a perfect shoulder-season tent precisely for this type of scenario (I use a single-wall solo tent or bivy sack during the summer). It's easy to solo-pitch and the 3-pole design and multiple guy-out points make it a very strong tent indeed, as my envious and thoroughly humbled friend learned that cold wet October night. The weight is very low for such a full-featured, well-made double-wall. The vestibule is plenty big for one person's gear and cooking space. On sub-freezing nights keep a towel handy for morning condensation; the mesh ceiling does let some dripping water in from the fly but it's manageable. I concur with other reviews that this is actually a roomy 1-person tent, two people would be crammed as would their gear in the vestibule. Also, watch the length; I'm 6'3" and am absolutely maxed out in this tent, not an inch of extra head/foot room but a price I'm willing to pay for the weight. To top it all off, I got it on sale for $150 bucks. Life is good....
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