Eureka!

Mountain Pass Tent: 2-Person 4-Season

Excellent tent

Excellent tent with no flaws but always improvements that could be made. I have used if for around 150 days and I would only wish, that this tent had rip-stop on fabric and more of a bucket styled protective protective fabric to prevent water from flowing underneath.

Fantastic tent

I bought this tent years ago for hunting in Alaska. It had done fantastic. Im in Utah now and it's great. Only complaint is the elastic in the tent poles is going out and I have to sinch them a lot.

Used on my first cold weather camping

I used this tent on my first cold weather camping experience. It got as cold at 14 degrees F with 20-30 mph winds at night. My water bottle did not freeze in the tent and I slept comfortably with a 20 degree bag and a blanket. The set up was easy and was able to do it rather quickly in the dark (got to the site late). With the winds, the tent was very secure, and was relatively quiet.

Versatile Tent

I bought this tent three years ago and love it. I used it car camping, backcountry camping, winter camping and even use it several times with just the footprint and fly at the beach. (Great feature that should be displayed) it been through it all and would buy it again. It has always kept me dry. Had a tent stake break and wrote Eureka and mailed it and the replaced. How can you get better service then that. Love Euraka and will be a life time Customer.

Can not wait to use my new Eureka Mountain Pass 2

Have NOT yet used the tent. However, the overall impression is "bombproof". Improvements needed to be called "4 season": a) Fly must be longer to allow for snow to be used to seal the bottom against snow and wind. b) Fly should have two zippers, top and bottom. This allows for venting and when cooking in the vestibule during storms. c) The "clip" used to secure the tent to the pole hub is woefully inadequate: a trip-ender waiting to happen. Needs a backup provision when / if it snaps during cold weather (ie: a small metal carabiner) After all...it is JUST plastic, right? d) better seam tape on fly. e) closable, external thru-pocket for waste storage when tent / storm bound. Overall a Good Tent for California backpacking....especially for spring and fall trips in the Sierra....which is why I made this purchase. Quality is what I expect from Eureka.

Good for Sand Storms but ...

Familiarity:

I've put it through the wringer

I bought this winter tent specifically for a Grand Canyon River trip. River camping often has sand storms that lead to sand raining down thru the no-see 'em netting. That part worked great, though the zippers are in kinda weird places --should be able to open from bottom or top. The cargo pockets by your pillow or feet are lacking. You need a place to put your schnadle. The "nifty" triangle add-on cargo net that hangs from the ceiling is silly. Leave it at home, it is useless. Seems like they tried to use up leftover pieces to make it. The tent has two doors on one side and one on the other. The door on the rain fly inexplicably does not open to the one door on the one door side of the tent. You have to reach far in to get to the zipper and crawl into the tiny vestibule to get in the tent from that side. Why not have the rain fly door match the tent door? There were not enough tent stakes for all the places to put them. Why 11? Good thing tent stakes are easily found in popular camping spots. Also, you need a hammer or some really thick leather gloves to push the tent stakes in. They are very sharp and will cut your hands unlike the wire ones that bend, not sure what is better.

Great tent for winter (and sand storms?)

Familiarity:

I've put it through the wringer

Having used the MountainPass XTE for out scout troop as three+ season tents it was easy to make the jump to the MountainPass tent. It's not a straight comparison since this review is for the 2 person tent were as the XTE is a three person tent. Easy set up with hubbed pole system. Used the tent in temp's down to -10F as well as heavy moist snow fall at another event. Not sure how the "outrigger" roof poles would have done under the heavy snow fall on the three person tent. Dug out tents in middle of the night to play it save. It's not an expedition style 4 season tent, but other then that this tent suffice in all but the extreme conditions. The high vent does it's job. The stakes are V shape which is better than the round stakes. Like the other reviewer wrote about the zipper travel way; i agree. I would prefer as well to zip open (crack) from the top. Door mesh panels are partial mesh, at the bottom. I guess this is to promote better cross, low to high ventilation. Webbing is color coded to attach fly to tent and or ground cloth but it fit both ways, symmetrical. So it he wind direction changes 180° you can rotate the fly. This tent is definitely designed for snow. Night picture shows 2 person, day picture someone else's 3 person

Definitely not worth the money

Set this up in my backyard with gloves on to see how easy it would be to set up with gloves on obviously you can tell by the photo that doesn’t work for some reason the bungee cord was not pulling the polls in to the hub I had to pull the extra cord out with my fingers in order to assemble the tent The other weird thing is they added mesh to the rain fly over the vents which means you cannot open or close the vents from inside the tent you have to go outside I should note I set the tent up inside without the rain fly and the pole snapped together so I understand cold weather does affect things but it should not affect the bungee cords that badly I would think but then again I don’t know

Winter warm

Hilton hotel in the woods , slept in 28 degree weather hands not even cold inside tent

Even better

Just took my new Mountain Pass 2 out for a spin. Couldn’t be better. -fast and easy setup -tough construction, zippers smooth -more loops and pockets than you’ll ever need -ventilation crazy good, yet easy to close down when it gets cold -rain fly exceedingly well-thought out with vestibules just right 3 gripes, but not about the tent. Gripe #1: The footprint has grommets, and there is not one mention about them anywhere. Turns out they are for quick shelter setup using just the poles, the footprint, and the rain fly! Dear Eureka....please include that info in your descriptions. It’s a great feature. Gripe #2: there is no info anywhere about how to get the tent back in the little stuff sack. Gripe #3: Eureka does NOT answer emails. I’ve written them 6 in a year with no reply. That said, this is a terrific piece of gear. I was worried about replacing my beloved Eureka Outpost 2, another great tent. No worries. The Mountain Pass is smaller, but because of the practicality vertical side walls, doesn’t seem like it. It’s lighter, faster to set up, and just as tough. In my opinion it’s not as “pretty”, but even better.