Mountain Hardwear

AC 2 Tent 2-Person 4-Season

MH AC2 tent - not for over 6' tall

Familiarity:

I returned this product before using it

Size Bought:

One size

Height:

6' 2"

Weight:

200

This tent is for winter and 81 inches long. I am 6'2" tall, and the exterior of my 6'6" (inside the bag length) winter sleeping bag is about 90 inches long. The sleeping bag is 9 inches longer than the tent. The tent has condensation in cold weather, the bag hits the tent wall, and wet sleeping bag. Too bad, I like the tent, but the length is a fatal flaw for anyone over 6' tall. For those under 6' tall, the exterior of the bag is shorter and probably livable. Why can't someone make a winter tent that is 90 inches long for us folks over 6' tall?

Bomber as expected

Small, but packs down small. Withstood 30+ mph winds fine. Not luxury, but very bomber. Like the fact that I didn’t have to seam seal this tent as with some other brands I’ve owned.

Solid single-wall tent

We left this tent set up at the base of a Himalayan wall at 4500m in late october when a storm rolled in and made us retreat to basecamp. Despite heavy snows and wind, when we returned 4 days later it was exactly as we left it and in great shape. This tent strikes a great balance between weight, durability, and versatility (especially when paired with the vestibule). The one con is that the ventilation could be better and sometimes the breath condenses on the inside in cold temperatures.

legit bomber tent

i really have been happy with this tent so far. haven’t gotten it into single digits yet. been using it as single person and it works flawlessly. fast setup maybe take 10mins going at a slow pace otherwise you could probably pitch this tent in 5mins or less. the construction is top notch. just a very high quality tent everywhere you look. ventilation isn’t bad for one person but for two you better hope it’s windy. regardless it’s holds it own well and form factor and size is very convenient. also the foot print works well with it and is very handy to have since it packs small and doesn’t weight much.

Danger of asphyxiation

Inappropriate tent for high altitude and/ or winter mountaineering! Even with the vents open and door partially unzipped, my climbing partner and I woke up MULTIPLE nights in a row hyperventilating and nearly suffocating until we figured out what was going on. Absolutely terrifying. The tent material is too non-breathable and the venting is completely insufficient. In an alpine or winter setting, keeping the door open so you don't suffocate is clearly subideal. Too bad because otherwise the tent has a lot of things going for it: very light, bright, warm, fairly easy to set up and holds up well in stormy weather (vestibule a must, in winter).

Perfect tent !!!

A perfect tent for a mountaineering and backpack trip !!!

I want to love but I can’t breathe!

On multiple trips, with low temps ranging from 30 degrees to 10 degrees both me and whoever has been sleeping in the tent with me haven’t been able to breathe after an hour in the tent. Yes the vents were open! On the coldest night we even opened the door but it was too cold and we had to move to the truck. It is scary when you open the door and are suddenly able to breathe again. I understand condensation is inevitable but it is intense on cold nights with two people. I can’t imagine if the tent were covered in snow what could happen. Still looking for answers as no one has been able to provide a refund or explanation.

Lightweight, waterproof and bomber so far!

This review might be a little premature because I've only taken the tent on one trip, so take it with a grain of salt....but here are my initial impressions after a one-night backpacking trip up in the Indian Peaks Wilderness. This is my first single-walled tent, and I love the ease of setup. A huge benefit of this design is that the tent can be fully sealed and waterproof during the entire setup, so you could build it up even during a crazy snow storm and have a dry interior afterwards. The sleeved pole design seems a little bit old-school, but I think it makes sense for this design since it really distributes the load across the whole length of the poles. It's slightly more annoying to push the poles through the sleeves than to connect a bunch of clips, but ultimately it's still a very fast setup and breakdown once you get used to it. The tent has a good number of guy-out points, and it also includes a bunch of guy lines which are perfect for dead-man staking under the snow. With a lot of guy-out tension, this tent can do well in pretty extreme weather conditions. We had very high winds throughout the night, and my friends with 3-season tents spent the whole night worried their tents would - I quote - "just explode". Meanwhile, the AC2 was bomber, even though I didn't guy out as many lines as I would have if I knew we'd have so much wind. The door design is really nice, giving you individual control over the inner mesh door and the outer waterproof door; it also provides a third vent to improve ventilation, which is already pretty good from the front and back hooded vents as long as you align the tent in the direction of the wind. An important note: to stay safe in a 10,000mm waterproof shelter like this one, you MUST have the vents open during the night. The risk of suffocation is real for this type of tent, so MAKE SURE to open your vents! Condensation was present in the morning, but it wasn't too bad; there were ice crystals on the tent wall above me and on the top of my sleeping bag, but it was pretty minimal. You can battle this by opening up the top of the door, but that of course comes with some additional heat loss. The size of the tent is roomy for one person, and the weight is just right for alpine backpacking, ski touring, etc. If you want to fit two people and gear in here, I think the vestibule is really a requirement. The packed size is very reasonable for a 4-season tent. You could even pack it down more in a compression sack if you really need some extra space in your pack.

Best ever

Familiarity:

I've put it through the wringer

Height:

5' 8"

Weight:

175

Buy it, buy it now, don't wait. Just do it. Super lightweight, packs really small, rock solid stability.

Light weight, real 4 season tent!

I love the full mesh front door, its truly a 4 season tent now. Owning a EV 2, the problem was the condensation and venting. My only gripe about the new AC2 is the sleeved pole design, this design seems to take the longest time and is a design low quality tents use. The old previous clip design was the easiest and fastest especially on high climbs which being out in the cold and wind because very dangerous.