09-24-19 Review of the Big Agnes Tiger Wall Carbon Tent 2 (BA TWC 2)
I read a couple of reviews of this tent and thought I'd post my experience of it. Yes, I'm one of the maniacs who bought this very expensive tent. Hey, I'm Gadget Girl and a sucker for Cuber Fiber (Dyneema). (See Gear for my other tent options.) I did not include the details of this tent itself as you can read all about it on the Big Agnes's website and other places.
Note: I use window inside insulator kits for my ground cloths. Just a couple of ounces and boy are they tough as long as you are gentle with them. I used just one for the whole trip with the BA TWC 2.
Requirements (justification) for a new tent:
My friend Seasoned Strider and I planned on hiking the Colorado Trail in August 2019 and I wanted something that was:
* super light
* protected me from the elements, especially wind and cold
* could accommodate a 25 inch air pad
* my quilt didn't touch the tent fabric
I was well aware how fragile this tent was as they used the thinnest .34 Cuben Fiber fabric for the rainfly. Because of my personal experience and love of Cuben Fiber tents, I felt comfortable taking this tent on the Colorado Trail. Since most of my tents do not use tent poles, I practiced setting tent up in the backyard. Wow, nine tent stakes were required to set this baby up.
We started our adventure on the Colorado Trail by slackpacking the first 16.8 miles to the South Platte River trailhead. My husband met us there and gave us our backpacks. As we pitched our tents for the night, thunderstorms collected overhead and suddenly we had rain and ice pellets. Here was the first experience in the Big Agnes Tiger Wall Carbon Tent 2! I opened the nylon tent zipper, leaving the rainfly closed, and was astonished to feel moisture being forced through the rainfly. As the softer ice pellets smashed into the rainfly, it forced the moisture through and actually started collecting on the inner nylon tent. The moisture beaded up but didn't seep through into the tent. Then the hard rain started and I could feel the moisture inside the rainfly increase. Well, this was a fine howdy-doody. The thunderstorm started to move off, leaving a very wet rainfly and a moist inner tent. In the morning both the rainfly and the inner tent was still wet due to the storm the night before and the following buildup of condensation from overnight produced a wet layer on my down quilt. Thankfully I habitually stuff all the extra clothing into my backpack before turning in so nothing else was wet. At lunchtime I pulled everything out of the pack and dried everything out.
As the days turned into weeks on the Colorado Trail, I was a little dismayed on how much condensation collected on my down quilt almost on a nightly basis. I suspect it was from the yellow inner netting being tightly knit, not letting enough airflow through. Another bummer.
The alarm went off one morning at the usual time of 5:30am, and as I prepared to start the morning chores, my headlamp showed tiny water drops inside the yellow mesh tent. What the heck was that all about? I still don't know...
As we continued south on the trail, we started camping at higher elevations. Ooh, I liked how warm this tent was! I didn't want to get out and pack everything up because it was so lovely and warm inside.
As we were finishing up our hiking adventure, we had one night of windy weather. Aha, another test for the tent. This time I was glad for the tightly knit yellow inner mesh as it kept out most of the wind. I battened down the rainfly but still had some flapping going on. I was a little worried that the tent stakes would pull out and I'd lose the rainfly, especially since we were camped near a lake. All was good in the morning, the rainfly was still firmly staked down, and enough wind blew under to keep condensation from building up on my down quilt.
Note: As other reviewers have mentioned, this is a delicate tent if not treated properly. Every motion must be monitored while setting up and taking down both the inner tent and the rainfly, every single time. As such, I did not experience any tears, rips, pokes, or any other material failure.
The Pros of the Big Agnes Tiger Wall Carbon Tent 2
* It's a very lightweight tent
* It keeps most of the wind out
* It's way warmer than my other tents, which is what I wanted for this trail
* Very roomy inside for one person. Loved the vertical walls, my quilt didn't touch the inside anywhere.
* I was impressed with the technical aspects of the tent. Well thought out.
The Cons of the Big Agnes Tiger Wall Carbon Tent 2
* It's a very expensive tent
* It takes nine stakes, nine!
* Nightly condensation is kind of ridiculous
* Very large footprint - I was shocked on how much space this tent required
* That crossbar is tough to insert in the inner tent pockets, very tight and can spring back on you.
* The door tie-backs were positioned in an odd place. If you don't tie them back almost perfectly, it unravels.
* Boy oh boy, I did not like setting up the tent poles. But that's just my personal quirk.
Room for Improvements
Yes, I think Big Agnes can definitely make some improvements on this tent.
* More airflow for reduced nightly condensation
* Reduce the nine stakes requirement to at least six
* Use a denser Cuben Fiber fabric like .51 or .74 instead of .34. At least go up one thickness to .51
* Rethink that crossbar for insertion in the inner tent pockets
* This may be the toughest one to do - reduce the price
Conclusion
After returning from the Colorado Trail trip, I used the tent in the Pacific Northwest on a couple of different trips and decided to return it and continue my search for another DCF shelter that has a little bit more airflow to reduce the nightly condensation.