Mountain Equipment Co op

by Neil
(Vancouver, BC Canada)

Mountain Equipment Co-op, MEC Lightfield Tent I've come to regard this tent as my second home. It has seen me through various weather conditions and provided an excellent shelter in a variety of situations.

My first trip with this tent was into the mountains of Japan. It was at the head of the rainy season, and I had 15kms of trail up waterfalls and riverbeds, between peaks and down washed away gravel ledges. The tent was light to pack, easy to set up in the dark, and held up near-flawlessly in a torrential rainstorm in the middle of the night.

We also managed to squeeze three into the tent comfortably, sleeping head-toe-head (even though it's a two-person tent). However, likely due to overcrowding during the rainstorm, there was minor condensation along the length of one ground-wall seam, but nothing that detracted from the performance of the tent in my opinion - any other tent and I may well have been soaked through to the bone, along with the rest of my gear.

The vestibule had plenty of room for our gear, and kept it dry. One of the better sleeps through a rainstorm that I've had outdoors.

Being a four-season tent, this review wouldn't be complete without a word on winter conditions. I've camped out on the top of mountains in both freezing and near-freezing conditions, and with the fly on the tent protects from even the harshest winds and chill. In milder weather, without the fly on, the tent vents so well that it can get chilly sometimes, but this makes it good for comfortable summer camping.

The only issues I have had with the tent is the tension in the fly and warm-weather condensation. If you aren't strong or don't have patience, the fly tethers can seem difficult to secure on the pole ends. The durability of the material is more than enough to withstand a little tugging and the tight fit, though.

Being a four-season tent, you can expect some condensation in the warmer months when using the fly. Overall, an excellent tent and one of the better two-man, four-seasons for the money.