In-depth Review: Marmot Super-alloy 2 person Tent

Marmot Super-alloy 2 person Tent

Weight, 1.226 kg, (2 lb.s 11 oz.)

Dimensions: 99 x 127/107 x 221cm (39 x 50/42 x 87in)

Review by Lorena Jones

Marmot makes a number of lightweight tents, but the Super-alloy, which has a full fly (unlike some single-wall models), enough room for two and is lighter than most two-person tents has obvious appeal to anyone looking for a light-two person shelter. But how did it fare in the field?

Setting up was fast, although to save on weight in extra poles, the tent is not totally freestanding. The corners of the wide end of the tent need pegging down or tying to rocks. The alloy poles are super light and very strong. The images in the tent sleeve, however, could be complemented with more colour coding .

The colour-coding on the clips, poles and fly helped a lot. The poles cross to form a “T” at the top of the tent, and the shorter pole sits quite niftily in a groove on one of the tent clips that is attached to the longer pole. This clip might have a deeper groove and/or be a different colour than the other clips to make it really, really clear. Similarly, the way the fly attaches to the cross pole could be made clearer. Don’t un-hook and slide the hook over the pole, the clip hooks over the pole.

Once it was set up, I’d have to say I was impressed by the nice, bright blue inner tent and the green fly that made the tent easy to find at night. The dome shape and relatively high ceiling allowed for two people to sit up and pack their sleeping bag at the same time. String out the guy-lines if you want to make sure the fly has no contact with the tent, but even though we didn’t, the tent held up really well in a storm.

The tent has three pockets inside. The snug ceiling pocket is useful for tucking in a headlamp while and is well structured. The base of the tent is really well designed, it tapers from head to toe, so it maximises space where is it most needed. The head end has two ‘rods’ on either corner to help structure the base and prevent water pooling. The side pockets, however, are a little floppy, and anything I put in them tended not to stay there.

This tent is super lightweight – my sleeping bag weighed more, and you get a lot of tent for the weight. It handles bad weather well, it’s well designed and reasonably roomy. All in all, I love it.