Marmot makes some great gear that is well tested on big mountains. But a lot of it is quite pricey. So the Earlylight is a welcome part of its range. This tent is billed as a beginners tent, or a value tent. It is clearly aimed at the middle market which is is somewhere between the cheap tents you get at Wal-Mart or Halfords to take camping the first time from the back of your car or to use at a weekend music festival and the more serious and expensive full-on mountaineering tents.
In this regard is doesn’t do too badly. Priced at a shade over $200 it is about half the price of really serious tents. Then again at several times the cost of a really cheap one, you need to have some commitment to camping or hiking to want to get this. At least the Marmot name is a good one, so the Earlylight 2 has a pedigree behind it.
And in that role it will not let you down. This really is a 3-season or fair weather tent, thought with some luck it could stand up to harsher conditions. But it does the job well. It is fairly compact. In other words it will be a bit of a squeeze, especially if you have a lot of gear. And it does not have too much headroom. But in exchange you get a really light tent that tips the scales at little over 5lb 5 oz (or about 2.5kg). That is not bad considering you are not paying top dollar. You can go bare bones with it it and shave about a sixth of the weight by just using the fly sheet. It hardly seems worth it.
It has DAC featherlight poles, which are light and strong. These tents have been around for a good few years and people seem happy. I’m not sure that you’ll get 15 years plus out of these that people have been reporting with their Mountain Hardwear Trango 2 tents. But then again you are paying much less and carrying a much lighter package on the hill.
In short if you are new to camping and hiking or are just looking for a cheap second tent so that you can save your proper mountaineering tent for big expeditions and winter use, then this is a good alternative tent for summer use and winter camping in moderate climates.
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