Sierra Designs Antares Tent:
At best, backpacking while sharing three to a tent can be a character-building experience, but this new Sierra Designs Antares Tent offers the kind of extra space that's usually associated with heavy camping tents. Sierra Designs accomplished this by configuring their lightweight DAC Featherlite NSL with a pre-bent construction that creates steep wall architecture with more headroom than conventional X-pole tent designs. It's an approach that Sierra Designs calls "Reverse Combi Technology" and the editors at Outdoor Magazine liked the extra headroom (as much as 50% more living space) so much that they gave the similarly-built Reverse Combi tent their 2005 Gear of the Year Award. What this all means is that you're likely to find more vertical space inside the Antares than three-person tents with a similar weight profile. The Antares Tent is also better featured. While other tent companies often force you to buy an extra footprint as an optional accessory for minimalist pitching, Sierra Designs included the fast pack footprint with their Antares, so you can pack light without lightening up on your wallet. It also includes other free extras like a portable attic and a coffee sling.
