Its not that often in Jersey that there are temperatures low enough to test out your cold weather equipment. Last night temperatures drop to -4.5 ° C which is very unusual for Britain's south sea island.
We have just purchased a new tent for our summer trip to Greenland so it seemed like too good an opportunity to miss camping last night.
We decided upon the Mountain Equipment Hielo 2 as there was some amazing offers, price wise, and it seemed ideal for what we were planning to do. We hadn't had the opportunity to put the tent up before but even in the dark we had it pitched in under 5 minutes. Perhaps the cold acted as extra incentive. Once we were in the tent it was surprising how spacious and stable it was.
The four poles threaded quickly through the sleeves, in complete contrast to the last tent I had, which was an absolute pain to put up and virtually impossible to put up on your own. I used it in Greenland and then abandoned it after a Greek gale, after years of using great tents from this manufacturer I don't want to disclose their name.
There were immediately obvious a number of small things which showed attention to detail. Luminous zipper pulls, ventilation in the roof which could be closed, two reasonably sized porches, ideal for paddling kit, the continuous pole sleeves for easier pitching, mesh storage pockets etc.
So one night in a garden in St Brelade isn't a thorough test but the next time we use it will be in Scotland in April and I feel certain that it will meet all the demands placed on it, before we head to the Arctic in July.
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