Nemo Gear’s backpacking gear just isn’t low cost, nevertheless it’s a few of the lightest, best-made, and most well-thought-out gear you’ll discover in the marketplace. The corporate’s new Mayfly Osmo two-person backpacking tent exemplifies this. The Mayfly Osmo is fast to arrange, light-weight, and cleverly designed, and it gave an impression of sturdiness in my 5 nights of testing.
The Mayfly is available in two- and three-person variations and sits in Nemo’s backpacking tent line between the ultralight Dragonfly and Hornet collection and the roomier, heavier Dagger collection (8/10, WIRED Recommends). The Mayfly is an efficient alternative for backpackers seeking to decide up a top quality Nemo tent that weighs just a little extra however at $400 prices fairly a bit lower than the ultralight Hornet.
The Fundamentals
{Photograph}: Scott Gilbertson
The Mayfly is a three-season backpacking tent with a path weight of three kilos, 8 ounces for the two-person model I examined. Purists may take concern, however to me that places it firmly within the ultralight tent class. Cut up between two folks, every is carrying underneath 2 kilos. That’s not as mild because the Nemo Hornet, which has a path weight of simply 2 kilos, nevertheless it’s nicely underneath our suggestion to maintain tent weight underneath 2.5 kilos per individual. The Mayfly can be $250 cheaper than the Hornet, making it simpler on the pocketbook.
The Mayfly makes use of a semi-freestanding design, very similar to the MSR Freelite we reviewed last year. This design saves on weight since there are fewer poles, nevertheless it does imply it’s important to stake out or in any other case safe the foot-end of the tent. If you happen to’re headed someplace you may camp on onerous rock, it’s value including some additional wire in case you’ll want to get inventive.
There are two tent poles, each aluminum. One is a hubbed three-piece pole that forks above the door. The second spreader pole goes throughout the center and helps preserve the steep sidewalls that make the Mayfly surprisingly roomy for its dimensions.
The Mayfly presents 27.9 sq. ft of dwelling house, with two 7-square-foot vestibule areas for gear storage. In apply, this works out to be a livable, although not roomy, tent for 2. Since I occurred to be testing Nemo’s new Tensor Path sleeping pads as nicely, I can say that two of these match facet by facet, however simply barely (see picture). There’s just a few inches of room down on the ft for gear, however no matter you set down there shall be touching the sidewalls, which is commonly a recipe for moist gear.
{Photograph}: Scott Gilbertson
