GEAR
REVIEW
NEMO EQUIPMENT
HORNET ELITE OSMO
2P TENT
A marvel in ultralightweight engineering.
W We received 170mm of rain in 90 minutes; there
were no leaks.”
HEN IT COMES TO GEAR, I’m a bit of a weight weenie. Partly that comes from my background
as a professional adventure photographer, when to counteract the weight of all the heavy photographic equipment I’d lug around, I’d shave grams where possible so that my pack’s weight wasn’t too out of control. (Don’t worry, though; I’ve carried my share of 40+kg packs.) Equally, however, my weight-weenie tendencies stem from the more recent realisation of just how much more pleasant it is to head out with a sub-10kg pack, or even a sub-5 one. Seriously, it changes everything.
NEED TO KNOW
Mahal, nor to have superfluous bells and whistles.
but with the advent of ultralightweight tents like Nemo
This is a lean, mean, fighting machine. Personally, I
Equipment’s Hornet Elite OSMO 2P, I’m not sure I have
wouldn’t want it any other way.
to. In fact, I flat out don’t. The two-person version of the
I want to be clear, though: While the Hornet Elite’s
tent, on my scales at least, weighs a scant 976g. That’s
light weight makes it likely to become my go-to shel-
not to say you make no compromises, albeit far, far less
ter for the bulk of my trips to more benign locales, I’d
than if you were using a tarp to shave grams. In many
be unlikely to take it to, say, Tassie’s Western Arthurs.
Weight (2P, as tested): 976g
ways, the Hornet Elite is like a sports car—stripped
The tent is, for instance, only semi-freestanding;
down and lean, a leader in its field, but nonetheless
nonetheless, I found that on hard rock platforms, four
Doors & Vestibules: 2
not the burly vehicle you’d want to take 4WD-ing. You
well-placed rocks sufficed. The poles, too, are feath-
Floor Area: 2.5m
simply can’t have a sub-1kg tent and expect it to be
erweight; well, DAC—the world leader in tent poles—
as robust or as spacious as something weighing three
technically calls the poles “Featherlite NFL Green”.
times that weight. This is a tent that’s designed to
Pick them up in your hand and you wonder how they
be light and fast, and it makes a few compromises in
can weigh so little. And then there are the fly and
Waterhead (Fly & Floor): 1,200mm
achieving that goal. The interior height, for instance, is
floor. Both have 1,200mm waterheads, and they feel
94cm; not lofty, for sure. And the cross-beam measures
so gossamer thin you wonder how they can keep
RRP: $899.85
just 22cm; again, it doesn’t make for a spacious interior.
water out. But keep out water they do. I happened to
But it’s nonetheless adequate, and far from a coffin.
have the tent set up during a recent thumping of rain,
TEST
and I unboxed the Tiny Pump 2X (plus its accompany-
Product class: Two-person, ultralightweight, semi-freestanding 3-season tent
2
Vestibule Area: 0.6m2 (x2) Interior height: 94cm
FLEXTAIL
TINY PUMP 2X
Surprisingly useful.
T
of one of those tiny tins of tomato paste—that I figured it’d be lucky to inflate a Thermarest on a single charge, so I tested it first on that. It did that so quickly, I thought I may as well try my packraft. I still expected it to fail, though; this thing is tiny. But when it did that, too, I
I’d review: a rechargeable air pump. In
moved onto the airbed, and—while still on that first
fact, when first asked to review the Flextail
charge—managed to inflate it two-and-a half times. 2.5
Tiny Pump 2X, I reflexively said no. But then I
times! And that’s after the packraft and Thermarest.
thought I should learn a little about it before
But that’s not all I did on that first charge; it also
dismissing it entirely, and when I saw that it
has a deflate function. Who of us hasn’t struggled to
weighed just 96g, and that it doubled as a lan-
squeeze—by folding, squishing, sitting, or kneeling on
tern, I relented. Still, it seemed gimmicky. Seri-
them—air out of our mattresses before stashing them
ously, who needs a pump to inflate a Thermarest?
in our packs? With the Flextail, it took just seconds for
use a Thermarest when camping. This includes back-
WILD
ing range of nozzles), it was so small— about the size
HIS WAS A PRODUCT I never expected
Then I remembered that my wife refuses to
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Just don’t expect the Hornet Elite to be a roomy Taj
In the past, I’ve used tarps to shave serious grams,
my Thermarest to be completely devoid of air. But there’s one more thing I did on that first charge;
packing. Instead we lug around a 15cm-high double air
I ran the lantern for a few hours. Honestly, this is the
bed. Yeah, it’s huge. Anyway, when the package arrived
feature that will see it getting the most use, at least for
