Wild #187

Page 136

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

136

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


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SUPPORT OUR SUPPORTERS

1min
pages 142-146

SUPPORT OUR SUPPORTERS

5min
pages 140-141

ZONEKNIT

1min
page 139

DOUBLE EMBER 1

2min
pages 138-139

HORNET ELITE OSMO

6min
pages 136-138

THE WALK IN SECTIONS

4min
pages 134-135

LOWER COLO GORGE LOOP

2min
pages 132-133

LOWER COLO GORGE LOOP

3min
pages 130-131

SIERRA NEVADA

14min
pages 122-129

WA’S CORAL COAST

4min
pages 120-122

YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW

13min
pages 112-119

Whom Shall I Send?

11min
pages 106-111

KEEPING COMPANY WITH THE VIKING

13min
pages 98-105

CHASING THE MOUNTAIN LIGHT

3min
pages 90-93, 95-97

THE TASMANIAN WILDERNESS WORLD HERITAGE AREA TURNS 40

12min
pages 82-88

ANATOMY OF A SEARCH

15min
pages 74-80

GIITU*, SAREK

12min
pages 64-72

The Inauguration

13min
pages 56-62

OUTBACK MIKE

13min
pages 50-55

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page 48

A HOME WOODY

3min
pages 46-47

WELCOME TO THE PYROCENE

16min
pages 40-44

GREEN PAGES

2min
page 38

GARDENS OF STONE

1min
pages 36-37

A LIFE FULLY LIVED

3min
pages 34-35

KEEPING STANDARDS HIGH

3min
page 32

RECOGNISING THE GOOD BITS

3min
page 30

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

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pages 20, 23, 25, 27, 29

THE BEAUTY OF SHADOWS

3min
pages 18-19

THE COVER SHOT

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page 15

CONTENTS

5min
pages 10-15
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