This is the Nemo Galaxi 2P tent, in earth brown. Overall, it’s roomy, vents decently with the rain fly on, and there’s a few little things that I really like about it.
Setup was quick, with only two stakes needed for the rain fly. The poles are all joined by a central wheel, so they extend quickly and easily. Everything besides the vestibule corners attaches to the poles, so all I had to do to set up was to drive the stakes for the vestibules. By myself, setup was less than four minutes.
Outside, the rain fly has little Velcro strips for military nametapes, which I promptly fetched from the house and stuck on to my new tent. The fly sits fairly taut without using all of the stakes, but six aluminum stakes are provided for added stability in high winds. The zippers didn’t snag while opening and closing the rain fly several times, either.
The inside is very roomy, tall enough for me to sit upright close to the edges. The tent is long enough that at 5'11" I had plenty of extra leg room to lie down. The floor extends about eight inches up the side walls, which should do wonders for keeping the inside good and dry. Ventilation is excellent, the inside isn’t much more humid and stuffy than the Carolina stuffiness outside, and without the fly the mesh tent is wonderfully breezy. Button the corgi also approved of it wholeheartedly.
My only complaints are easily remedied. There aren't enough guy lines supplied to actually guy even half of the tent, but 550 cord does a better job anyway (and why don't you have any 550 cord with you?). The tent also didn't come with a compression sack, so it's rather bulky when stowed, but a trip to REI will take care of that problem.
The doors have little magnetic retainers for keeping them open and there is a small pouch in the peak of the tent that diffuses light from a headlamp. I’m a fan of the brown color, it’s nice and subdued, not jarring with the landscape (though if you prefer the brighter colors, it also comes in lime green). At five pounds, it’s no superlight tent, but it’s easily split between two people and for the price (a birthday gift from my wonderful parents or $250 MSRP) it’s an excellent competitor for REI’s Half Dome or Marmot’s Tungsten. For a great two-man backpacking tent, look no further than Nemo’s Galaxy 2P.
