For years I carried and used a Eureka! Mountain Pass XT, pretty much the only brand my Boy Scout Troop father would buy. It was a huge two-person tent great for car camping but is ridiculous as a backpacking tent.

That is why when I got into ultralight backpacking, I picked up the Big Agnew Tiger Wall UL2

Apparently, the Big Agnes Tiger Wall UL2 is a combination of their Copper Spur and Fly Creek models making the Big Agnes Tiger Wall UL2 a great combination of weight and comfort. While I like keeping my backpack as light as possible, I’m not ready to sacrifice comfort for it.

The Details: The Big Agnes Tiger Wall UL2 is trapezoid shaped where there is more headroom at one end of the tent and has a great toe box height at the low end of the tent. It’s set up with an (in my opinion - that’s why you’re here right) cool single pole that is shaped like a Y. Between the pole and the 9 stakes the toe box is held up giving you room to move around without hitting your head or foot against the side so you don’t have to worry about dew.

There are two doors, so if you are sharing the tent with your hiking companion you both have an entrance and both doors have vestibules so you can protect the gear you leave outside from the elements. The vestibules are part of the rainfly and can easily be left off the tent on nice nights. Speaking of nice nights, the main tent has a huge mesh top. This great for two reasons: Ventilation and as the before mentions, nice nights for a bit of stargazing from your bed. Technically this is a three-season tent, but I have used it multiple times, in three or more feet of snow at temperatures well below freezing.

The Specs: According to Big Agnes, this tent weights in a 2lb 3oz. trail weight. With a packed size of 5.5”x 18”. I don’t store the whole tent as a single item in my backpack so if you’re like me those numbers are adjustable. As I pointed out, this tent can be shared with a companion making it technically a two-person tent (albeit a bit tight) and it functions just fine as that, but I think it better excels as a single-person tent. There is more than enough room for you and your safety gear to sleep the night away.

Vetted Review: I always use a footprint with my tents and with the Big Agnes Tiger Wall UL2 that step is even more important. In order to achieve a very lightweight tent, the fabric is very thin, but with the footprint, I don’t worry about it too much. Due to the single Y-shaped pole, the tent isn’t truly a free-standing tent and does require stakes and guidelines to keep the shape held correctly.

The Big Agnes Tiger Wall UL2 is a breeze to set up and tear down. My uncle once told me a story about when he sat on an Eagle Scout review board and failed the scout because he couldn’t set up a tent. If that scout had this tent, I think there just might be one more Eagle Scout out there today.

All in all, I think this is a great solo backpacking tent that is easy to set up (very important if you get into camp during a rainstorm), lightweight and if properly cared for, very durable.