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I have been a big fan of freestanding tents due to their stability, convenience and ease of pitching for years. I wasn’t too interested in trekking pole tents until the arrival of the Drop Durston X-Mid back in early 2019.

Single skin tents were something I tended to avoid due to concerns about condensation, but the additional internal space was appealing.

The main downside of double skin freestanding tents is the weight. With a few exceptions most are 1kg+ for a 1-person and more still for the space of a 2-person tent.

I wanted a truly ultralight tent with plenty of space for the Tour de Mont Blanc. The Hyperlite Mountain Gear Unbound 2P was the obvious tent of choice. Weighing only 618g on the UOG scales and extremely spacious, the only negative is its slightly bulky pack size (and the price!).

It’s a smart design that maximises internal space with a 3-panel design on the sides combined with a central guy point, which increases the internal volume and improves wind performance noticeably. Airflow is managed with 2 large top vents and mesh around the top of the bath-tub floor to minimise condensation and allow it to drain to the outside.

Pitching

This is so simple and I always seemed to achieve a good pitch with minimal faffing about. Lessons learned with my X-Mid certainly helped. It’s all about getting a true rectangle with right angles at the corners.

Set the corner guy lines to about 2/3’s extended and put in the 2 pegs at one end. At the opposite end, fold the tent in half to find the mid-point, pull from this point to make a triangle. Hold this taught with one hand and peg the 2 corners. It can be set loosely at this point. This will result in an excellent rectangle with 90-degree corners. After that it’s just a case of putting in the trekking poles and raising them up until each end is tensioned and pegging out the vestibules.

Liveability

It’s a very spacious tent considering its ultralight weight. I used it solo and was able to keep all my kit inside the tent with the vestibules mostly just for cooking, wet gear and my shoes.

If there were 2 of you, the internal space is helped by the 3-D panel design giving more headroom at the ends when lying on your mat compared to similar tents.

There’s space for 2 regular mats or one wide and one regular mat, trying to fit 2 wide mats would be a squeeze!

Headroom is excellent aided but the fact it’s single skin. With the poles set to 125cm pretty much any adult could sit up comfortably.

Features

There are internal pockets on the mesh of both doors. They are best used for lighter stuff because otherwise they can make the bath-tub floor sag a bit under the weight of the contents.

On the inside of the tent there are 3 hanging loops spaced across the top, perfect for hanging a light or a drying line. The loops are spaced away from where the poles are seated, making them much easier to use.

The vestibule doors are held by magnetic tie backs when not in use which work perfectly. Internal mesh doors are secured with bright cords so no need to mess with toggles.

Ventilation

Well thought out ventilation is essential on a single skin tent. There are mesh panels at either side of the tent just above the bath-tub floor which also act as drains for any condensation to run through. In practice they worked well and I never suffered any noticeable condensation on the floor, even when used in cool conditions including rain and snow/sleet showers.

There are also large vents at the tops of the doors which stay open themselves, greatly aiding airflow.

The tent can be pitched low to the ground in bad weather but to mitigate against condensation, can also be set up with a greater gap at the ends and for the vestibules to allow more air movement.

For me, over several nights camping, condensation was never a problem at all. This is helped by using a large 2-person tent solo, so I only occasionally touched the outer skin.

Weather Worthiness

The DCF fabric is unbelievably waterproof, so rain gets shrugged off regardless of how heavy. That combined with the waterproof YKK zippers for the vestibule doors, makes the Unbound 2 a great wet-weather tent.

Being so spacious makes it a comfortable place to sit out a storm.

Wind performance was excellent. The tent remained stable in gusty winds, helped by its ability to hug the ground with a low pitch so the wind doesn’t get underneath. It’s a tent with big areas of material, but I found it to perform excellently.

I think the 3-D side panels also help with the wind performance as it tensions the poles from an additional direction in addition to the ridge guy line and the 2 pegging points.

Summary

There’s no denying it’s an expensive tent but if you want one of the lightest 2-person tents on the market, then it should be considered. For solo use, it’s a palace!

The pack size is a bit bigger than an equivalent sil-nylon tent, but it’s lighter and more waterproof.

Build quality and attention to detail are sublime and I have loved using it. It’s changed my attitude to single skin tents and the Unbound 2 will be a go to for plenty of future adventures.

Storm worthy, spacious, truly ultralight, unbelievable quality but at a price.

 

Danny Pearson
Dan is a keen distance walker who loves to geek over the latest gear. In the last few years, Dan has completed a couple of TGO Challenge crossings of Scotland, GR221 in Mallorca, Dales High Route and Hadrian’s Wall plus countless other self-planned routes. A keen mountain biker but finds he doesn’t bounce so well these days when the inevitable happens. Read more from Danny Pearson