Nemo Tools’s backpacking gear just isn’t low cost, however it’s among the lightest, best-made, and most well-thought-out gear you’ll discover available on the market. The corporate’s new Mayfly Osmo two-person backpacking tent exemplifies this. The Mayfly Osmo is fast to arrange, light-weight, and cleverly designed, and it gave an impression of sturdiness in my 5 nights of testing.
The Mayfly is available in two- and three-person variations and sits in Nemo’s backpacking tent line between the ultralight Dragonfly and Hornet collection and the roomier, heavier Dagger collection (8/10, WIRED Recommends). The Mayfly is an effective selection for backpackers trying to decide up a high quality Nemo tent that weighs slightly extra however at $400 prices fairly a bit lower than the ultralight Hornet.
The Fundamentals
{Photograph}: Scott Gilbertson
The Mayfly is a three-season backpacking tent with a path weight of three kilos, 8 ounces for the two-person model I examined. Purists would possibly take challenge, however to me that places it firmly within the ultralight tent class. Break up between two folks, every is carrying below 2 kilos. That’s not as mild because the Nemo Hornet, which has a path weight of simply 2 kilos, however it’s properly below our suggestion to maintain tent weight below 2.5 kilos per individual. The Mayfly can also be $250 cheaper than the Hornet, making it simpler on the pocketbook.
The Mayfly makes use of a semi-freestanding design, very like the MSR Freelite we reviewed last year. This design saves on weight since there are fewer poles, however it does imply you must stake out or in any other case safe the foot-end of the tent. For those who’re headed someplace you would possibly camp on arduous rock, it’s price including some further twine in case you must get inventive.
There are two tent poles, each aluminum. One is a hubbed three-piece pole that forks above the door. The second spreader pole goes throughout the center and helps keep the steep sidewalls that make the Mayfly surprisingly roomy for its dimensions.
The Mayfly affords 27.9 sq. toes of residing area, with two 7-square-foot vestibule areas for gear storage. In observe, this works out to be a livable, although not roomy, tent for 2. Since I occurred to be testing Nemo’s new Tensor Path sleeping pads as properly, I can say that two of these match aspect by aspect, however simply barely (see photograph). There’s just a few inches of room down on the toes for gear, however no matter you place down there can be touching the sidewalls, which is commonly a recipe for moist gear.
{Photograph}: Scott Gilbertson
