Nemo Mayfly Osmo Review: A Lightweight 2-Person Backpacking Tent Leave a comment

Nemo Gear’s backpacking gear will not be low cost, however it’s a number of 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 efficient 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

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 may take problem, however to me that places it firmly within the ultralight tent class. Break up between two individuals, every is carrying beneath 2 kilos. That’s not as gentle because the Nemo Hornet, which has a path weight of simply 2 kilos, however it’s nicely beneath our suggestion to maintain tent weight beneath 2.5 kilos per individual. The Mayfly can be $250 cheaper than the Hornet, making it simpler on the pocketbook.

The Mayfly makes use of a semi-freestanding design, very similar to the MSR Freelite we reviewed final yr. This design saves on weight since there are fewer poles, however it does imply it’s a must to stake out or in any other case safe the foot-end of the tent. When you’re headed someplace you may camp on onerous rock, it’s value including some additional twine in case it is advisable to 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 preserve the steep sidewalls that make the Mayfly surprisingly roomy for its dimensions.

The Mayfly provides 27.9 sq. ft of residing house, with two 7-square-foot vestibule areas for gear storage. In apply, 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 nicely, I can say that two of these match facet by facet, however simply barely (see photograph). There’s a number of inches of room down on the ft for gear, however no matter you set down there might be touching the sidewalls, which is commonly a recipe for moist gear.

{Photograph}: Scott Gilbertson