Kelty Backpacking-Tents kelty Salida Backpacking Person Tent

My bottom line up front, if you are comparing this tent with any others within one hundred bucks or less of its price, buy the Salida 2. I would have liked to give it a rating of 4.5 but will go with 4. I have used the Kelty Salida 2 for backpacking with my wife (5’7”) in SoCal for approximately two years and by myself (5’10”) for a six-month gig as a wildlife biologist in the forests of NorCal. For backpacking with my wife, the tent is a good size for the two of us and anything we may need in the tent in the middle of the night. This only includes items needed in the tent, nothing else. The gear loft has become my favorite place for socks, headlamps, and glasses. Footgear and a few other items go in the vestibule. I tend to suspend packs in the trees out of critter reach. Placing two packs larger than daypacks or one person’s backpack plus boots in the vestibule could be tight and make getting in and out of the tent interesting.In my wildlife gig, I camped with this tent every week for almost six months. Sometimes, I would have to setup and teardown the tent multiple times in one week. I can set up this tent in the dark by headlamp in under three minutes by myself. I am not that skilled; the tent is that easy. It is a freestanding tent; in the morning I would empty it, remove the fly and stakes, fully open the door, pick up the tent to shake it out upside-down to remove any leaf litter or debris, and leave it assembled upside down with the bottom facing into the sun to dry any condensation. Speaking of condensation, in colder weather with the Salida buttoned up, I would get a lot of condensation on the inside of the fly. The fly would spend as much time as feasible upside down in the sun in the mornings on the ground or truck hood.Whether the tent needed it or not, I seam-sealed it before the wildlife season. The tent never leaked. Slept under the stars without the fly a few times on hotter nights, wonderful. The opposite side of the fly from the door needs a tie-down. The tent does have a short webbing loop there to attach a guy line. I secured a short length of gutted paracord that I adjusted for length based on temperature to change how far to pull the fly away on that side.The optional footprint is not the same shape as the rectangular tent floor. It is wider on the top than the bottom. However, it serves its purpose well. For superlight packers, this systems can be setup as the fly, poles, pegs, and footprint, sans tent. The entire system packs up easily and is not “fussy.” I have not experienced a zipper malfunction, mesh tear, or any other problems. I had the tent staked out and went through a wind storm with gusts of 50 mph without issue.My negatives:I wish it was 3 lbs or less, vice 3 ¾ lbs. (I am in my fifties and finding I prefer to carry less weight than when I was in the Army jumping out of airplanes.) I wish it had a second door since the tent does become instantly small when the inside person needs a late night “pottie” break. (An issue not faced in tents with a single door at the end instead of the side.) There is minimal to no ventilation with the fly on the tent and the vestibule zipped. With one side of the vestibule rolled back, there is still no true cross ventilation and then the large vestibule opening is overkill. A small side window on the fly opposite the vestibule would be a great addition. (If get motivated, maybe I will make one. It will require additional material since the flap must be larger than the cutout.) The packed size of 7” x 22” is a little large on the backpack. I wish the vestibule was large enough that I could sit in it during inclement weather and run my backpacker stove. (Yes, I could sit in the tent with the door open while using the stove in the vestibule.) The stakes are cheap and bend easily when they hit small rocks or roots.

This tent is a great deal, at $140-160. It was an editor's choice tent in 2011, and Kelty is a great company that makes solid products.While it is light, it's a bit heavier than advertised once you get it packed up. The 3 lbs 12 oz weight is for the tent, poles and rainfly only. Once you have a ground cloth or foot print and stakes (i'm not convinced I need to bring guy lines), it jumps up to about 4.5 lbs. Considering you'll probably split this tent with another person, that's only 2.25 lbs per pack. Not bad at all! You can get a lighter setup from MSR or big Agnes, but you'll also spend about $400-500 to get it.My advice if you can split this with another person:Person 1: 36.15 ozTent Body w/ gear loftFootprint/cloth5 stakesPerson 2: 36.4 oz totalRainflytent polesThe only thing that bothers me about this tent is the door. It's on the side of the tent, and you may end up crawling over your bunk-mate if you need to get up in the middle of the night. There isn't really a way to fix this without adding more weight (or money), so I'll deal with it.It has decent vestibule space for boots, and enough floor space to fit two people.If you have the money, I would say go for a lighter big Agnes. The seedhouse and the Copper spur are both just over 3 pounds packed. With that said, you could buy two of these Kelty Salida 2s and footprints for the price of one Big AGnes, and then youll need a footprint and a gear loft ($75 more, give or take). For now, I'm happy with this Kelty, especially when I can split it up with another person.

This is a great tent and you'll probably be happy with it if you know what your'e getting. If you're super ultra light, don't get it. If you're looking for a super spacious car camping tent for two people, don't get it. Even if you're looking for for a super spacious backpacking tent for two people, don't get it.I purchased this for short and/or slow-ish backpacking trips for just myself or a friend if they happen to not have a tent. I figured the extra space would be nice to fit my dog or to keep my pack in the tent with me. It's perfect for this.I've also used it as an actual two person tent and there's plenty of room, it's not actual uncomfortable, but you are gonna get pretty close and friendly to whoever you're with.It's really quick and easy to put together, even if it's getting dark and your legs are jelly and you're so tired you could sleep without a tent easily.It seems to weather the weather pretty well, within reason. I had it set up one time when there were supposedly 50 mph wind gusts. My dad's tent and been completely blown over and everything was soaking wet. Even with heavy winds and sideways rain, my tent was perfectly dry inside. It hadn't been particularly well staked either. If you use stakes and guy lines as advised, it could probably handle some serious weather.Speaking of stakes, they're crap. Thankfully, I've never needed even half as many as are included, so the one or two I've destroyed aren't too big of a deal.A few more cons:Ventilation. In full disclosure, I never use more than one of the guylines and usually not even that. If you actually do that, I suspect the ventilation would improve. But as it is, I wake up COVERED in condensation from breathing mostly, I assume. It was especially bad when I was sharing the tent with one of my less-than-fresh-smelling friends. In fact, I ended up having to remove the fly completely just to BREATHE. God knows what I would have done if it had been raining. With the large-ish vestibule, it doesn't seem like ventilation would be a problem, but it is with the fly on.And speaking of that large-ish vestibule, it's really not that large-ish. It'll fit one backpack, but it won't fit two very easily or completely.It would be super nice if it had two doors, but whatever. I'm happy paying less and dealing with one. I'd also like if the little side pockets by your head were bigger, but at least it has them. They're pretty handy!Back to pros, I love the visibility through the mesh when the fly is off.Lastly, the durability seems reasonable. I've had it for a couple seasons and haven't been particularly easy on it (though I do almost always use a footprint) and I don't have any problems yet!

Indeed great value for money. Survived rainy nights including a thunderstorme. I combine the Kelty with the Eureka backpackers annex, works great.

This is a cheap lightweight tent, good poles, well made tent but out of thin material, the fitting of the fly sheet isn't perfect and it may leak where the fly comes close to the inner at the bottoms (has for other people). A fair choice for the price.

Das Zelt ist jetzt ohne scheiß in 4 Min. aufgebaut. Ganz einfach! Kann ich nur weiterempfehlen. Das einzigste was mir gleich aufgefallen ist, ist der Boden des Zeltes. Der ist nicht stärker oder dicker als die Seitenwände, aber da kann man sich ja eine Plane unterlegen.Was mir an diesem Zelt so gut gefällt und weshalb wir uns zum kauf entschieden haben war das das Zelt rundum mit Moskitonetz versehen ist. In heißen Tagen in Kroatien kann so super die Hitze aus dem Zelt weichen. Anders bei geschlossenen Zelten, da staut sich die Hitze. Und sollte es mal regnen - kein Problem, einfach das Oberzelt drüber und fertig.Wir sind total begeistert von diesem Zelt. Einzigster Nachteil ist der Boden, aber da kann man sich ja abhilfe leisten.

家族4人の体調、都合がなかなか合わず、購入して1年してようやく初家族キャンプができました。設営は直感的に出来、細かいところも使い勝手が良く作られており、素材の質も高いため関心しました。より軽量なものもあるかもしれませんが、登山使用でも可能な重量、耐久性でこの価格ならば、4人用テントでこれに勝るものはないのではないでしょうか？4月初旬の丹沢ではちょっと寒かったですが、逆に言えば夏は丁度良いのではと思います。何より子供達が大興奮で良い家族の思い出作りができるのがうれしい限りです。

仲間たちのMSRやNEMO等と比べても特に見劣りすることもなく、また重量やコンパクトさも充分に対抗できます。オレンジアルマイトのポールもDac製という一流品仕様でこの価格はお買い得ですね♪