Used extensively by Cairngorm Treks from late summer to early winter 2018, throughout the Cairngorms and surrounding areas. Pictured without all the trekking pole or specialised pole that SMD offer. Photo: Mike Brindley Design The interior of the Lunar Solo is quite comfortable and spacious with plenty of headroom to sit up or change your clothing inside. Like all pyramid shelters, the head and foot ends slope down, but the floor is long enough (90″) that there’s little risk of internal condensation transfer. There are also additional guy-out points halfway up the sidewalls that you can guy out with extra cordage to increase the interior space and anchor the tent down in high wind. The Lunar Solo has a bathtub floor to prevent rainwater from flooding the tent floor. That points to my major complaint about the Lunar Solo: It suffers from the typical bane of single-wall tents: condensation created by warmer air and the moisture you exhale inside the tent and colder air outside the tent’s thin wall. To minimize that problem, the Lunar Solo features an all-mesh wall on the door side and a six-inch band of mesh around the perimeter just above the bathtub floor—protected from rain by a low, external awning extending over the mesh. But those design elements only help when there’s air movement. The sleeping area is a surrounded 6-inch deep bathtub floor, topped by 6 inches of mesh. This ensures excellent ventilation while keeping you separated from low canopy walls. This keeps you drier on those occasions when condensation forms on the canopy.

In stormy conditions, the shelter can be pitched at 45”- 46” to create a lower profile. Center Pole Support THERMAREST & MSR: Sale! 30% Off all MSR Tents and Thermarest Sleeping Bags including the award-winning Parsec 0! There’s a zipper that connects the two half-front doors, which you close above the front guyline. Each door has a small webbing loop at its base which you can connect to a prusik knot that travels along the front guyline. This lets you tension the doors down or up, or connect one to the guyline and not the other.

Who Is The Six Moon Designs Lunar Solo For?

The most important tip I can share when setting up any pyramid-like shelter like the Lunar Solo, is to keep the guylines as loose as possible when staking it out, only tightening them once the main pole has been set. This gives the shelter the ability to adapt to potentially uneven or slightly sloped terrain.

You need at least 6 stakes to pitch it plus additional 2 stakes for guidelines if you want to use them The Lunar Solar has a large (8 ½ sq. ft.) usable vestibule. There is sufficient vestibule space for gear. In good conditions, the vestibule can be completely rolled up allowing surrounding views and improved ventilation. Side Entry I’ve been long distance hiking for many years and I used the initial iteration of the Lunar Solo on the PCT in Sylnylon in 2011 and 2012 before the introduction of true ultralight fabrics for shelters.Six Moon Designs state that the Lunar Solo, with its single pole and raised canopy, creates an incredibly light and airy shelter. Unlike other tents with fixed points of setup, the floating canopy and floor design does take a little more patience to master. Still, the Lunar Solo’s weight savings makes it well worth the effort. Spend a bit of time setting your pole at different lengths whilst also adjusting the tensioners and over time you will master how best to set up the Lunar Solo depending on current or predicted weather conditions. The instructions that came with the Lunar Solo didn't represent our favoured way to pitch and we found that following these instructions would result in the bathtub floor becoming very flat. We found a video online which best explains a technique to raise the bathtub floor and also provide good ventilation. We have also added our step-by-step pictures (left) that show this preferred method of pitching.

The waterproof rating was a tad low on The One. Both the body and floor were 1800mm, 10D ripstop nylon. The Big Agnes Tiger Wall is a semi-freestanding, three-season tent with an easy breezy weight of just over two pounds.The Skyscape Trekker can be set up in minutes (with a little practice). Only five stakes are required. The double doors on either side of the shelter have the benefit of allowing the tent to be set up in “tight” locations. The adjustable tension cords make it easy to get a taut pitch. Durability The sleeping area is a surrounded 6-inch deep bathtub floor, topped by 6 inches of mesh. Thisensures excellent ventilation while keeping you separated from low canopy walls. This keeps you drier on those occasions when condensation forms on the canopy. While the vestibule is 9 square feet, the interior has 20 square feet, designed as a symmetrical rectangle (i.e., not tapered). The peak height is generous, too, making this a good choice for a tall camper. With 26 square feet of floor space and 48 inches of headroom, this tent is palatial for one person. A tall hiker should be able to stretch out comfortably in this tent with all their gear inside and sit up straight without brushing the ceiling. It’s also wide enough that those who hike with their dogs may find they can sleep comfortably with their best friends beside them in the Lunar Solo. The vestibule offers an additional 8.5 square feet of storage space for gear best left outside.

We strongly recommend that you regularly clean and treat your zipper with a zipper lubricant . Weight On one of our test trips, Miles was using the superficially similar Mountain Laurel Designs Solomid XL, which he went on to review. We therefore got to see the Solomid XL and the Lunar Solo side-by-side over a number of nights and, while I won’t speak for Miles, my impression was that the Lunar Solo took significantly fewer steps to set up since the floor and mesh elements are integrated with the tent body. Of course, that means that you can’t use the Lunar Solo as just the pyramid outer skin. To me, that’s an acceptable limitation of the Lunar Solo in exchange for a pitch that can be ready to sleep in after a handful of minutes, though, as I’ll return to in a moment, it takes practice to get to that point. It seemed that Miles had to tweak and fiddle with the removable inner elements of the Solomid a fair bit. I’m not judging his considerable campcraft, it appeared to be a difference intrinsic to the two differing approaches of the two tents. Single Wall First, this isn’t going to be the lightest shelter for a single wall. You’re going to be giving up 10 oz. But, it’s bomb proof in storms, although doesn’t carry or shed snow all that well. Typically you’ll need to tension the guy lines at least twice, three times in rain, giving 20-30 mins in between. But all Sylnylon has this issue. The key to making Lunar Solo the sturdy shelter it can be is in the pitching. If you have no previous experience with trekking pole shelters you may have a steep learning curve. More so than other tents we recommend some practice pitching. See the review by Cairngorm Treks below for more advice on pitching.All Skyscape models utilize a dual fixed length 45" or 115 cm pole support structure. We offer two optional pole types, Aluminum or Carbon Fiber (sold separately). While both poles work well with the Scout, the Aluminumpoles are more affordable in price. While our Carbon Fiber poles are half the weight of the Aluminum poles. The Lunar Solar has a very well-designed floating bathtub floor. I have found that the bathtub floor pitches perfectly every time. The floor “floats,” reducing stress on the materials and minimizing punctures. I have never had a puncture despite not using a ground sheet. SMD sells a lightweight polycro groundsheet for those who want extra protection. Internal Gear Storage Area Optimized Sleeping Area is oriented to maximize usable space, ventilation, and view. A peak height of 48 inches gives you plenty of headroom.