Hilleberg Jannu

Hilleberg Jannu | $785 |
hilleberg.com ★★★★

For three days in the North Cascades, the snow came down wet and heavy. Locals call it concrete snow. Since I was using a traditional double-wall tent, I had to erect the inner tent, and then race to drape the fly over it while the concrete poured. By the time I got set up, the interior was sopping wet. So was I.

With the Hilleberg Jannu tent, I will never have to go through that again. The Jannu is an integral double-wall tent. The inner tent and fly go up simultaneously, which means your sleeping area always stays dry no matter what the sky is dumping on you.

The Jannu is strong. Blasted by 60 mile-per-hour winds on Mount Rainier, snow in the high Sierras, and torrential rain and 70 mile-per-hour winds on Mount Shasta, the tent fared just fine. It sets up easily, even in hurricane-force winds. Just stake out the floor, put the two crisscrossing poles in the corner pockets, clip the poles, and add the third pole, which supports the vestibule. The tent’s guy-line attachment points can wrap around the poles, which strengthen them, before pegging the tent out. Plastic guy-lines that tighten down the system add even more strength.

At 5 pounds 4 ounces the Jannu is light enough for one person, and, measuring 93 inches long, 57 inches wide and 39 inches high, spacious enough for two. The Jannu is also versatile, since the inner tent can be used without the fly, or the poles and fly can be used without the inner tent, to save weight.

If you’ve ever wrestled a snapping, flapping fly over a tent in high winds and bitter cold, the Jannu might be the tent for you. The Jannu is overkill if you do all your climbing and camping in Santa Barbara. But if you are going to Scotland, Alaska, the Pacific Northwest or any place with wet weather, it’s like sunshine on a rainy day.