Terrible pole design - Marmot Tungsten Tent - 2 Person

This tent has a lot going for it, but the positives cannot make up for the bad pole design. For the weight, the inside is very roomy and the double doors/vestibules are great. It's also nice that the ground sheet is included.

However, I had a couple of major issues with the poles. There are two diagonal poles, but instead of being separate, they are connected in the middle. Separate poles make pitching a tent super easy, whereas connected poles are a major pain. It's impossible to work on one end of a pole without having three other ends waving around, running into things, and just generally being a nuisance. The biggest problem is the third little pole that you are supposed to pitch across the ridge line. Installing it requires putting the pole under tension. To break down the tent, you have to release that pole from under tension. Besides being very difficult to release, this ridge pole was just below eye level for me (I'm 5'1"). Releasing it from tension seems like a great way to lose an eye! The connected diagonals were annoying, but the ridge pole was the reason I had to return this tent.

This review was written in the old system and had content requirements that are different than reviews written today.