The MSR Entry 1 is a freestanding, double-wall tent designed for ski touring and winter backpacking that solely weighs 3 lbs. Whereas it’s a lot hotter than a three-season tent and powerful sufficient to deal with reasonable snow hundreds, it’s supposed to be used in additional protected terrain and circumstances than an expedition-class mountaineering tent that weighs significantly extra. The Entry has an exoskeleon body like lots of MSR’s different freestanding tents, with an internal tent that’s suspended from Easton carbon fiber poles after which lined with a rain fly. The tent has a facet door and vestibule that present easy accessibility and kit storage, together with further pre-attached guylines to anchor the tent in windy circumstances. The Entry 1 is one the lightest weight 4 season tents out there and an amazing possibility for self-powered winter journey.
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Specs at a Look
- Claimed Minimal Weight: 3 lbs / 1.37 kg
- Precise Minimal Weight (weighed minus stuff sacks and tent stakes) is 2 lb 14.5 oz
- Claimed Packaged Weight: 3 lbs 8 oz / 1.6 kg
- Precise Packaged Weight (weighed with all stuff sacks and tent stakes) 3 lbs 6.5 oz
- Kind: Freestanding
- Capability: 1 Particular person
- Doorways: 1
- Vestibules: 1
- Tent poles: 1 shock-corded Easton Syclone CF pole w/25 segments
- Seam-taped: Sure
- Rain fly: 20D ripstop nylon 1200mm Xtreme Defend polyurethane & silicone
- Ground: 30D ripstop nylon 3000mm Xtreme Defend™ polyurethane & DWR
- Ground Dimensions: 84″ x 33″ (213 x 84 cm)
- Precise Usable Ground Dimensions: 79″ x 32″ (201 x 81 cm)
- Peak top: 40″
Freestanding Tents in Winter
The MSR Entry 1 is a freestanding tent that’s straightforward to arrange whereas sporting gloves, which is a winter must-have that most individuals don’t take into consideration. Freestanding tents are nice in winter as a result of you possibly can assemble them off to the facet after which transfer them onto a tent platform you’ve stomped out along with your skis or snowshoes, as soon as it’s hardened, a course of known as sintering. This allows you to get out of the climate quicker and into dry garments sooner, so that you heat up and begin making dinner or melting snow for ingesting water.
Interior Tent
The Entry 1 (there’s additionally an Entry 2 and an Entry 3) units up as an exoskeleton-style tent the place the internal tent is clipped to a pole construction after which draped with a rainfly. The internal tent has breathable semi-solid partitions as an alternative of mesh that permit moisture out however stop snow (spring drift) from being blown below the rain fly and into the sleeping space. The internal tent can also be rather a lot hotter than a tent with mesh partitions or a mesh roof, which is a welcome bonus in winter. Whereas this structure would possibly offer you pause in a three-season tent because it makes the internal tent vulnerable to rain throughout setup, that’s a lot much less of a problem in winter when the precipitation you encounter is prone to be snow and won’t penetrate the stable partitions of the internal tent throughout setup.
The internal tent has two stretch pockets that span the width of the tent on the foot and head finish, however nothing alongside the edges or on the door. There are quite a few grasp loops within the ceiling although the place you possibly can droop lights or dry garments (I’m not an enormous fan of hanging candles or stoves, however these too). There’s one small mesh window within the facet door so you may get a glimpse into the facet vestibule, however the one different mild coming into the tent is the nice and cozy glow supplied by the tent’s orange rain fly.
The internal tent is just not cramped for those who’re below 6′ in top, which is an actual bonus in winter when the times are quick and you need to spend a very long time within the tent in your sleeping bag. However the listed dimension specs of the internal tent (84″ x 33″) are measured from the skin per trade norms and never the within (79″ x 32″) which is what we choose, that means you’ll be cramped for those who’re on the taller facet.
Vertically, it’s straightforward to sit down up inside and get out and in of clothes and to placed on or take off your boots within the vestibule to keep away from bringing snow contained in the tent. There’s additionally loads of open area above your head and ft, so that you don’t need to stare at a ceiling two inches above your face or fear about inner condensation switch to your sleeping bag footbox.
Carbon Fiber Poles
The Entry 1 comes with a single multi-segment MSR’s carbon fiber pole, which are actually used on lots of their different tents and assist decrease the general tent weight. They don’t require any particular dealing with in comparison with aluminum poles, though you continue to need to fastidiously seat every phase so that you don’t cut up the ends. Nevertheless, when organising the Entry 1, you’ll wish to interact the lateral pole segments which are perpendicular to the lengthy facet of the tent final, after you’ve hung the internal tent from the remainder of the pole construction. In any other case, the lateral poles, that are below excessive rigidity, tend to come out of their guy-out factors. If that doesn’t work, do it after staking out the corners.
Whereas there is only one pole on the Entry 1, it has many segments and is a bit cumbersome to pack as a result of among the segments have bends in them and don’t fold collectively completely flat. Tent firms choose packaging their tents with one advanced pole moderately than two or extra as a result of individuals misplace them or lose them. The bulkiness issue isn’t horrible with the Entry 1 pole, however it makes it extra awkward to pack inside or on the outside of my backpack.
Whereas MSR does present a cylindrical tent bag and stuff sacks for the poles and tent stakes included with the Entry 1, I prefer to repackage my rain fly and internal tent right into a smaller stuff sack with the poles packed elsewhere as a result of it makes it a lot simpler to pack the tent in a backpack. My separate stuff sack can also be waterproof for these instances once I must pack a moist tent.
Rain Fly
The rain fly is draped over the exoskeleton pole construction and attaches to the identical stake-out corners because the internal tent, so that you solely need to stake out the corners as soon as. Whereas the tent is freestanding, the entrance vestibule and a rear panel (which boosts air flow and wind resistance) nonetheless want the be staked out for optimum efficiency.
Whereas MSR consists of 8 groundhog stakes with the tent, they’re not likely optimum for winter use once you want deadmen or for much longer stakes to get a stable anchor that can freeze into place. I typically use items of substances for this goal when winter tenting, like my shovel deal with, trekking poles, or an ice axe, or I carry plastic delivery baggage to bury as deadmen as a result of they’re so light-weight. If I’m tenting under treeline, I’ll additionally use branches which have fallen onto the snow and break them into smaller items to make use of as tent stakes, as I’ve completed right here.
One of many issues I notably like concerning the Entry 1 is the facet place of the door and vestibule. It makes moving into the tent and out a lot simpler than a tent with a entrance entrance. Whereas the vestibule isn’t big and never deep sufficient for cooking with a white fuel range, it’s large enough to retailer a big backpack whereas offering easy accessibility to private objects at night time. The door can also be straightforward to open at night time as a result of the underside slider terminates at your head close to the bottom and never in the course of the vestibule, whereas the highest zipper slider will be pulled down individually to vent the highest of the tent.
On the subject of waterproofing, the Entry 1 is absolutely seam-taped, so it may be used with none preparation…though I do advocate training the pitch just a few instances prematurely of your first use. The hydrostatic head ( a measure of waterproofness below stress) of the ground is a full 3000 mm which is kind of excessive and whereas the rain fly hydrostatic head is just 1200 mm, it’s completely sufficient for winter use.
Suggestion
The MSR Entry 1 is a light-weight double-wall tent that’s straightforward to arrange and enjoyable to make use of for winter tenting and backpacking. Weighing simply 3 kilos (ours weighed 2 lb 14.5 oz), it’s fairly light-weight for a four-season tent with out skimping on the luxuries, climate resistance, and performance that you really want for enduring the chilly lengthy nights of winter. Being a double-wall tent, there’s a lot much less threat of inner condensation switch to your gear, whereas the material (not mesh) partitions of the internal tent stop snow from blowing in below the rain fly and make the tent really feel a lot hotter inside. The Entry 1 packs up small and is freestanding, which makes it very fast to arrange or take down.
Personally, I actually just like the facet door and vestibule which make sit a lot simpler to get out and in of the Entry 1 than tunnel-style tents just like the Black Diamond FirstLight 2, which has been my go-to winter backpacking tent for a few years. I believe I’m going to change to the MSR Entry 1 for winter backpacking from right here on out. It’s actually a step up by way of consolation and it even weighs much less.
Disclosure: MSR donated a tent for assessment.
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