MSR Entry 1 Tent Assessment

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 robust sufficient to deal with reasonable snow hundreds, it’s supposed to be used in additional protected terrain and situations than an expedition-class mountaineering tent that weighs significantly extra. The Entry has an exoskeleon body like a lot of MSR’s different freestanding tents, with an inside tent that’s suspended from Easton carbon fiber poles after which lined with a rain fly. The tent has a aspect door and vestibule that present quick access and kit storage, together with further pre-attached guylines to anchor the tent in windy situations. The Entry 1 is one the lightest weight 4 season tents accessible and a terrific possibility for self-powered winter journey.

RELATED: 10 Finest Light-weight Winter Backpacking Tents and Shelters

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 Individual
• 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 simple 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’ll be able to assemble them off to the aspect 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 referred to 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 consuming 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 inside tent is clipped to a pole construction after which draped with a rainfly. The inside tent has breathable semi-solid partitions as an alternative of mesh that permit moisture out however stop snow (spring drift) from being blown beneath the rain fly and into the sleeping space. The inside tent can also be so much 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 inside tent vulnerable to rain throughout setup, that’s a lot much less of a problem in winter when the precipitation you encounter is more likely to be snow and won’t penetrate the strong partitions of the inside tent throughout setup.

The inside 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 hold loops within the ceiling although the place you’ll be able to droop lights or dry garments (I’m not a giant fan of hanging candles or stoves, however these too). There’s one small mesh window within the aspect door so you may get a glimpse into the aspect vestibule, however the one different gentle coming into the tent is the nice and cozy glow supplied by the tent’s orange rain fly.

The inside tent isn’t cramped if you happen to’re beneath 6′ in top, which is an actual bonus in winter when the times are brief and you need to spend a very long time within the tent in your sleeping bag. However the listed dimension specs of the inside tent (84″ x 33″) are measured from the surface per trade norms and never the within (79″ x 32″) which is what we desire, that means you’ll be cramped if you happen to’re on the taller aspect.

Vertically, it’s simple 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 house above your head and toes, so that you don’t should stare at a ceiling two inches above your face or fear about inside 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 at the moment are used on a lot 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 should rigorously seat every phase so that you don’t break up the ends. Nevertheless, when organising the Entry 1, you’ll wish to interact the lateral pole segments which might be perpendicular to the lengthy aspect of the tent final, after you’ve hung the inside tent from the remainder of the pole construction. In any other case, the lateral poles, that are beneath 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 corporations desire packaging their tents with one advanced pole relatively than two or extra as a result of folks misplace them or lose them. The bulkiness issue isn’t horrible with the Entry 1 pole, nevertheless 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 wish to repackage my rain fly and inside 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 inside tent, so that you solely should stake out the corners as soon as. Whereas the tent is freestanding, the entrance vestibule and a rear panel (which reinforces air flow and wind resistance) nonetheless want the be staked out for optimum efficiency.

Whereas MSR contains 8 groundhog stakes with the tent, they’re probably not optimum for winter use once you want deadmen or for much longer stakes to get a strong anchor that can freeze into place. I typically use items of drugs for this objective when winter tenting, like my shovel deal with, trekking poles, or an ice axe, or I carry plastic transport 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 executed right here.

One of many issues I significantly like concerning the Entry 1 is the aspect place of the door and vestibule. It makes entering into the tent and out a lot simpler than a tent with a entrance entrance. Whereas the vestibule isn’t large and never deep sufficient for cooking with a white fuel range, it’s large enough to retailer a big backpack whereas offering quick access to non-public objects at evening. The door can also be simple to open at evening as a result of the underside slider terminates at your head close to the bottom and never in the midst of the vestibule, whereas the highest zipper slider might be pulled down individually to vent the highest of the tent.

In the case of waterproofing, the Entry 1 is totally seam-taped, so it may be used with none preparation…though I do advocate practising the pitch just a few instances upfront of your first use. The hydrostatic head ( a measure of waterproofness beneath strain) of the ground is a full 3000 mm which is sort of excessive and whereas the rain fly hydrostatic head is barely 1200 mm, it’s completely sufficient for winter use.

Suggestion

The MSR Entry 1 is a light-weight double-wall tent that’s simple 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 danger of inside condensation switch to your gear, whereas the material (not mesh) partitions of the inside tent stop snow from blowing in beneath 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 aspect 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 when it comes to consolation and it even weighs much less.

Disclosure: MSR donated a tent for assessment.

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