Please could anyone that has sleeping / overnight experience with Vango Nevis 200 or Vango f10 Helium 200 (or similar) offer me a view on them and happiness or regrets?
I'm going to buy one on the internet or ebay / used, so won't be able to get into one to try. I know they are small. I'm 6ft and buying the 200 so a dog / bags etc can fit as I expect the 100's are a too small for the weight saving, and deffo too small if tent city due to bad weather.
Going to be my dedicated thru-hiking tent and I ain't going down the tarp route as I will use it in West Coast midge mayhem so need protection!
Helium 200 is a decent tent. The 200 for a person, kit and dog (depending on the dog) is a good size - I use it this way( got the ultralight version) Good packsize, weight and pitches fast...
You can't really sit up straight in it but I've never had a tent that I could. Certainly spent over 12 hours in it sitting out a storm (without the dog) in relative comfort. To get one that you can fully sit up in would be considerably more weight
I am an owner of Helium 100. It's brilliant tent if you know its limitations. It will stand up fine if pitched well. The only time when it really struggled was on Arran in summertime. I couldn't get up the Goatfell - it would literally turn me around while trying to walk up. One of the very few hills I had to retreat back (with 182 Munros in my bag, so I've seen some conditions!). I pitched a tent on the hillside (somewhere between at 500-600m altitude) as it was getting dark (I set off after work and just wanted to go to Arran for few days). I believe three pegs got pulled out, but I did manage to get enough sleep and the tent was still in one piece. I tried to go up again next morning and stubbornly descended down. It was that bad wind.
I use it all year around and I keep meaning to get a proper winter tent, but then camping high in winter is something I do less frequently as I do enjoy a bit of comfort. I don't think a bigger and sturdier tent would do that.
I always like seeing tents in action, so here's few:
You'll need some pegs, but that's kind of usual. I currently use some Y stakes off Amazon and I couldn't tell the difference between them and Alpkit ones - they even bend less!
NB: I paid just over £100 in 2014~2015 off eBay and it's my main tent. Still going strong!
Bought a Nevis 200 last summer, put it up in the garden, took it down and straight back to the shop for a swap with something else. Inner sags in too much even without any wind for my liking, not enough connections to the fly to keep it taut.
For a similar budget the Robbens starlight seems well thought of but no personal experience of that model.
I hear you on the marginal weight, but the thing about this whole ultralight hiking movement is you have to view it in an aggregate of the marginal weight savings across your whole gear. Not a big issue for small trips, but ace for thru-hiking.
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