Hitherto known for camping accessories and mats, Sea to Summit recently made the logical step into tents. New this year, their lightweight Telos TR offers lots of space, ventilation and versatility for a tent in this category. We tested the two-person version over summer and early autumn and apart from the obvious advantage in weight, found it to be an easy-to-pitch and highly livable tent thanks to its novel design.

Weight and Pack Size

At 1685g all-in on the home scales (plus an extra 365g if you want to take the BigFoot groundsheet), the Telos TR2 holds its own for weight amongst the competition of other similar lightweight freestanding tents. This isn't the absolute lightest model out there but the Telos is giving you a less stripped-down and much more livable design than most ultralight backpacking tents. To give a useful comparison, it comes in a little lighter than the popular MSR Hubba Hubba NX 2, a similar competitor, although you get slightly more durable floor fabrics with the MSR. Pack size is equally small at 13cm x 48cm. But the benefit over much of the competition is the modularity of the Telos when packed. Its three stuff sacks can either be stored cleverly together as one unit or split up and easily shared between two for the walk in - a feature I particularly like.

Build Quality

Given its attractively low weight, it'll not come as too much of a surprise that some fairly thin fabrics are utilised in its construction: 15 denier for the rainfly and 20 denier on the floor, both ripstop nylons. I've had no problems with damage thus far, but I have almost entirely been pitching the Telos with their BigFoot Footprint groundsheet (sold separately and an additional £65, a smaller version available at £50) to avoid any damage on less forgiving pitches. Given this, I'd recommend using an additional groundsheet unless you are confident your camp won't run the risk of any unwanted rips or punctures in the floor.

With the exception of the floor, I have few durability concerns. The fly, although also thin, is seam-taped and coated with polyurethane to enhance tear resistance and waterproofing. The DAC aluminum poles have demonstrated themselves to be sturdy and robust in windy conditions. The YKK zippers operate smoothly and the pegs and pole feet attachments are lightweight yet resistant to bending or damage. To sum up, when carefully maintained and used with a footprint, the tent should offer a decent lifespan.

Pitching

Freestanding tents are generally a breeze to set up, and I soon I had the process down to a matter of minutes on a pleasant day.

The fly can be pitched first in wet weather to keep things dry but this does make the process a little more faffy. In drier conditions the single pole springs into its structure with almost no assistance and then is attached to the inner's corners before clipping the mesh to these and then attaching the tension ridge section of the poles via some sewn-in cord. Once this is up the fly can then be easily draped over and clipped into the inner before pegging out the vestibules if necessary. All poles and attachments are colour-coded for a streamlined setup. When using the BigFoot footprint, it can take a second or two to identify the front and back of the groundsheet as there is no colour coding on this, a slight oversight in my opinion.

Disassembly and packing away is simply reversing the process and all storage bags are sized correctly to allow for easy stuffing without being oversized when packed. An added benefit of the modular packing system is that the inner doesn't run the risk of getting wet if packed away with a wet rainfly.

My favourite feature of the Telos is the versatility of its pitching setup and the ease of switching between various configurations. The inner can be pitched on its own, fully covered by the fly or, what I have enjoyed most, is pitching the inner with the fly staked out and rolled away into the tension ridge poles at the top of the tent (shown below). This is excellent on warm summer nights where you want all the ventilation you can get, allowing you to enjoy falling asleep beneath the stars, but still have a safety net there if there is a chance of rain. On a trip to Beinn Eighe this was exactly what happened, and throughout the night we had a short rain shower where I was able to unroll and attach the fly within less than a minute.

Additionally, the fly can be pitched on its own with some trekking poles and used as a covered seating area, good for keeping the sun off you during a day at your base camp, although since I live in midgey Scotland I haven't got around to actually using this configuration yet.

Living Space

The floor area comes in at 2.62m², a fairly average size but once inside the tent feels surprisingly spacious and comfortable. This is largely attributed to the Tension Ridge pole design which arches upwards width-wise across the peak of the tent, and can also be seen in the generous peak height of 110cm. This unique design (other designs employ a similar pole that curves downwards) gives a larger interior living volume, higher doors for access, and more upright walls, and makes it a nice roomy feeling tent to hang out in during bad weather. The pole itself is also quite wide and overlaps the doors, meaning that in light rain you can keep the doors open and not worry about rain getting into the tent.

The roominess of the Telos can start to feel a bit reduced when sleeping with a partner as the floor area tapers towards the foot, meaning you'll want to sleep shoulder to shoulder. And indeed the floor area does fall just slightly short of some of the competition. If carrying a lot of equipment, you'll probably make use of the vestibules to store it. Having said this, I haven't felt overly cramped in this tent even when sleeping with a climbing partner beside me for several days, and it has easily been able to handle both our regular sleeping pads side by side (although, importantly, one of these will need to be tapered at the bottom).

To help with stuff organisation the carry bags for the tent can be clipped to the inside of the inner to create storage pouches, and these are additional to the two generous mesh pockets sewn into the inner on each side. The pole storage bag also doubles in its use by acting as a lightbar when clipped to the top of the inner. Simply stick your head torch in and a softer light diffuses across the tent, useful when reading or hanging out at night.

Weather Performance

The tall vertical walls of the Telos help make it such a great living space, but these often are a tent's downfall in high winds. Having said this, I've had one night in the tent in relatively high winds and rain and haven't had a problem, and this without properly guying out the tent. In heavy rain, the fabric has demonstrated its waterproofness and shows no leaky spots. There can be pooling of water along the Tension Ridge area, although again I hadn't properly guyed out the tent on this occasion so would expect this to not be a regular problem.

The bathtub floor offers and 2500mm hydrostatic head and 15cm depth. I would not take this onto really boggy ground without the groundsheet, but this hasn't caused me any issues when I have camped without so far. If heavy wind and rain are expected I'd also keep an eye on the upper vent as this can have some rain blown in when fully open and see the occasional drip. This could be a bit of a problem for humid and wet conditions where both protection from the rain and ventilation are needed. 

Having used it predominately over the summer, the warm weather ventilation of the Telos TR2 has been the real standout for me. A mostly mesh body, the aforementioned top vent and roll up vents along the lower portion of the rainfly allow for a good amount of airflow from below and heat/condensation to readily escape out the top vent. I haven't had any issues with condensation when the tent is properly pitched.

All in all, I would be confident with this tent in most UK 3-season conditions, except perhaps for higher wind.

Summary

Sea to Summit has made a really innovative, versatile and livable tent with the Telos TR2. For a modest footprint, it feels spacious when hanging out inside or sitting at the door. The low weight and easy to share pack bags mean it's easy to carry into your camp and make space for in your pack. In hot and humid conditions you won't need to worry about condensation buildup and it's been great to sleep in with the fly partially rolled away, knowing that if there is a shower you can deploy the fly in seconds. Our main concern would be potential damage to the thin floor, and therefore we'd recommend purchasing a groundsheet which will bring your total spend quite high for this tent. If you are looking for a really great 3-season two man tent though, I do think the investment is worth it!