Terra Nova Laser Competition

The lightest two-skin tent in the world just got lighter! At mere 860gms, this tent is unbeatable for mountain marathons and ultralight backpacking. It uses the new 8.55mm DAC Featherlight pole, approximately 10% lighter than the exsisting Featherlight pole. Guaranteed waterproof when using optional waterproof hood.

Site	Price	Postage	Total
	£221.00	£4.50	£225.5
	£234.99	FREE	£234.99
	£254.47	£5.00	£259.47

   User Reviews

General comments: I finally had to buy a tent of my own, I had been borrowing my friends MSR Micro Zoid. I wanted a really light weight tent and I decided on the Laser Competition. I was drawn to it mainly because it is the lightest tent going and price wise it was very good value. Below are the good and bad points, but overall this is a very good tent once you get the hang of it. Not certain I'd want to out in major storm in it, but it will cope with most conditions ok. And you can't argue with the weight!

Pros: The good points - Once up its really quite big inside and you can sit up unlike many other small tents. There is a lot of room for one person, even a full length temo rest fits no problem. The little porch area is also big and easily fits your pack and boots.

Cons: The bad points - I found that the tent was quite difficult to put up until I got hang of it, the key being to really tension the guy lines at the ends. I would also recommend that you get rid of the carbon fibre pegs, they may be light but there not very good. I found that the tops kept coming off, get some titanium ones! The only other problem is condensation on the fly sheet, if you havn't tensioned the fly sheet correctly the weight of moisture makes it sag,it can then touch the inner conpartment and it leaks.

General comments: It still surprises me that anyone would buy any other genuine one man tent other than the Competition. It is as good as any in the market place but has a huge amount of porch space as well as being nearly half the weight of most others. This is THE definitive one man tent and the only reason to but any other is to save money but at the expence of room and weight. Once you have put it up a couple of times in your garden it is a since to pitch, particularly in a strong wind. Don't buy any other one man tent UNLESS you like carrying unessasary weight or you refuse to watch the video instructions on the Terra-Nova web site showing you how to pitch it. Why would you buy anything else???

Pros: It's the best one man tent in the world and you can get it for under £200

Cons: Part of your initial purchace needs to include 2! sets of titanium scewers to replace the carbon sticks that are provided that don't work and, I am sure, will be replaced soon as they are an ambarrasing waste of time. Come on Terra-Nova, get the hint.

General comments: I can fully recommend this tent apart from two slight niggles. It is incredibly light, easy to pack and easy to erect. Plenty big enough for one and in fact both my partner (she is 5' 8" I'm 5' 10") had several cosy nights in it whilst walking the GR20 in the mountains of Corsica. I and my clothes also remained dry during one night of torrential rain and thunderstorms on the GR10 in The Pyrenees . http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1227/714466596_6dc985b8ba_o.jpg Picture in use whilst walking the GR20 in Corsica. Notice the cunning use of the weighed down walking poles threaded through the flysheet loops instead of pegs, when the ground is to stony to take pegs.

Pros: Very spacious plenty of room for 0ne person and enough for two with all kit at a squueze. Incredibly light. Easy to pack and erect.

Cons: The pegs provided are useless! Get titanium ones. Poor ventilation between the flysheet and tent

General comments: One of the most commonly raised concerns with this tent are the supplied pegs. Loads of people grumble about these and I'd have to agree they are useless in all but the most perfect, putting-green ground conditions. But, given ideal ground they do do a very good job. In choosing a feather-weight tent you are giving the tent makers license to make these design compromises in favour of weight versus size/durability/versatility and a whole host of other factors. In short, you wouldn't expect an expedition tent like the Quasar to weigh less than a kg, hence, you cannot expect a tent weighing as little as this to do everything you'd expect of a larger, heavier tent. This tale of compromise is certainly the story with the Laserlite Comp. and can be seen in everything from the tiny tent pegs to the paper-thin groundsheet and the toy-size zips. What remains impressive about the Lazerlite Comp is the elegant simplicity of the design making for an easy pitch and maximising the usable space, the weatherproof qualities of the silicon flysheet and above all the unbelievably light weight of it all. All things considered an excellent tent; spacious, strong, weatherproof, easy to pitch and above all light but do expect that some compromises will have been made in order to shave off those grams.

Pros: Pro’s definitely include ease of pitching, with the fly and inner pitching simultaneously and the whole relying on just one peg at each end for its structure. Naturally this means that the tent's pegging and guying are central to it's performance in poor weather but, given good pegging (i.e. an ice axe at each end!) I can vouch that it will hold it’s own strong winds. It also performs well in the wet and I've never had any problems with either damp coming up from the ground or from contact between the fly and inner. Condensation isn’t really a problem either with the comp, the tent being amply ventilated with a relatively large space so airflow is good. The inner space is definitely one of the pluses with the Comp. There is (just) enough room to sit up in the middle and you can cook in the lee of the porch with the door open should the weather dictate. The porch is also roomy enough to store a large rucksack, boots, stove etc.

Cons: On the downside the cons are mainly design compromises which depend on how far you think Terra Nova should have gone to save weight. Whilst to date I have had no problems with the groundsheet, it is scarily thin and I check each site carefully for sharp rocks thorns etc. before pitching. Similarly, the flysheet would probably not fare too well if left up in strong winds and UV for any length of time. These concerns and the fact that the carbon pegs splinter if bent or driven into hard ground mean that durability isn’t this tents strong point. The design’s reliance on the pegging and the tension of the flysheet for it’s structure means that if pitched in the dry and subsequently wet, the slackening of the fly (which occurs in all tents) makes for a flappy pitch which may require re-tensioning the guy lines (In the rain, in the middle of the night). The one thing on the tent that has not lasted well is the curved zip on the inner of the tent. In the last 6 months this has begun to wear and now 'splits' if not carefully nursed along the track. This is partly due to the curved route it follows, partly due to the strain it takes in supporting the inner but mainly due to the fact that it is too small to do the job properly.

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