Check out Naturehike's Hiby 2-3 Person Tent
Hi guys,
Today I wanted to introduce you to one of my new favourite tents from Naturehike - the Hiby 2-3 person tent. To me, a long overdue extension to their range of affordable, quality lightweight tents.
The Hiby is an absolute beast of a tent for a number of reasons and is a real step up from Naturehike in my opinion. It's one of their strongest forays into a genuine, 4 season tent design. While I love the lightweight nature of the Cloud Up range and the super robust pole structure of the Cirrus 2, they all suffer from one crucial design mistake, at least when it comes to European camping.
While you can put them up rain fly first, all are originally designed as inner pitch, insect mesh first erections - try that in Snowdonia when the rain is coming down by the inch not the mm!!!
Likes
- High tent waterproof rating - 4000MM Hydrostatic Head
- Outer pitch first tent
- Strong pole structure
- Great front porch/annexe (for a lightweight tent - 2.63kg)
- More tie down attachments on the fly!!!
- Genuine winter tent
So, let's expand on that a little further...
Rough - Tough - Waterproof - Oh, snow capable!!!
Waterproof
In addition to being an external pole structure tent (as you can see in our main photo), the Hiby has a great waterproofing rating at 4000MM hydrostatic head on the 20D SilNylon version. Meaning you don't traipse heaps of water in when you erect the tent, none gets through once it's up, and because you have a nice front annexe, you can get all your wet kit off BEFORE you jump into the "bedroom".
Rough & Tough
As far as being a tough bit of kit, the triple pole structure, with inter-crossing ridge poles running down the length of the tent and a cross brace, this is one hell of a structure. The inter-crossing ridge poles brace each other not once, but twice and mid-point cross brace make it extremely rigid in high winds. And unlike the old Cloud UP series (now being fixed up as evidenced on the upgraded Cloud Up 2) - NatureHike have given this tent mid fly peg attachments to keep your fly staked taut and low - keeping wind out and rainfly off insect screen - no one likes the water transfer of touching fly's making your waterproof tent... Not!
Oh, Snow Capable
I've talked about the great pros of silicon nylon tents when it comes to snow camping but just a quick refresher. Silnylon is a slippery fabric, much more so than polyurethane coated polyester, and by having a low drag coefficient, where snow is prone to building up on polyester and collapsing "cheaper" tents, silnylon and a rigid pole structure tend to help tents like this one ride out snow falls far better!
I haven't met a person yet who likes to wake up in a collapsed tent, covered in freezing snow at 2am!!
In addition to that, the extra mid fly tie down points allow you to peg this fly much tighter and lower than the equivalent Cloud Up tents (excluding the snow skirted versions of course!), this keeps the wind out and the warmth in. And before you go worrying about condensation build up with the tighter seal - NatureHike have put 2 vents at opposing ends of the tent to allow for top tent airflow if you need it.
It's fairly big
Do I even make the joke? It is fairly big, as 2-3 person, lightweight tents go.
For me at 6 foot and 90kgs - I find it to be a comfy 2 person tent. If you're feeling like a romantic, outdoor ménage à trois - by all means, but I'll be doing my thing standard, thank you very much! ;-)
With a 120cm high external ceiling, factoring in the insect mesh, you're looking at a realistic 115cm head height which all in all, isn't too bad. 132cm across at it's narrowest point, if you're broad of body, you will find this compact, particularly if all campers are carrying their own sleeping pads.
If you're carrying 2 of the NatureHike egg crate (or similar) connectable sleeping pads, these are an ideal solution - by anchoring to one another, they're less prone to moving and fit perfectly inside the foot of the tent (provided you've pitched squarely).
A lot of tent for your money
With All Four Outdoors stocking the SilNylon version of these tents for £169, they really are an exceptional tent for the money when we put them up against similar tents like the Big Agnes Seedhouse or MSR Elixir.
- 20D SilNylon
- 4000MM Hydrostatic waterproof rating
- Triple pole cross brace design
- Double vented fore and aft
If anyone has any questions about the Hiby, please don't hesitate to get in touch here or via our Contact us form.
If anyone wants to grab their own for £169 - Go nuts here!
Thanks for reading and hopefully catch you on hill or dale, track or trail!
Sean, Joe and Wendy