Hyperlite has made some of the most lightweight tents we’ve ever seen. Sure, they’re tight in space and sparse in features, but they give you functional shelter while putting on very little heft, making them a great option for those who want minimal weight when taking to the outdoors. This time around, the outfit is looking to bring a little extra comfort to their ultralight tent line with the Hyperlite Crosspeak 2.
The outfit’s first freestanding tent, the shelter is designed to be quickly pitched in nearly any terrain with no need to be staked into the ground. That means, you can make shelter in most any place you end up, while being able to move it around as needed, allowing you to be even more agile in the backcountry.
The Hyperlite Crosspeak 2 retains the ultra-lightweight characteristics of the outfit’s other tents, using Dyneema as the primary shelter material and coming in at just 34 oz. That’s 12.8 oz for the three poles and 21.2 oz for the main tent, with the whole thing packing into a bundle measuring just 14 x 2.25 inches (length x diameter) for the poles and 10 x 7 inches for the tent body, which still make it plenty suitable as a backpacking option. Even more impressive, it deploys into a tent that can comfortably fit up to two individuals curled up in their sleeping bags, making it plenty spacious for the kind of weight and size it brings to your pack.
Setting up the tent is pretty straightforward. You tension the two long crossed poles using the webbing and ladder locks, then tighten it all up using the smaller bridge pole at the peak. That’s it. Once set up, it offers a headroom of 42 inches, enough for most people to sit up straight inside the tent, while providing a floor area of 88 x 48 inches, which should be enough to fit a pair of sleeping pads. Seriously, that’s a whole lot of shelter for something that barely weighs over two pounds.
The Hyperlite Crosspeak 2 comes with two 22-inch deep vestibule areas for stashing your bags and boots, as well as two storage pockets and even attachment loops for hanging a clothesline, if you need it. For airflow, it gets two doors, as well as adjustable ventilation at the heat and foot of the tent, so there are plenty of options to get air circulating inside. The doors use magnetic tie-backs, by the way, which make closing it a lot easier than it otherwise could be.
It uses sil-nylon pole sleeves instead of exterior clips used in other tent designs, which, the outfit claims, should allow it to withstand high winds even better. It’s the same reason they opted for 8.7mm aluminum poles over carbon fiber, as they tend to hold up better in the field compared to carbon fiber alternatives. During inclement weather, by the way, you can reinforce the tent using trekking poles on each vestibule (similar to the way you’d do on non-freestanding tents), as well as using the pole tie out points and the guylines along the head and foot.
The Hyperlite Crosspeak 2 is available now, priced at $950.
