Hyperlite Mountain Gear UltaMid 1 Review: Is This 8oz Tarp Worth $450?

Fast Verdict

The HMG UltaMid 1 is a premium ultralight tarp that balances weight financial savings with real-world efficiency. In case you’re comfy with a floorless shelter, its spacious inside, storm-worthy design, and tiny packed measurement make it a standout possibility for long-distance hikers.

Finest for

Ultralight backpackers prioritizing weight financial savings
Hikers comfy with tarp-style shelters
Dry climates or low-bug-pressure environments

Not splendid for

Hikers who need bug safety or a full enclosure
These uncomfortable with floorless shelters
Privateness-conscious campers

Standout characteristic

Weight-to-performance ratio. At simply over 8 ounces, it affords distinctive inside house and spectacular wind stability for such a minimal shelter.

Largest downside

Floorless, translucent design. You’ll sacrifice bug safety and privateness except you add the insert.

Backside line

In case you’re bought on tarps, the UltaMid 1 is likely one of the most refined and succesful choices on the market.

In the world of ultralight shelters, there’s a advantageous line between saving weight and staying purposeful. This season, I took out the Hyperlite Mountain Gear Ultamid 1 to see the way it dealt with nights on path. As somebody who appreciates the simplicity of a pyramid-style tarp, I needed to see if the premium price ticket and Dyneema development lived as much as the HMG status.

MSRP: $450Weight: 8.3 ouncesLength: 107.0″ | 271.8cm (About 9 ft)Variety of Wanted Stakes: 4 wanted for most elementary pitchSizing: One Individual

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Supposed Use

Hyperlite Mountain Gear designed the UltaMid 1 for a “solo traveler searching for a light-weight, versatile shelter.”

Nonetheless, it is very important notice the producer’s warnings: the UltaMid 1 shouldn’t be an alpine, mountaineering, or 4-season shelter. This shelter is designed for weight financial savings over excessive environmental safety, and needs to be used as such.

Circumstances of Overview

I examined the HMG UltaMid 1 on a mid-winter backpacking journey in Colorado. Whereas I usually wouldn’t attain for a tarp for a winter journey, the winter season in Colorado has been alarmingly heat and dry, so the dry floor did enable for me to make use of a tarp comfortably. The journey supplied an excellent alternative to guage the tarp’s setup course of, weight, packability, and general efficiency in typical backpacking situations.

Hyperlite Mountain Gear UltaMid 1 Options

Non-compulsory UltaMid 1 Insert: Whereas I used the UltaMid 1 as a standalone tarp for this assessment, HMG does supply a devoted UltaMid 1 Insert ($275 | 10.3 oz). This add-on contains a bathtub flooring and no-see-um mesh, successfully turning the tarp right into a double-wall tent for many who want a barrier in opposition to bugs and groundwater. As-is, the faucet is ideal for journeys on drier trails (suppose PCT or AZT) and, with the insert, turns into tremendous sensible on wetter, buggier trails (taking a look at you, Appalachian Path).

Magnetic Door Keepers: As an alternative of fumbling with tiny plastic toggles or loops once you wish to roll again the doorways, magnetic door keepers can help you shortly and securely pin the doorways open for optimum airflow. I’ve been mentioning this so much in latest critiques of shelters, however this appears to have turn into the gold normal for shelter doorways. I, for one, am not complaining about that.

Single Trekking Pole Setup: Simplicity is essential right here. The UltaMid 1 pitches with a single trekking pole set to roughly 130–135cm. In case you don’t hike with poles, you’ll have to buy a devoted carbon fiber pole to maintain this factor upright. As somebody who generally hikes with only one trekking pole, I admire not needing each poles to get the shelter upright. Along with a single trekking pole, the tarp makes use of a minimal of 4 stakes.

Peak Vents and Tieouts: To fight the condensation points that usually plague single-wall shelters, the UltaMid options two peak vents. Moreover, there are a number of mid-panel tieouts that can help you pull the partitions outward, rising inside quantity and including stability in excessive winds.

Utilization

Options are nice to nitpick, however let’s speak about how the shelter really performs as a spot to sleep and reside whereas within the backcountry.

Liveability

Residing within the UltaMid 1 is splendidly spacious. As a result of there isn’t any internal mesh wall chopping into your house, the 107-inch size feels large. I had loads of room to stash my pack on the head of the tarp and nonetheless had a foot of empty house on the backside.

The verticality of the pyramid design means you’ll be able to sit absolutely upright close to the middle pole to vary garments or set up gear with out brushing your head in opposition to moist material. Nonetheless, as a result of it’s floorless, you might be sharing your house with the native geography. In case you choose a dusty or buggy website, you’ll really feel it.

You do even have that trekking pole in what appears like the middle of your residing house. In actuality, the pole sits the place the mesh would begin in a standard tent, so that you’re actually not dropping any purposeful house, however it’s a must to mentally get used to the truth that it’s there and you may’t simply flail about wildly as soon as inside with out knocking into it.

Setup

The setup is straightforward however requires a little bit of eyeballing to get the geometry excellent. You stake out the 4 corners in a tough rectangle, insert your trekking pole into the height, after which pressure the remaining strains. As soon as you discover the candy spot for the pole top, which might fluctuate barely relying on the slope of the bottom, the tarp snaps right into a inflexible, aerodynamic form. It took me about three tries to get a pitch I used to be happy with, however after that, I may have performed it in the dead of night.

Inside House

For a solo shelter, the UltaMid 1 is kind of roomy. The footprint is giant sufficient that I by no means felt the coffin sensation widespread in lots of 1-person ultralight tents. Even with my gear unfold out, there was nonetheless walkable (crawlable?) flooring house.

HMG lists the world of the shelter as 40 sq ft, which feels proper to me. In comparison with comparable tarps, the UltaMid 1 has a better ceiling of 54″ (4.5 ft) and a wider flooring (additionally 54″).

Climate Resistance

That is the place the UltaMid 1 justifies its value in comparison with comparable tarps. The pyramid form is arguably probably the most steady design for prime winds, because the wind is deflected up and over the sloped sides from any route. Throughout a very gusty night time, the DCF barely fluttered whereas my mountaineering associate’s semi-freestanding tent was bowing inward.

Tarps vs. Tents: A Temporary Overview

In selecting a tarp, you might be selecting to commerce a bug-free, sealed-off surroundings for weight financial savings and higher airflow. Utilizing the UltaMid 1 with out the insert means you might be nearer to nature. Sure, you’ll see the occasional spider, and also you’ll must be aware of the place you pitch to keep away from inner splash-back throughout heavy rain.

I’ve used each tents and tarps on longer trails, and have determined the choice between a tarp and a tent typically comes right down to your private discomfort threshold and the particular path you select. Tarps match greatest within the life-style of a high-mileage thru-hiker. If you end up pushing 25-mile days, each ounce saved is a direct funding in your joint well being and power ranges.

A standard tent (or utilizing the UltaMid with its mesh insert) is extra about making a psychological and bodily protected haven from any creepy crawlies that might be lurking exterior your residing house. Having a tub flooring means you don’t should be fairly as considerate along with your website choice, and the mesh partitions present a way of safety that enables for a deeper, much less on-edge sleep.

Hyperlite Mountain Gear UltaMid 1 Professionals

Extremely-Tiny Packed Dimension: With out the insert, this tarp disappears in your pack. It compresses right down to the scale of a Nalgene bottle and matches inside my pack horizontally, vertically, diagonally, or whichever manner I like.

Impartial Door Rolling: Due to the magnetic keepers, you’ll be able to roll up one door or each. This lets you customise your views and air flow relying on which manner the wind is blowing. You do nonetheless have to stake out the remaining door, so when you plan to by no means stake out the perimeters of the tent you’d have to convey an extra stake for the door.

A number of Habitable House: Between the 107-inch size and the vertical headroom, the UltaMid 1 affords a stunning quantity of vestibule house. You’ll be able to simply preserve all of your gear dry underneath the fly whereas nonetheless having loads of room to stretch out. Not having the mesh offers you the additional “vestibule” house to make use of nonetheless you need; I don’t really preserve my bag in that house however as an alternative use it to put out moist garments and different issues I nonetheless need to have the ability to seize within the night time.

Zippered Door: In contrast to many different ultralight tarps that use hooks or toggles, the UltaMid 1 contains a high-quality, waterproof zipper. It feels far more safe and is much simpler at maintaining out drafts and water.

Hyperlite Mountain Gear UltaMid 1 Cons

After we speak in regards to the cons of the UltaMid 1 with out utilizing the insert, I wish to concentrate on how the shelter performs as a tarp. If the failings of a tarp (no bug prevention, and so forth.) are already dealbreakers for you, then I don’t suppose the intert-less setup is the precise match for you regardless. Nonetheless, so far as the UltaMid 1 performs as a tarp, there is just one frustration I’ve.

See By way of: The white DCF used on this tarp is kind of translucent. In a crowded campsite, your neighbors will see a really clear silhouette of you altering or transferring round inside. In case you worth privateness, this is likely to be a degree of rivalry.

Worth

Is it value $450? In case you are an informal weekend warrior who sticks to established campgrounds in the summertime, most likely not. However for a longer-distance backpacker, the worth lies within the weight financial savings.

You’re paying for a shelter that received’t fail when the climate turns windy whereas taking over little or no house in your pack. It’s a specialised piece of drugs that does precisely its one job — defending you from the weather. If you would like one thing extra out of your shelter, maybe it is best to contemplate the insert.

Would I Advocate This Shelter?

Tarps usually are not for everybody!

Your sleep is so necessary on a protracted hike and if not having bug netting goes to compromise your consolation each night time, contemplate a unique tent. Nonetheless, when you’re fascinated by a tarp particularly, it is a nice one to regulate.

It’s formed like a tent, so it eliminates the educational curve of setup, however you continue to get all the load financial savings and air flow of a tarp. Except you’re fairly against somebody seeing you transferring about inside your tarp (which is honest, and I hope HMG creates this tent in a unique shade to mitigate this), there aren’t actually any cons to utilizing this as a shelter.

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