North Face Tadpole 23 Lightweight Tent > Reviews > Tadpole 23 - THE lightweight expedition tent

Author's product rating:   

Waterproofing
Durability
How easy is it to put it up?

Advantages:	Lightweight, robust, colour coded poles, reflective guy ropes
Disadvantages:	It's not true 4 - season, small cooking area, lack of headroom

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I bought a Tadpole 23 three years ago and use it for wild-country back-packing, rock-climbing and winter mountaineering.

It is an ultra-lightweight tent that weighs less than 2kg, designed for two people, in three-season conditions (However, I have used it for winter mountaineering in the UK, which it is fine for if you have a good sleeping bag and air mattress).

It does all the standard tent stuff - like keeping the wind and rain off you and your kit whilst allowing you to cook and sleep, but is much more sophisicated than a standard tent. When you first see it up, it looks a bit flimsy, but it is actually very resistant to the wind and The North Face have made every effort to reduce its weight as much as possible without compromising on the strength.

It is easy to put up on your own (even in the dark when you're tired) due to the 3 x colour coded poles and flysheet loops. Eg. Put the red pole in the sleeve and attach the red flysheet loops to it. Two people can put it up in no time at all, with a little practice, which is good when it's blowing a gale. You can put it up fly-sheet first, but I've found it just as quick to 'go for it' and put the inner up and then add the flysheet. It is useful, however, to put up just the flysheet if, like me, you want a bit of shade on a sunny day. The poles are made from 'Featherlight'(c) Aluminium and give a a high strength-to-weight ratio.They easily fit down the inside your rucksack once you have packed it. The pegs are so light, you almost want to stick them in the ground to stop them floating away! The whole tent, rolled up and compacted into it's compression sack (included) is small enough to stick to the outside of your rucksack (it you're not a purist!)

Because it is primarily designed as a lightweight expedition tent, there isn't much room left once there of two of you in it with all your kit - it's not designed for luxury living! The groundsheet raises off the floor in a bowl shape, which is good when there is surface water around after a particulary wet night. However, it isn't good when you spill your hot drink over yourself! At night, if your mate/girlfriend/wife turns over, you kind of have to turn over as well. Getting ready for bed and getting up in the morning is tricky and (at 6'4") I find it a struggle to get over-the-head tops on. The cooking/storage area is small and you need to do quite a bit of kit management to cook safely when its pouring with rain. During hot weather, it is nice to sleep with the fly-sheet removed. The 'tent boffins' have designed it so that the mesh panels aid air flow - I can't tell you much more than that on the technical side, but I know that it works. The reflective guy ropes are a really good feature. They look like standard black nylon guyropes, but each has a retro-reflective strand sown into it. It helps you find your tent when you are in the back country and there is little residual light and also stops the drunk bloke tripping over it when you're in a campsite.

In summary, if you want a ultra-lightweight, easy-to-use, reliable expedition tent, this is for you. If you want a back-of-the car, luxurious, spacious mansion with annexes that can take a double mattress, go to Millets!

The following information is from the NORTH FACE web-site:

Poles (3): 8.84 mm diameter
Weight: 4 lbs 14 oz (2.22 kg) with the stuffsack.
Canopy: 40 denier, 240T nylon ripstop.
Area: 35 sq ft (3.3 sq m).
Flysheet: 33 denier, 244T nylon with silicone and 1500 mm PU.
Vestibule Area : [front] 7 sq ft (0.7 sq m)
Floor : 70 denier, 210T nylon taffeta coated with 5000 mm PU.