Big Agnes Fly Creek UL2

[gbedford]

Hello everybody,

I am new to this forum and my first question is about the Big Agnes Fly Creek UL2.

I am thinking about buying one but haven't seen one in the flesh.
Here are my thought.
Very light for a 2 man
Seems big enough but not over endowed with space.
The inner is not all mesh which is a downfall of most light weight tents, especially American. The high fabric walls of the Fly Creek would be an advantage in windy conditions.
The vestibule is too small but I have ideas to lengthen it.
I like end opening 2 man tents in the bush because they take up less space than double side opening. Single side opening are great for a single but a pain with a pair.

I would be most grateful if anyone any experience with the Fly Creek could give me some feedback.

Regards,
G Bedford

[Empacitator]

I have this tent and have used it on 3 trips so far.
It is a great, lightweight option if you want a double wall tent (which I did). It does feels very well made.

On one of the trips I have used it to sleep 2 people and it's fine if the only time you want to spend in the tent is for sleeping- probably not the right tent to wait out a day-long storm, due to the low head height and small vestibule.

Two possible problems with this style of tent:
1) is the large front door- if it's raining and you want to enter or exit the tent there is no barrier to stop the rain from entering the tent, generally straight onto the head of your sleeping bag. For my use, I don't see this as a major issue as long as you are aware of it
2) the tent inner must be pitched before the fly so it is a little trickier to put it up when it's raining (again, not an issue for me as most of my hiking is on the Bibbulmun track where there are camping huts to sleep or wait out the rain)

The Fabric walls are great and having that extra barrier is fantastic as the fly doesn't reach all the way to the ground- so you get ventilation while eliminating the cold breeze. Other tents I considered before deciding on the Fly Creek UL2 were the MSR Carbon Reflex 2 or the TarpTent Scarp 2 (I actually had an order in for this but had to cancel as it was taking ages to get stock, I may still get one).

If you are a member on BPL (if you're not, you should be, it's worth it!) there is a great review here from Ray Estrella who has many, many tents to choose from:

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin ... eview.html

I hope this helps as I found it hard to get info before I purchased mine!

Cheers,
Will

[ninjapuppet]

Tas01 had one for sale back a month ago which no one bought

http://bushwalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=4616
maybe you can PM him and ask reasons why to NOT get one?
then you can make your informed decision. Before buying a tent, i always look at reasons to NOT get it first.

I personally wont buy it because Ive already got lighter tents, and stronger tents, but really for $300 US, it looks like an awesome good balanced between light and strong, and is a well priced tent.

[gbedford]

G'day,

Thanks for the replies.
I have tried sending Tas01 a PM but I seem to have a problem working the system. I submit the message. It says it is sent but stays in my Outbox. There is nothing in my Sent message box

Thanks will your reply is a big help and I am a member of BPL and have read Ray Estralla's report.

I am interested in your stronger and lighter tents Ninjapuppet. What are they?

Cheers,
Gordon

[ninjapuppet]

sorry, I didnt mean that my tents are both simultaneously stronger and lighter at the same time.

i meant stronger:
exped orion which is a very roomy 4 season http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NI-BQUDlPxo
and a Hilleberg Jannu which is going to be my mountaineering tent http://estore.websitepros.com/1764795/-strse-68/Hilleberg-Jannu-Ultralight-Tent/Detail.bok

For lighter, i just got myself a zpacks hexamid which weighs a grand total of 277 grams. from reviews, it has handled surprisingly very strong winds!
i will be taking it to the top of some of newzleand's 2000-3000m mountains to test it for 3 weeks. if it handles well enough, i will be using it for 99% of my trips year round. (packets of chips sometimes weigh 277g)

ive got a msr hubba with a similar pole attachment system to the fly creek. i havnt seen the Flycreek in flesh, but i am not a big fan of my hubba's pole connector.
hope you find a good tent and tell us more about it.

[gbedford]

I haven't looked at Zpacks site for some time but that hexamid is impressive. However as a user of a Tarptent Contrail for some time I just couldn't stand the wind that would blow through it. I hate wind when i am camped. In fact as a user of tarps and bivy sacks in the past I don't know why I bought the Contrail. I think it was the insect proof feature that was the key On the plus side you can drop the sides down to ground level and I extended the vestibule to reduce blown rain etc.

I think that Cuben fibre is a great fabric and I wish more tents were made from it although I gather that making things with it has problems.