Nemo Obi 2p Tent Review
The green Nemo Obi 2p tent on the North Slope, as a storm bears down on us out of the Brooks Range mountains. The storm proved too much for the Obi, partly because not enough stakes are provided in order to stake the tent's guylines. The four of us, plus the collapsed Obi, piled into the white Stephenson's Warmlite tent until the storm passed.
Chelsea "Brett and I needed a new lightweight backpacking tent for this trip. We had each used many different ones belonging to friends on past trips, but weren't really 100% satisfied with any of them. The founder of Nemo Equipment is a Middlebury College grad, like ourselves, so we decided to give their highly rated gear a shot in the Arctic.
The Obi 2P is a trail-weight 3 lb, 10 oz tent, with 2 entrances and large vestibules. On the whole, the Obi did a fine job of keeping us and our stuff sheltered on the North Slope. The material is super-light, which is great when it's on your back. The tent-bag doubles as a drybag, so as long as the material went in dry it would come out try at the end of the day, no matter the rain or splashing river. The lightweight poles held up great for the amount of constant use they incurred. We weren't ever eaten alive by mosquitos inside the protective netting. There were, however, numerous drawbacks for using this tent in this terrain. The fact that we didn't have to climb over each other every time one of us entered or exited the tent was nice, but the lack of space inside the tent normally made getting comfortable quite a process for both of us anyway. We weren't given enough stakes when we got the tent to stake all 4 corners, the vestibules, and 2 guy-lines, if necessary. The wild weather north of the Brooks Range made guy-lines a necessity on more than one occasion, and without them we had to break the Obi down completely and cram ourselves and all of our gear into the other tent our group had, an (11-year old) 3P Stephenson's Warmlight 4-season. The netting and fly of the Obi would often get stuck in the zippers, and the ultralight fabric ripped more than once.
Again, this tent is super-light and relatively versatile (except for strong winds), and we'll keep using it as long as we can. If you're taking a trip like Expedition Arguk, I'd recommend finding something a little tougher."
