Big Agnes Tiger Wall UL2 Review: Lightweight Tent for Paddlers

I’ve mentioned the Big Agnes Tiger Wall UL2 in prior posts and then realized that I hadn’t reviewed it, yet. Considering it has been my primary tent for solo adventures over the last few years, I need to sing a little praise for the tent. What is it? The Tiger Wall UL2 is a lightweight tent for canoeing, kayaking and backpacking. It’s a popular tent with backpackers looking to shed weight, and I think it’s a tent that paddlers should consider. In this review, I’ll cover the product’s specs, the performance, a few pros and cons, and my experience with the tent. I hope this review will help you determine if this tent is for you.

Tiger Wall UL2 Specifications

When I’m writing specifications up, I don’t care to regurgitate all the various specs because you can just head to REI and read all those. I’ll list the important ones to me. Starting off is the weight. It comes to 2lb. 8 oz total weight, which includes the included repair kit, stuff sacks, guy lines, instructions, and stakes. When you exclude those, it’s 2lb 3oz. You’ll likely end up somewhere between those two numbers when packing the tent. At 40 ounces, it’s light for a two person tent. It isn’t single-wall light, but then again it isn’t single wall.

The tent packs down to 5.5″ x 18″, but that’s due to the poles. If you store the poles separately, the tent body and fly packs down to about half that length when needed. The floor area is 28ft² not including the two vestibules, which are 8ft² each. The head room is 39 inches. It’s 52 inches wide at the head and 42 inches wide at the foot. You can fit two regular sized Nemo Tensor sleeping pads in the tent. It’s feels crazy roomy for one person though.

Construction quality is top notch as you would expect from Big Agnes, and it uses high-end materials. To be honest, I could write these up but tent materials make my eyes glaze over. I really only care about two things: is it going to hold up and is it lightweight. Make that three. I do like the fly not to sag and stretch too much over night and when wet. This one doesn’t too much. The fly is made from silicone-treated nylon ripstop, which stretches more than a polyester fabric. But I haven’t had as many issues as older tents. See below for more info on the sagging.

As far as features that it has that enhance usability, it has two doors and two vestibules. On this inside, there are several storage pockets. Each person has their own personal pocket next to the doors. Then there is a shared pocket above your heads. These feature media holes to run headphone wires out of. I don’t own wired headphones, so it isn’t my thing but maybe it is yours. There’s a large pocket above your feet. There are also tabs that can be used to rig a small clothes line.

The Tiger Wall UL2 is only semi-freestanding. That means that you have to stake out the back two corners to get it to set up correctly. BUT, you should be staking out all the corners and vestibules anyway. Plus, you may want to stake out the center of the fly at the head to add ventilation.

Performance

Interior space and comfort

In the field, I’ve loved the tent as a solo tent. It gets a little tight for two adults, but the weight savings is nice. When my 9yo and I use the tent, we fit fine. If you’re going to use this for two people, you’ll need to understand that this is a backpacking tight tent. That doesn’t bother me, but if you don’t like tight quarters, then this tent isn’t going to work for you.

Having two doors and two vestibules and the high roof for sitting up makes livability great inside the tent. For two people, even though it’s tight inside the two doors and two vestibules makes it easier to live inside.

One thing that I don’t like is that each door has two zippers that meet at the corner. This helps maximize the door size, and it reduces the wear and tear on the zippers. I don’t like it because it’s a useability issue and if it doesn’t get tightly closed, you’ll get mosquitos in the tent.

Setup

I found setup easy. I just lay out the tent, stake out the four corners, put the pole up by putting the pole tips into the gromets on the tent, and then attached the canopy (inner body) of the tent to the poles with clips. Then I put the rain fly over and clip in the corners and stake out the vestibules at the center of the head. The corner webbing is color coded to make it easy to align the fly with the canopy. If you’ve set up a bunch of tents before, this goes up like any other tent.

It’s easy.

The feet corners aren’t connected to the tent pole, so you’ll need to stake them out. This is a semi-freestanding tent instead of a fully freestanding tent. I always stake out the tent, so it’s not an issue for me. I recommend that you stake your tent out, too.

Weather Resistance

I’ve had the tent up in multiple rainstorms and strong winds without issue. Like any other quality tent, it holds up to rain well. The vestibule is designed so that rain doesn’t leak into the tent when getting in and out. You can leave the bottom of the vestibule open to help with ventilation during a rain storm, although you have to get creative on how to keep it open.

The strongest wind that I’ve had it in happened during a Boundary Waters Canoe Area trip. It was late May and unusually warm, probably in the 80°Fs. Then a cold front pushed through right before dinner. The next day temps were below freezing at “sunrise.” Quotes because it was windy, gray and ugly out.

I was setup in a location with limited cover from direct winds with the tent turned so the side of the tent was facing the wind. I estimated the winds were sustained near 30 knots with higher gusts. I didn’t get out of the tent to look at the trees to get a better estimate because I was kneeling on my feet in the middle of the tent as lightning flashed all around me. I heard my canoe, which I had tied to a tree, get lifted up and flipped.

The side of the tent that was towards the wind was blowing significantly inward. Eventually, I decided to brace my body against the side of the tent to prevent it from collapsing in the gusts. Luckily, the storm was over quickly. If it had sustained the wind all night, I would have gotten out and rearranged the tent so that the head was facing into the wind. That would have given the tent much more structure. I would have also staked out the guy lines.

On thing that I don’t like is that the rainfly sags a little when wet. Due to the design, it isn’t as bad as other tents that I’ve used, but because the fly is nylon it’ll sag. It’s possible to tighten the fly while it is sagging to make it taut.

In the end I’m satisfied with the performance in weather.

Ventilation and Condensation

When you’re camping on lakes, it’s more than likely that unless there’s a breeze that the rainfly is going to have condensation on the inside and outside. This is especially true in the Boundary Waters where all the campsites are near water level. There’s no avoiding the issue even with the rainfly doors open. Luckily, any drips get caught by the screen on the canopy.

I’ve also found that the tent is big enough that there’s no issues of pushing the canopy into the rainfly and getting wet from any condensation on the fly by touching it.

When there’s a little breeze keeping the rainfly doors open allows for plenty of ventilation. When there’s a breeze, even when camped near a lake, I haven’t noticed much condensation. I’ve also had better luck when the campsite is high above the water. These sites are rare in the places that I paddle.

The rainfly dries quickly. I usually pack my rainfly near the top of my portage pack, and during lunch I can set it out to dry. It dries in a few minutes under the sun. It also dries quickly when setting it up for the night.

Durability

I have a month plus of nights on this tent and haven’t had any issues. I’ve been using Big Agnes tents (my first was a Seedhouse) for around 20 years. They hold up well. I expect that this one will as well. But with only a month or so of nights, I don’t feel like I can give a great answer on long-term durability. Considering that most people use a tent for one week out of the entire year, I expect that you’d get a decade or longer out of this tent.

Pros and Cons

Conclusion

I love this tent. When I’m trying out other tents or shelters on trips, I almost always wish that I would have packed the Big Agnes Tiger Wall UL2 instead. While not ultralight, I love the extra comfort that you get for just about a pound to a pound and a half of weight over ultralight, solo shelters. The size is luxurious for a solo paddler based on the weight. While tight for two, it’s functional for two, especially for a parent and kid combo, or a couple looking to save weight.

I think this tent is best suited for solo paddlers who want a lot of room and don’t mind an extra pound or so over ultralight options. It would also work great for parents and young kids or for a couple that doesn’t mind sharing tight quarters. When we go as a family, we use a Big Agnes Copper Spur UL3 to fit all three of us, but if my kid wasn’t tripping with us my wife and I would end up using the Tiger Wall.

Overall, this has been a great tent for me. When I saw it introduced, I thought it would work great for me. After I bought it and used it, I feel like it has been worth the money. I’m looking forward to doing more trips with this tent.

Buy it: Big Agnes Tiger Wall UL2

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