The Tent That Brought Me Back to the Hills

17 de junio de 2026

Bessport 2-Person Ultralight Backpacking Tent pitched in an alpine setting — freestanding dome design with full-coverage rainfly in a mountain landscape

I used to camp every summer without fail. Weekends in the Cairngorms, a week in the Lake District, the occasional ambitious multi-day route in Wales. Then life got in the way in the way it does — a demanding job, a move to a city, a relationship, a mortgage — and the camping gear went into the loft and stayed there. Seven years passed. I turned forty-one in March and decided, with the particular clarity that milestone birthdays sometimes bring, that I was going to go back to the hills. The Bessport 2-Person Ultralight Backpacking Tent is a significant part of why that decision actually happened.

The Problem With My Old Tent

When I retrieved my old tent from the loft, I found two things: a tent that was heavier than I remembered and a groundsheet with a slow puncture I'd never got around to fixing. The tent was a three-season dome I'd bought in my late twenties — perfectly serviceable, but at 3.8kg it was designed for a time when I was younger, fitter, and apparently unbothered by carrying heavy things up hills. At forty-one, with a back that has opinions about load distribution, 3.8kg of tent before I'd packed anything else felt like a significant ask.

I also wanted something I could use with my partner, who had expressed cautious interest in joining me on shorter routes but had never camped before. A tent that was genuinely easy to pitch — not just easy for someone who'd done it a hundred times, but easy for a first-timer — was a real requirement. My old tent required a degree of familiarity with the pole configuration that I'd forgotten myself after seven years.

Bessport 2-Person Ultralight Backpacking Tent — exterior view showing the two D-shaped doors and dual vestibule design for gear storage and easy access — Two D-shaped doors and two vestibules — independent access for two people and proper gear storage without bringing anything inside.

The Research

I spent about a month researching ultralight tents before I bought anything. The market has changed significantly in seven years — there are more options at more price points than there used to be, and the weight savings available at the premium end are genuinely impressive. I had a clear brief: under 2.5kg, genuinely waterproof (not just water-resistant), freestanding so I wasn't dependent on finding perfect peg ground, two doors so my partner and I could get in and out independently, and a pack size that would fit sensibly in a 65-litre rucksack alongside everything else.

I found the Bessport 2-Person Ultralight Backpacking Tent while browsing the Tents collection on ALTOE. The specifications matched my brief almost exactly: 2.35kg total weight, seam-taped construction with full-coverage rainfly, freestanding dome design, two D-shaped doors with two vestibules, 31 square feet of interior space. The 7001 series aluminium alloy stakes were a detail I noticed — that's the same alloy grade used in aerospace applications, chosen for its strength-to-weight ratio. It's the kind of specification that tells you the engineering has been thought about properly.

Bessport 2-Person Ultralight Backpacking Tent — interior view showing the 31 square foot canopy space with two sleeping areas and gear organisation — 31 square feet of interior — genuinely comfortable for two people, with enough room to sit up and organise gear without feeling cramped.

The First Trip

We took it to the Lake District in May for a two-night route — a circular from Borrowdale that I'd done once before, years ago. My partner had never camped. I was nervous about the tent, the weather, and whether I'd remembered how to do any of this.

Pitching took eleven minutes on the first attempt, on slightly uneven ground, in fading light. I timed it because I was curious. The freestanding design means you get the structure up first and then peg it out, which is the right order when you're not sure about the ground. The pole configuration is intuitive — colour-coded clips, logical assembly sequence, no moment where you're holding three things and wondering what goes where. My partner helped and was pitching the second door side independently by the end of the second night.

Bessport 2-Person Ultralight Backpacking Tent — showing the seam-taped rainfly fully deployed over the tent in wet conditions, demonstrating waterproof performance — The full-coverage rainfly with seam-taped construction — the barrier between you and whatever the weather decides to do overnight.

The Weather Test

The second night, it rained. Not a light shower — a proper Lake District downpour that started around midnight and ran until about 5am. I lay in the tent listening to it and waiting for the moment when I'd feel a drip, or notice the groundsheet getting damp, or find that the rainfly had lifted in the wind. None of those things happened. The seam-taped construction held completely. The vestibules kept our boots and packs dry. The interior was warm and dry throughout. We woke up to a clear morning and a tent that had done exactly what it was supposed to do.

My partner, who had gone to sleep slightly apprehensive about the rain, woke up converted. She has since suggested three further routes. I consider this the tent's greatest achievement.

Bessport 2-Person Ultralight Backpacking Tent — packed down into its carry bag showing the small pack size alongside a backpack for scale — Packed down — the small pack size fits sensibly into a 65-litre rucksack without dominating the load.

The Weight Difference

Going from 3.8kg to 2.35kg is a saving of 1.45kg. That sounds modest until you're four hours into a day with 800 metres of ascent and you start thinking about every gram in your pack. The difference is genuinely felt on the hill — not dramatically, not in a way that makes the hard bits easy, but in a cumulative way that means you arrive at camp with more energy than you would have otherwise. On a two-day route that matters. On a five-day route it matters enormously.

The pack size is also meaningfully smaller than my old tent, which means it sits better in the rucksack and leaves more room for food, layers, and the other things that make a multi-day trip comfortable rather than merely survivable.

Bessport 2-Person Ultralight Backpacking Tent — detail of the 7001 series aluminium alloy tent poles and stakes showing the lightweight structural components — 7001 series aluminium alloy poles and stakes — the same alloy grade used in aerospace applications, chosen for strength-to-weight ratio.

Three Trips Later

We've now used the tent on three trips: the Lake District in May, a weekend in Snowdonia in June, and a solo three-nighter I did in the Cairngorms last month — my first time back in those hills in nearly a decade. The tent has performed identically on all three. No pole failures, no seam failures, no zip issues, no condensation problems beyond what's normal in a double-wall tent. The fabric shows no signs of wear. The zips run smoothly. It looks and performs exactly as it did out of the box.

The Cairngorms trip was the one that mattered most to me personally. Three nights alone in the hills, the kind of trip I used to do without thinking and had convinced myself I'd left behind. The tent was part of what made it possible — light enough to carry comfortably, reliable enough that I wasn't anxious about the weather, simple enough that setup at the end of a long day was never a chore. I sat outside it on the second evening watching the light change over the plateau and felt, for the first time in years, exactly where I was supposed to be.

Bessport 2-Person Ultralight Backpacking Tent — pitched at dusk in a wild camping location showing the tent illuminated from inside against a dramatic evening sky — Pitched at dusk in the Cairngorms — the tent that brought me back to the hills after nearly a decade away.

My Recommendation

If you're returning to backpacking after a gap, or getting into it for the first time, or looking to replace a tent that's become too heavy for the routes you want to do, the Bessport 2-Person Ultralight Backpacking Tent is a genuinely excellent choice. It does everything it claims, in conditions that test those claims, without drama or failure.

You'll find it in the Tents and Camping & Hiking collections, and the broader Outdoor Recreation and Sporting Goods ranges on ALTOE. Check the size options if you're considering a solo trip — the 1-person configuration saves further weight if you're going alone.

The hills are still there. It turns out they were just waiting.

— Rory Gallagher, civil engineer, reluctant city-dweller, and recently returned hill-walker, Glasgow