The Best Ultralight Tent Shelter: Hyperlite Mountain Gear UltaMid 4 Review

This review was updated in November 2018. Neither the design of the UlltaMid nor the performance of competing products has changed significantly. 

After testing close to 70 tents of all types for outdoorgearlab.com, I kept only four. Of those, I use the Hyperlite Mountain Gear UltaMid 4 most frequently. I think it's the best all-purpose ultralight tent on the planet. Since their release in summer 2013, I’ve used it, and the UltaMid 2, close to 100 days with 26 friends and family members! If I were to have one tent for everything, I’d choose the UltaMid 4. It’s very expensive, but the low weight, tremendous versatility, unmatched comfort, and long-term durability make the cost worthwhile. I've used both the two and four-person versions and think it's worth the extra $150 and four ounces for the UltaMid 4.

Pros: Bombproof four-season performance, incredibly comfortable for four people, remarkably light and compact, made in Maine with materials made primarily in Arizona.

Cons: $865, unsupportive vent awning, the vent should have velcro around the entire perimeter, a buckle would be better than a snap to relieve stress at the bottom of the zipper.

Specifications

• $865 available at Hyperlite's website
• 9.25’ x 9.25’ x 6.25’ tall
• 22-24 oz. with guyline and stuff sack

Features

• Comfortable with four people and a dog or a palace for two people and gear
• Bomber four-season performance
• Bug insert ($170) and waterproof floor ($9) increase versatility 

Motivation for this review

I wrote a review for the UltaMid for outdoorgearlab in 2013. Unfortunately, their current ultralight shelter comparison excluded it from testing. My motivation for creating this review comes in part from the lack of quality available reviews, part from my realization that I'm willing to spend $850 to replace it, and part from Hyperlite's affiliate program. If you find this review useful and click through to buy the shelter, I'll receive a small portion of the sale. I think this is one of Hyperlite's best products, but I'm not biased toward their products in general; I think some have yet to mature.

The Hyperlite Mountain Gear UltaMid 4 is the best all-purpose tent on the planet. Here, Sarah Brey brushes her teeth on a beautiful night in the Brooks Range, Alaska.

Cut from The Best Fabric

Dyneema Composite Fabric (formerly cuben fiber) is the best material for tents. Its tear strength is many times that of the best silicone coated nylons (including those used by Hilleberg), it’s incredibly lightweight, and it does not stretch or absorb water. These attributes create a very tight pitch that’s not possible with other fabrics. Super-reinforced seams also allow it to tolerate much higher forces than silnylon tents. This means that it’s less likely to rip when heavily loaded with snow. The only drawbacks to DCF are its lower melting point and lower abrasion resistance. In a pyramid tarp, neither of these are significant limitations because you can cook in the center, far away from the walls, and abrasion resistance is trivial because the shelter doesn’t contact the ground.

The Most Versatile Design

Below, I argue the UltaMid 4 is the best pyramid tarp on the market. The only exception is for solo travel, which it’s unnecessarily large for. If you do a lot of solo travel in very exposed areas, you can save 10 or more ounces by getting a one-person pyramid tarp from Mountain Laurel Designs or Locus Gear ($450+). However, I feel an 8.5 oz flat tarp ($310) is a better option for most people, including myself, because it’s even lighter, more versatile, also works well with two people, and you can mitigate the vulnerability of the three-sided pitch by choosing protected campsites. 

What About Two-Pole Pyramids!?

Lots of companies make pyramids that pitch with two poles. I’ve used the ZPacks Hexamid and Duplex and models from Six Moon Designs, GoLite, Black Diamond, and Mountain Laurel Designs. These can be lighter than the UltaMid 4, but I feel their reduced weather resistance and versatility isn’t worth the tradeoff. For example, the ZPacks Duplex has built-in bug protection and weighs 21 ounces, but it’s entirely inappropriate for winter, the design is much more fragile (the bug netting ripped on a corner seam in mine and it uses a less durable DCF fabric), and it’s much harder to setup in uneven and cramped sites. The Duplex is the best option for very buggy summer backpacking, but that's all it good at. Through testing over 400 outdoor gear products, I've learned that the best gear is versatile and durable. Two-pole pyramids with sewn-in bug protection are neither. If it’s buggy and saving weight matters most, I use a flat tarp (far more versatile and durable) and put a shirt over my face.

Two-pole pyramids like the ZPacks Duplex, shown here in Denali National Park, southwest Colorado, and  Washington's Olympic National Park, aren't suitable for winter use, are much harder to pitch in challenging sites, are less durable, and those with sewn-in bug netting and floors greatly reduce versatility. I've found the UltaMid to be well worth the additional weight and cost.

Max cooking dinner in the UltaMid 4 on the Tokositna Glacier, Alaska.  The 85 square feet of floor space is great for digging bench seats, a refrigerator, and a plush kitchen.

TESTING AND ANALYSIS

Weather Resistance

Single-pole pyramid shelters are the most weather resistant type of tent and are the proven best choice for wilderness travelers worldwide. They’re enclosed on four sides, offer bomber protection from high winds and snow, and trap enough air to keep you much warmer than open tarps.

I’ve used the UltaMid 4 as a cook tent for a couple of climbing expeditions and have found it much stronger and more comfortable than the competition. The most popular budget pyramid, the Black Diamond Mega Light, lacks mid-panel tieouts and its already stale design hasn’t been updated in at least six years—it doesn’t even compare to the UltaMid. For example, at a Mt. Huntington basecamp, my UltaMid stood up straight in a moderate storm while other people's Mega Lights were getting hammered. See the photo below. I’ve also used the UltaMid with two 40-year veteran Alaska mountaineers and they were hugely impressed--they raved about it (and I taught them about the material and design) for hours.

Can you use the UltaMid as your only tent on a worst conditions winter glacier expedition?

It depends on the commitment factor and the probability of big storms. I'd take the UltaMid for shorter trips with a better forecast and the Hilleberg Nammatj 2 for longer trips with a greater probability of big storms. In April, I did a two-week climb-ski-packraft trip in the Alaska Range and the UltaMid would have been better for the three-day ski/float out than the cramped, condensation nightmare bivy tent we brought. 

When camping on snow and expecting snow overnight, I like to pack up to a foot of snow around the inside of the UltaMid to support the edges. This helps snow slide down and off the walls rather than down and onto the bottom.

How well does it do in sand storms?

Compared to a fully enclosed four-season tent with solid interior walls, not well. But sand storms are rare, usually only last part of the night, and planning ahead to find protected campsites helps a lot. If the wind is blowing in tons of sand, in the desert or in a large river corridor, I've used the ground cloth to seal the windward wall. Worst case, you need to tuck into your sleeping bag. This is a worthwhile tradeoff: a few hours of windy sand every month of hiking (perhaps?) is fine when the shelter makes you vastly more comfortable for the hundreds of other hours spent traveling and sleeping.

Single pole pyramid shelters offer the greatest performance for four-season use. 

At just 24 oz with my guyline setup, the UltaMid 4 makes a basecamp vastly more comfortable. On Denali, Zeb and I agreed the largest gear mistake we made on our Cassin Ridge ascent was not bringing the UltaMid for two weeks of acclimatizing and waiting out storms on the West Buttress.

Black Diamond Mega Light pyramids were hammered by a moderate storm while the UltaMid (shown in the same camp in the above photo) stood upright and unphased. Mt Huntington, Alaska.

How does it do in torrential rain?

Excellent. As with all tents, the main challenge with torrential rain is splashback--when water running off the sides of the tent bounces up and under the edge. The best way to address this is prevention: choose a campsite with a softer, absorbent surface (and one where water won’t pool). Last summer, I used the UltaMid on it trip where it rained 11 consecutive days. We mostly camped on gravel bars, which drain well but have a lot of splashback. There, the UltaMid’s large interior allowed us to move away from the edges to avoid the splashback. If the rain is incredibly violent and I’m in a bad campsite, I’ll use part of the ground sheet and backpacks to seal the walls around us. A deep bathtub floor would be more comfortable, but I experience bad splashback so infrequently I’d never want to carry it.

Unlike some mids, the UltaMid doesn’t have a flap over the watertight zipper. I criticized the shelter for this in my 2013 gearlab review and Tom Turiano, a Hyperlite Ambassador who got one of the first mids, commented that he just got off a trip with torrential rain and the zipper was indeed watertight. Over the years, this has been proven to be true through extensive use all over the world. The zipper on my mid has likely seen more wear than most. Sometimes, when it’s raining very hard, I’ll see a small bead of water form along the zipper, roll down, and drop off near the bottom. Initially, I was upset by this, but after close observation, I’m confident the droplets fall off at the bottom--not on us. Of course, this wouldn’t happen if there was a flap over the zipper, but a flap would rattle in high wind even with snap closures in the middle and bottom, and it’d be a huge hassle to close them. Thus, I think Hyperlite made a good choice with the zipper. In ten years from now, when the zipper has truly been tested by time, we’ll know for sure

Room for improvement?

The UltaMid has a metal snap at the base of the zipper that relieves stress on the zipper. This works fine, but it easily fills with sand and snow. Though it’s not as crushproof, I believe a plastic clip would be a better choice here—that’s what almost all four-season tents use.

The UltaMid 4 pitched over a picnic table. It's far easier and more fun than rigging up a hardware store tarp, which requires lots of perfectly placed trees.

Dinner, drinks, and games under the UltaMid 4. It's a marvelous group shelter when pitched over a picnic table and easily houses eight people!

Comfort

Most ultralight tents are cramped. The UltaMid is not only spacious but the light that comes in through the white walls make for a very pleasant environment.

Again, the extra four ounces and $155 increase over the UltaMid 2 is absolutely worth the extra comfort and versatility. The interior space (9.25’ x 9.25’ x 6.25’ tall) is mighty comfortable for four people and palatial for two. I’ve used it car camping with four people at least five times and love it. There’s even enough space to fit four people and a smaller dog (Sarah's is 40 lb). It’s so much fun to have family and friends in the same tent. I’ve also used it to cover a large picnic table, which made a wonderful group shelter for eight people! We hung a lantern inside and played cards until late at night while the rain poured down and in the morning we cooked breakfast and while the rain continued.

With two people, we almost always offset the pole to create more space in the center of the shelter. For example, if we’re sleeping in the back, we’ll put the pole off to one side. This creates internal vestibule space for backpacks and for cooking. It’s also very nice when removing soaking wet clothes: we’ll lay out the ground cloth and pads on one side, take off all of our clothes and sit on the pads to put on dry sleeping clothes. This isn’t possible with smaller pyramids.

Bug protection and flooring
After hiking for a while, I learned that a bathtub floor is unnecessary. Modular accessories allow us to optimize a tent for a specific environment.

Groundcloth

I usually bring a 72” x 90” polycro ground cloth ($9, 3.6 oz). These last for about a month before they tear and require taping. If you’re going on a multi-month trip where getting a replacement would be impossible, it might be worth getting one from a tough DCF fabric (around $100) or Tyvek ($10 and 85% heavier). ZPacks appears to be the best source for those.

Bug Insert

Most of the time, I don’t bring anything for bug protection. The UltaMid's enclosed walls do a remarkable job at blocking flying insects, If it's buggier than expected, I’ll intentionally pitch the shelter in a more exposed area. If it’s extremely buggy, I’ll bring Hyperlite’s floorless mesh insert ($160, 16 oz.), which works very well. If you're considering buying the UltaMid, I recommend using it for a while to see if you need the bug protection. Most likely, you won't. 

Hyperlite's floorless bug insert is great when it's extremely buggy. In the vast majority of places, the shelter's walls and strategic, i.e. exposed, campsite selection make owning one unnecessary. 

The floorless bug insert can be pitched by itself on calm, good weather nights. Having the insert with us, we opted for views in a soggy meadow rather than a bug-free site in the forest. Chugach mountains, Alaska.

Here's why I don't recommend Hyperlite's Bathtub Floor Insert:
If you pick a good campsite, you shouldn't need an insert with a sewn-in floor. A worst case scenario might be in a high use area like the AT or Glacier National Park, where (1) you're required to camp in designated sites and (2) the sites aren't maintained well such that the soil has been compacted and is perhaps lower than surrounding areas. If both of those are true and it's also raining hard, I'd walk a few minutes more and camp elsewhere. 

The only situation I can envision wanting a full insert is in a tropical rainforest with lots of poisonous insects that might crawl into the tent through a potential gap between the bug insert and polycro groundsheet. But I don't know anything about backcountry travel in a tropical rainforest. Perhaps a hammock is the best shelter there?



Also, to put this within a larger context: indigenous peoples have lived thousands of years in floorless shelters throughout the world. 

Water Resistant Bivy Sacks
I've tested water resistant bivy sacks from Ruta Locura, Mountain Laurel Designs, and Katabatic Gear. The only time I use one is under a flat tarp when it's very buggy. I've been tempted by Mountain Laurel Designs' two-person water resistant bivy because it could save around 10 oz. compared to a ground cloth and a bug insert in the UltaMid, but I'm not sure it's worth it. When it's really buggy--when you need protection--it's great to have some space to escape. A bivy only provides an escape when you're horizontal, sealed up in the bivy. I might spring for the two-person bug bivy if doing another multi-week, two-person trip in the Arctic and we were trying to go as fast and light as possible. 

The UltaMid 4 is a fantastic shelter for mountaineering and ski touring. Shown here on a late-April trip into the Western Chugach mountains, Alaska. 

Four people and a dog fit comfortably in the UltaMid 4. Shown on a family camping trip with the floorless bug insert.

Versatility

The UltaMid 4 is supremely versatile in the sense that it can be used for a huge number of activities with a variety of people. The ability to use it for backpacking, ski touring, expedition mountaineering and car camping is a huge advantage. You can literally own one tent for everything. (If you do a lot of solo trips, it’s probably worth getting Hyperlite’s square flat tarp or perhaps a one-person pyramid tent.)

My favorite story that showcases the UltaMid's versatility is from Brad Meiklejohn, head of the American Packrafting Association. He used the UltaMid 4 on a trip with three people that ended with a 15 ish mile flatwater lake crossing. They rafted their boats together, attached the mid to their paddles, and used it as a sail to zip across the lake at something like 8 miles per hour! Later, Brad told me that he did the same thing on a trip last summer down Alaska's Lost Coast--this time across a large bay. 

Ease of Setup

I find pyramids very easy to pitch. Tie two trekking poles together with a six-foot section of 1-2 mm cord, stake out the corners, insert the poles, close the door, extend the poles, exit, and adjust the position and tension of the stakes.

Tie two trekking poles together to pitch the shelter. This amount of overlap is good for most situations. Add more for high winds.

Since the shelter can’t adapt to terrain like a flat tarp, the only setup challenge is finding a site spacious enough to pitch it. This can be hard on rocky, steep mountains, but is made much easier by planning ahead a few hours by identifying possible flatter areas on a topo. In winter, just dig into the snow and make a platform.

Finding a large site is the only challenge to pitching the UltaMid 4. Traveling as a group of three in early March in Bears Ears, Utah, we stumbled around for 20 minutes in the dark before finding this opening in the brush. 

I usually bring four three-foot loops of cord to girth-hitch the corner tieouts to large rocks and logs. If I expect consistently challenging pitching conditions, I’ll bring extra loops.

After testing almost every stake on the market, I find that eight eight-inch Easton Nano Nail stakes work best with the UltaMid. With a large shelter like this, it’s important to have a reliable connection to the ground. (Most tent failures are caused by tieout failures that allow wind to catch a tent and excessively stress seams and zippers.) I’ve found these to be 100% reliable over many years of use in virtually all conditions. Naturally, there are some environments, like the desert southwest, that make it easy to travel without stakes. Generally, though, I bring stakes.

Weight

With extra guyline and the stuff sack, my UltaMid 4 weighs 23.9 oz. This is incredibly light for the amount of weather protection, comfort, and versatility it provides. If you’re traveling with two people, 12 oz. per person for a palace is amazing! 6 oz. per person with four people—incredible!

I’ve experimented with a variety of guyline setups and have settled on the following: I leave the stock guyline in the linelocs for the perimeter, year-round. In the summer, I replace all of the above-ground-level lines with long lengths of 1.25 mm dyneema cord. In the winter, I swap those lines with 2.3 mm reflective line (available at the previous link) and add MSR CamRing tensioners to each of the four corner mid-panel tieouts. The CamRings make it a lot easier to pitch with gloves on. I find the reflective cord to be nice when pitching the tent in the dark and it also makes it easier to find the tent at night.

Hyperlite Moutain Gear UltaMid 4 in Arctic, Alaska

Hyperlite Moutain Gear UltaMid 4 pitched in the record-low Kobuk River, Alaska

Durability

At this rate, I expect mine to last at least 200 nights. Two aspects set the UltaMid apart from the competition: its tear strength and burly reinforcements.

Tear strength
In my experience, in general use, DCF doesn't last any longer than silnylon. The exception is under high stress, in which silnylon tears and DCF doesn't. This is useful for us wilderness lovers because we can put a ton of tension on the UltaMid's tieouts--so much so that it hums in high winds. Bonus: since the material doesn't absorb water or stretch, it can stay humming throughout the night. It's also critically useful in winter, when snow loading stresses the shelter. I've seen videos of silnylon pyramids tear under snow loading, but the Ultamid might be able to be buried. Hyperlite told me their seams test much stronger than the fabric. I guess the weakest part of the system is the linelocs. If one were to break, you could tie the cord to the corner loop.

Reinforcements
Hyperlite's reinforcements at the corners and at the peak set it apart from other manufacturers. The corners use a tougher DCF fabric and look better than MLD, ZPacks, and Locus Gear construction. I don't know how their tear strengths compare, but Hyperlite's corners look stronger. The peak is super reinforced with a semi-rigid foam (I think) and 200-denier dyneema grip ripstop that makes it possible to pitch the shelter with logs and skis. Hyperlite's rebranding process created the tagline "Made to be used. Hard" and applies to the UltaMid. A lot of ultralight tents sacrifice longevity for weight savings. This is not the case with the UltaMid.

The weakest part of the shelter is the zipper. Mine failed after two and a half years. Hyperlite repaired it for free. Specifically, sand became stuck in the top of the zipper and ran the sliders off track. They removed the sliders and added new ones.

The material, which is tougher than what some other companies use, rarely comes in contact with the ground and should last a very long time. I’ve found the most degrading environment to be sand. There, when there’s condensation in the tent, it’s important to hold the peak while you take the pole out, and hold the shelter off the ground. When you don’t do this, sand covers the inside, including the zippers, and not all of it shakes off. Then it rubs all day inside your pack. And it can damage the zipper!

I’ve only had one small tear on the lower edge of the shelter, which was likely from a ski edge. Hyperlite sells a DCF repair kit, but if you do a lot of outdoor activities it’s worth spending a few more dollars for a roll of super-sticky Tyvek tape ($16), which can be used to patch everything from rain gear to packrafts, and easily covers a tear in a shelter. DCF has such a high tear strength that a bit of tape on both sides is all you need for a permeant patch.

Inside the Hyperlite Moutain Gear UltaMid 4 during a January trip in Escalante, Utah. Note the offset pole and extra space for gear and dog.

You can hang it from a tree, too!

Car camping in Nebraska with four people and a dog.

Value

I’ve tested around 70 tents of all types for outdoorgearlab.com and kept only four. Of those, I use the UltaMid 4 most often. According to frequency of use, the others are: Hyperlite Square Flat Tarp, Hilleberg Nammatj 2, and Mountain Hardwear Direkt 2.

DCF fabric is very expensive and the profit margin on shelters like this is small compared to backpacks, which use a lot less and generally cheaper materials.

The Mountain Laurel Designs SuperMid costs $365 in silnylon. I used this in 2013 and 2014 and found it to be detrimentally smaller than the UltaMid 4. They’ve revised the design slightly since then, but it appears to be the same size. The SuperMid’s only significant advantage over the UltaMid 4 is a stiffer vent rim, which helps is hold its shape better. If you’re looking for the best value larger pyramid, the SuperMid in silnylon is the best bet. The SuperMid also comes in DCF ($840), but again, it's not as large and only weighs one ounce less.

The other budget option to consider is Oware's 9' x 9' pyramid, which is only $240. I don't know much about this, but its lack of mid-panel tieouts on the corners, an essential feature, immediately exclude it from use in high winds or winter.

Where to Buy It

Hyperlite is a small company that sells directly from their website.

The white fabric lets in lots of light and makes for a very pleasant interior environment