Product Review: Sierra Designs Omega Convertible Tent
We recently purchased this tent after quite a bit of research and reading other reviews. We were looking for a four season tent for those cold winter backpacking trips–not that Georgia has THAT cold of winters–but that you also be versitle enough for warmer weather trips. We also don’t plan to live in Georgia forever, so we wanted a tent that would withstand harsher weather if we traveled (or moved) out west.
We decided on the Sierra Designs Omega 2 Convertible tent because it could be used as a three season tent (by leaving the outer shell and two small sections of poles at home) but was sturdy enough to handle more severe weather conditions if need be. We decided we needed a four season tent after a night on Big Frog Mountain where I nearly froze to death. OK, maybe not literally but I hardly slept I was so cold and couldn’t wait for the sun to come up and thaw me out. We definitely could have found a lighter tent, but probably for much more than the $253 that we paid for this tent. And the weight didn’t seem to be an issue. My boyfriend carried the tent and I took on more weight of other items (food, cookware, water filter, etc.), and we both felt are packs were about the same weight as usual.
Setting up this tent for the first time is not all intuitive. Bring the instructions with you on your first trip or practice setting it up once at home before you get out in the woods. We had planned to do the latter but never got around to it, so it probably took us a little bit longer to set it up the first time that it should have. Taking down and repacking the tent was a breeze though.
We were both very comfortable inside the tent at night. We did experience some condensation, which we had read about occurring in other reviews of the tent. It didn’t seem severe and we decided we could have vented the tent more (using the inside mesh zipper areas) and prevented much if not all of the condensation. We didn’t get wet from the condensation, nor did any of our stuff within the tent.
The vestibule area (only with the four season configuration) provided a perfect area of our dog to curl up and sleep without him walking all over us to sleep in the tent itself. We set a blanket on the ground for him and unzipped to the door so that he could see us through the mesh doorway. He seemed just as comfortable through the night as we were. We will have to figure out something when we use the tent in its three season form, since the vestibule won’t be available as a doggie bed.
Overall, this seems to a be a great tent! I would definitely recommend it for those looking to buy only one tent that they can use for four seasons. If you are set on finding the lightest tent possible, this might not be the right one for you. But if you don’t mind a little extra weight and would rather save the expense of the lightest weight tents, this is a great choice!
Price: $253.74
Retailer: Randall Scott
Rating: 
(out of possible 5 boots)
Read more about my first backpacking trip with this tent, to Rice Camp Trail.
