MacPac Olympus Review

"All the way from New Zealand, this is a classic bomb shelter of a tent. The basic design is 30 odd years old, the only up dates have been in material useage. It can be pitched inner first then fly over the top, the fly by itself or fly and inner together depending on how you insert the 3 parallel Easton alloy poles. Has loveably large vestabules at both ends for wet gear, storage, cooking etc. By releasing the tension clips joining inner to flyleaf you can retract the floor increasing the size of a vestable to most of a meter of gound room. 4 Pegs holds it up in normal conditions, 4 more pegs secure the 6 guy ropes for total security in adverse conditions. Can be purchased with an over sized fly for use in snowy/alpine conditions but this only coomes in red or yellow instead of the sage green or purple of the regular version. The downside, if you can call it that, is the fairly weighty 3.8 kg tho in it's defence it is touted as 2/3 person item. 1 Person is palatial, 2 is adequite and 3 should be saved for emergencies or very good friends. 4 Large pockets inside and a lamp loop are standard. Doors have seperate fly screens for perfect bug and ventilation control. All in all, if you set it up with one end into the prevailing wind and securely pegged you need never worry about weather of any sort, a laudable feature in a tent. At a mid-winter alpine motorcycle rally I emerged after very wet and howlingly windy night to see more tents on the ground then still erect, I was stunned to see the carnage, I hadnt realised it was that bad. My main moan would be the somewhat fragile and rather short half round pegs provided, hitting a stone as you drive it in will eventually crease and weaken or break it. I replaced mine with ones I made from sturdy aluminium angle stock with a pencil sized hole drilled an inch from the top in the crux of the angle and 2 inches longer than standard. All in all damn good piece of equipment you never ever regret buying. If I ever have to replace it, I'll look first at getting the same again."