Hi, my name is Nick and I am a Hilleberg groupie…
My first (and ongoing) love affair with the Swedish tent manufacturer was the Soulo, their completely free-standing solo dome/bomb-shelter. Thus far I’ve used it in Tassie’s southwest, as well as trips to Norway, Turkey and a full high traverse of the Pyrenees, and still don’t have anything bad to say about the little beast. It is excellent.
For the last few years my two person tent has been a First Arrow, the classic three-pole tunnel design from Australia’s Wilderness Equipment (ie. Sea to Summit). It is good, and has almost legendary status amongst serious Australian walkers, but for a few reasons it’s just never really hit the spot for me. Enter the Nammatj.
The Nammatj 2 is the smallest and simplest version of Hilleberg’s ‘Black Label’ two-pole tunnel, the others being a three-person design and ‘GT’ versions with a third pole and huge extended vestibule.
I won’t go into too much detail yet (I’ve got a week long trip to the Southwest soon so that should be a good tester) but initial impressions are very good, a noticeable step up from the Soulo (Red Label) in terms of materials and design, and generally it just feels more resolved than the conceptually very similar First Arrow.
An interesting aside, I stuck the Soulo, First Arrow and Nammatj on my trusty digital kitchen scales (with all poles, pegs, bags and bits) and came up with the following:
Nammatj:
– Stated weight: 3.0kg
– Measured weight: 2.8kg
First Arrow:
– Stated weight: 3.4kg
– Measured weight: 3.4kg
Soulo:
– Stated weight: 2.4kg
– Measured weight: 2.4kg
Anyway, here it is!
Set up with all guy lines
The entrance
…with a very well protected zip.
Vestibule. Despite the guy-lines, both of the outside vents are self-supported.
…with 50lt Osprey and 70lt One Planet packs.
Bracing strap to take load off the zip
Inside
…with Long and Regular Thermarest mats
Rear vents
…and front vents (both vents are free-standing and can be used open, or closed with mesh or material)
With the inner removed
Continuous guy lines
Pole-end – tensioning side
Pole-end – static side
Corner pegs – note metal tensioners and peg rings.
The Nammatj and it’s bag. Both my Soulo and Nammatj are supposed to be the same colour, however, the Soulo is the same as the bag above, and the Nammatj is much, much darker.
people + other strange creatures 