ALPS Mountaineering Meramac 5-Person Tent

The first two nights we were in the mountains, big winds, huge winds. The tent was blown flat on our faces, on an air mattress, about a dozen times those two nights. First night from the door side, second from the non-door side. I am serious, FLAT across our faces. Then sprang upright like nothing happened. The first time the wall of the tent woke me up, I thought the week long expedition was over. Not!Tent is very easy to set up and ventilates very, very well. Had to drive stakes on the upwind side to keep it from blowing away the first time, otherwise the only issue would be stakes. The provided stakes are fine for many uses, however, for many locations out West, and some back East, you should bring some heavy duty tent pegs and a small sledge or mallet. Just cautionary, this applies to everything from one man bevy's' to expedition cabin style tents. We spent far more time getting the stakes to hold than we did setting up the tent.Rain, when driven by enough wind, will get in around the upper half of the door. Not much, it is getting through the zipper, but in extreme conditions you should be grateful for this small issue instead of lying in a collapsed tent getting cold and wet, like our neighbors in the next campsite in a much more expensive brand name tent did one night. In the included photo, the blue tent in the background basically folded around it's occupants during the storm.

We love this tent. It is so nice to be able to stand up in a tent. Easily fits a queen air mattress with room on both sides for plenty of gear space. Can be a little difficult to put up if you are short since it is so tall.***update 2018*** Tent is holding up well but after several uses that fell into the 3rd or 4th season kind of area we discovered the very low mesh paneling on the sides of the tent are a huge problem when the temperature is low at night. We ended up with a freak snow snowstorm in Sept. and froze our shoulders off. The wind just blows right under the rainfly and through the mesh. This even ended up being a problem when the temp dropped to the 40s on other trips. Great for warm weather, but don't get it if you you expect it to be chilly at night. More of a 1 season tent.

In short, purchased the tent in May 2015. Used it once in June without issue. Took it on a second trip in September and the shock-cord on one of the poles had failed (material snapped). I had to make a emergency field repair to make tent usable. This shouldn't happen after only one use.I will make an effort to contact the company to see if they will replace the failed pole. If they make a good faith effort, I will upgrade my review.

Just finished my first camping trip with this tent. It's very easy to set up, roomy enough for an air mattress and the double doors are great for coming and going. My only complaint is that the tent has two half walls made of mesh which would be great for camping in warm temps, but where we were it was in the 30's at night and even with the rain fly on, it was freezing. Looking forward to using this for summer camping. It's a great tent for the price.

As a tall, usually-solo camper, this seemed like the perfect tent for me. It had the best ratio of height (6') to footprint (8'x10') which made it really efficient. The other features sounded nice, too. Two doors, lots of windows, easy setup. The price was right, so I thought I would give it a try.When I got it, I immediately set it up to make sure it arrived OK. Setup was an absolute breeze, having all clips and no sleeves is brilliant. I was able to get it setup by myself in about 10 minutes. Very spacious on the inside, enough to stand up straight (but could not install the gear loft and stand up straight). However, I was worried about the floor. It seemed to be made out of the same material as the rest of the tent, and I felt it wouldn't take much to accidentally puncture it. The only tent I can compare it to is my old Coleman Sundome 2. Obviously this had a lot more room, but the Coleman floor seemed like it was at least 2-3 times thicket than this, and it was bathtub style.I finally got to try it out in the field last weekend. Again, setup was a breeze. I didn't use the included stakes, they seemed like the same cheap stakes I got with the Coleman, and instead used a 3rd party product. It looked great, and I thought I was happy with it.Now, night one had some light rain in the forecast, so I made sure the rainfly was setup and guyed properly. I stayed nice and dry, although I realized that with the fly covering the huge vents on the sides and the door vents closed, it got ridiculously hot in there. Not a dealbreaker yet.The second night had some severe weather that developed. Hail, 60+ gusts. I actually stayed in my car during the rough stuff, and watched as the wind whipped and snapped the tent- bending, never breaking. It actually held up pretty well, and after a quick inspection there were a few clips that came undone and a little water on the inside but no damage. Impressive, right?Unfortunately, it continued to rain steadily that night, and soon the water just started pouring in. It seemed to be coming in through a seam under the door, but on both the front & the rear doors at the same time, which tells me it is a design flaw and not a defect. At one point I had two rolls of paper towels under both doors to try and soak up the water before it would get into the rest of the tent. Sleeping bag soaked, night ruined.As a back yard tent, or some very light car camping, this is probably a great tent. However, I can't recommend it for anyone who might experience more than a light drizzle.