Hyperlite Mountain Gear UltaMid 2 Tent Review

Bottom Line

Few tents have as solid a reputation as the Ultamid 2, which makes it our top pick for sheltering a storm. With durable materials, a wind-shedding pyramid shape, and a lofty peak height, it’s one of our top-performing ultralight tents. However, for most people, the incredible weather protection this tent offers is overkill, and for the substantial price, there are more well-rounded tents we recommend.

The pyramid shape is excellent for weathering storms. Being direction agnostic helps if the wind is shifting directions – there’s no weak point to attack this tent from. A healthy amount of staking points and guy line attachment loops can turn this into even more of a fortress. We tested the full inner net with a DCF floor, and found the interior generally comfortable, although not more so than our top picks for comfortable ultralight tents. 

We weren’t able to push this shelter anywhere close to its limits during testing during early winter in the Midwest, but we found the incredible peak height of 64 inches gave us a sense of roominess when falling asleep that we usually only feel when testing much larger tents. And speaking of large, the combination of a Dyneema Composite Fiber construction and huge material sizes means the rainfly and net tent both packed rather large for an ultralight tent. This is accompanied by the heaviest tent weight due to the stronger materials and more durable construction.

When everything is tallied, we’re left with a tent that’s in a different class than the others in this guide. It’s designed for someone who knows they’ll be pushing the limits of weather resistance and is willing to pay the price (and weight, and space) for that protection. However, since few tents in this weight range can match its incredible performance, it’s one of those pieces of outdoor gear that’s an investment in safety and comfort.

How We Tested

While we haven’t taken the MSR Advance Pro 2 to the Himalayas just yet, we thoroughly tested it in deep-winter conditions in Colorado’s mountains. Our evaluation focused primarily on snow-covered terrain below treeline, where we assessed its performance in cold, windy, and challenging environments. To gauge its versatility, we also pitched the tent in warmer conditions on dirt, allowing us to better understand its setup process, breathability, and overall comfort across a range of climates.

Comfort

As the largest tent we tested, the Ultamid is, unsurprisingly, a comfortable experience but has a fair number of quirks that limit its appeal. To start with the positives, it has a massive 64 inches of interior height, the tallest by far. The floor space is also huge at 50 square feet, meaning this is a spacious experience. 

However, once you look past those impressive numbers, the experience is tempered a bit. The height comes from a central support, which means the pole is directly in the middle of the floor space. This limits interior sleeping positions a bit, and if you’re with someone you’d like to stay close to at night, the pole definitely inhibits that.

Additionally, the sloping walls limit the usable interior space, so it didn’t translate to the enormously luxurious experience the specs would suggest. The dimensions of the inner net tent are 76×96 inches, yet we found our head and foot box hitting the mesh netting. This isn’t a huge deal since they’re still set away from the tent’s walls, so condensation worries aren’t an issue, but it’s still a confusing experience.

The headroom doesn’t disappoint. We could sit up and stretch with our arms fully over our heads, something rare in a backpacking tent. Changing clothes was also easier in this tent than in any other. Since it’s a double-wall design, condensation management should be much easier, and the generously sized mesh inner is spaced far enough from the rain fly to keep things dry. To round things off, two vents at the peak help manage condensation.

Weight

The Ultamid 2 is a blend of the lightest and most durable materials, adding up to a weight that isn’t ultralight at first glance. For both the rainfly and the mesh inner – both made of Dyneema Composite Fiber (DCF) – the combo weighs in at 40.7 ounces on our scales. This is heavier than any other tent we tested, even the budget ones, but it’s important to keep that weight in the context of what the tent is used for. No other tent offers this level of weather resistance, and so in that light it manages to be surprisingly lightweight for how protective it is.

The two parts weigh roughly the same with the mesh inner being slightly heavier, and since this is intended to be a two person shelter it’s easy to see this weight split up between two people. Since DCF is a thicker material than something like silnylon or silpoly, these two parts will take up more room. Each part is nearly as large as a full tent. However, for people after this level of weather protection, it’s well worth both the weight and size.

Ease of Use

With a mix of easy and hard features, the Ultamid comes out in the middle for ease of use. Staking out the four corners is easy enough, but strapping two trekking poles together to make the long central pole can be a bit tricky.

Additionally, it’s a central pole inside the tent instead of in a vestibule as seen on other trekking pole tents, which makes setup a bit harder than usual. It also necessitates stepping into your tent. This can bring in minor dirt in the best conditions or splotches of mud in the worst. You’ll have to make your own call on what level of cleanliness is important in the backcountry, but this tent makes it a bit more difficult than most to keep clean when conditions are poor.

Adding to that is a design that makes getting in and out a bit different than other shelters. With no vestibules, the large #5 zippers open directly into the shelter’s interior, making it awkward to get in and out during the rain, and leaving limited space to put dirty shoes. It’s worth noting that Hyperlite Mountain Gear makes a half net version of the inner for one person with one half of the shelter devoted to a vestibule that solves these issues at the sacrifice of interior space.

Weather Resistance

If you’re seriously looking at this tent, it’s because you’re after the most durable, rugged, and tear resistant shelter money can buy at a weight that won’t break a backpack.

Pyramid designs are the best shape for shedding wind during storms, and we won’t dance around the topic here: this is a beast when it comes to storms. It’s entirely in a different class than the other shelters in our lineup. With burly 0.8oz/sqyd DCF for the rainfly and 1.1oz/sqyd DCF for the floor, these are some of the strongest fabrics out there. The stitching is thick and robust, and the use of larger zippers only adds to the protection here.

When properly staked, few other shelters can compete with the weather resistance of the Ultamid. With 8 different attachment points on the perimeter and more on the midpoint, there is no other ultralight shelter we’d rather be in when facing down the worst of nature’s storms, and it’s a reason why this shelter has become a favorite for adventures that go to the windiest of locations.

We haven’t had a chance to personally test this in a storm to validate the specs and reputation, but we see little reason why it wouldn’t perform well.

Durability

In addition to excellent weather resistance, the durability on the Ultamid is top notch. The use of thicker DCF fabrics and high quality construction techniques means this shelter should last a long time, even on the heavier side of backpacking.

When setting up this shelter, you’re struck by just how solid everything feels, a change from the delicate feeling on some of our other ultralight picks that are more prioritized with weight savings rather than durability. As with weather resistance, this doesn’t make those other shelters poor performers, it just highlights that the Ultamid 2 targets a different level.

Should You Buy the Hyperlite Mountain Gear Ultamid 2?

If you’re a backpacker consistently pushing your gear to the limit and chasing the beauty of nature through the harshest of storms, the Ultamid 2 is your tent. This thing is a tank but weighs only slightly more than a standard ultralight shelter, making it unique in the world of backpacking shelters for how much protection it offers for the weight.

However, our praise for this tent comes at a big cost. The tarp alone is one of the most expensive in our lineup, and when the cost of the inner is factored in, it pushes the price higher than any other in our lineup. For people relying on their shelters to keep them safe in conditions where most others would turn back, the cost is worth it.

If you’re not a person pushing the limits of weather resistance, then we think that other tents ended up being more comfortable despite the excellent numbers on the spec sheet. Those other tents are cheaper, lighter, easier to set up, and pack much smaller.

Additionally, most of them are just fine for standard weather conditions, and many of them will even survive harsher winds when set up properly. Not to the degree that the Ultamid 2 could, but it’s worth asking yourself if you need a tent that can survive the type of storms that make every other tent truly unusable.

What Other Ultralight Tent Should You Consider?

Here are a few other four-season tents worth exploring. If you want more options, check out our full Ultralight Backpacking Tent Guide. 

Durston X-Mid Pro 2+ Review: If you’ve decided that you don’t need the ridiculous protection of the Ultamid but still want a decently stormworthy shelter, the X-Mid Pro 2+ tops our list for weather resistance, but also in comfort and ease of use. It’s overall a delightful tent to use, and despite the smaller dimensions on paper compared to the Ultamid the clever geometry makes it feel more livable in practice. That clever geometry also means it sheds wind better than an A frame style tent, and when oriented properly it cuts through wind with ease. It’s the tent that comes closest to the Ultamid, but it’s still definitely in a different class of product. We loved the easy pitching, huge vestibules, peak height, and so many other things. It does come with a large footprint that enables that wonderful livability and it’s still an expensive tent, but we think it’s one of the best out there.

Tarptent Double Rainbow Review: If the price of the Ultamid was so high it made you ask for something not just half the price, but more around a quarter of the price, the Double Rainbow is worth checking out. With a single arched pole structure unique in the ultralight world, the Double Rainbow boasts an impressive floorspace made even more comfortable due to near vertical end walls. When properly staked out it’s a decently storm resistant shelter that should shrug off most storms on trail. It also can convert to be fully freestanding with trekking poles, and the doors hide a flap of fabric that can enable a porch mode for waiting out rainstorms. The head height isn’t the most spacious, but that’s one of the few downsides for this otherwise wonderful shelter.

3FUL Lanshan 2 Pro Review: On the complete other end of the price spectrum, if you’re curious what you can get for closer to a sixth the price of the Ultamid, the answer is the Lanshan 2 Pro. And for that price, you actually get a decently good shelter. It’s comfortable, easy to use, and aside from a few quirks, is a tent we’d recommend to budget backpackers no matter the experience level. The classic A frame design won’t weather storms as well as some others in our lineup, but it’s fine for most conditions.