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Fri, 18 May 2012 21:02:00 -0600

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Exped VELA I EXTREME review

Fri, 18 May 2012 21:02:00 -0600

September 28, 2010

While on shoots being able to move freely and stay over wherever I want is a big advantage. This allows me to change plans on the fly, avoiding bad weather or making good use of different opportunities suddenly arising; good lighting, volcanoes erupting (actually happened) etc.

So, I decided to find a new tent for my resent Iceland trip. My choice fell on the Exped Vela I Extreme.

The first thing you notice about this tent is how light it is. As you unpack the individual pieces you are constantly amazed at how light each thing feels while still seemingly strong and sturdy. This is no doubt a very well build tent. The total weight is just 1.75 kg (packaged).

The package is small enough to fit inside my backpack along with a sleeping pad, sleeping bag, various camping gear and other stuff you need for a week of being in nature. The package is 42×10cm. This is important to me as I also have to bring a second back with a lot of heavy camera gear. Also, traveling around with too many separate things just gets to you. I am not actually backpacking but if so, the weight would be even more of an issue – and the VELA I EXTREME a very good choice.

Setting up the tent is supposed to be possible in less than two minutes. While that might be true (after a few times) I find that you do need to adjust the length of wires and position of the plugs quite a few times before everything is set up right and the rainfly doesn’t touch the canopy. It isn’t easy either, setting up a tent in Iceland. The ground is often very hard – either with rocks or loose gravel. The plugs however proved very strong and could easily take some hits from a big rock as I was hammering them into the ground. I only had three nights in the tent so far, but I assume setting everything up perfectly will get a lot easier over time.

The tent is made for one person and everything you would need with you inside. The rainfly creates quite a large covered area outside the canopy. Good for storing your backpack and other things. In a rare emergency you could sleep two persons in this tent. You’d have to like each other a lot though. The floor area is 1.7 m2 and the outside vestibule 1.0 m2.
While enjoying all kinds of weather on this trip – winds up to 25 ms and heavy rain at times – the tent stood firmly on the ground and dried off quickly once the sun was out.

On the slightly negative side I can’t sit up straight in this tent without bending my head a bit, but then I am 190cm, so that probably wouldn’t be an issue for everyone. Anyway, size and weight are more important to me. Also, who would want to sit inside a tent, while in Iceland!

Author: Anders Peter Amsnæs / www.anderspeter.com

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Fri, 18 May 2012 21:02:00 -0600

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