Wild Country Helm 1 Footprint Groundsheet protector

Product Information

The Helm Compact 1 has a mesh panel on the inner door plus a small mesh door with cover at the rear of the inner (which also allows access to the rear storage space) , providing several options for ventilation depending on weather conditions.

It pitches like a tarp tent, requiring a trekking pole to prop it up which should be either 120cm of less in length. There’s then a 15-inch aluminium pole that props up the other end. This is embedded but can be removed if necessary. Selected for our Outdoor 100 20201/22 – Read our full Fjällräven Abisko Lite 1 tent review. BUY NOW: FJALLRAVEN.COM There’s extra storage space under the rear flysheet which can be accessed from a small door in the inner.They were the first company to launch a sub one-kilogram tent after the Millennium, and though their rivals would soon catch up with them, the weight and the little details have always been something at which they have excelled. If you are a super tidy tent person and have a tent partner who, er….isn’t; save yourself hours of torment by gifting them a gear loft or tent tidy so you don’t lose valuable life minutes while they ratch around for their stuff. We recommend using a footprint which sits under the groundsheet and porch area to help prolong the life of your tent. A footprint for the Helm Compact 1 is available. The Helm 2 Compact is a 3-season tent (fine for spring, summer & autumn use) and will also take a light dusting of snow in the not too harsh UK winter conditions

The first thing you’ll notice about the Helm 1 is its slightly strange asymmetric shape. Don’t worry, that’s deliberate, it’s all about the space-to-weight ratio. The single-person tent, made by Terra Nova Equipment’s sub-brand Wild Country provides a generous amount of inner space while remaining impressively light overall. With its transverse hoop design, utilising one main alloy pole in the centre and two tiny poles at each end, the Competition 1 still feels relatively spacious for one person. Most people can just about sit up without your head touching the inner’s roof, while the two mini poles ensure improved structure and room at the foot and head ends. Full vestibule / high vent / zipper vestibule closure / easy tensioning adjustment / floating canopy / floating floor / optimized sleeping area / centre pole support. Great ventilation with a mesh panel on the inner door, plus a smaller mesh door with a cover at the rear of the inner.The flysheet is a PFC-free 20D ripstop sil-nylon (1,500mm HH), coated on both sides and with taped seams. The inner is entirely made from 15D fine gauge mosquito mesh, with a bathtub groundsheet made of 40D sil-nylon (5,000mm HH). The hubbed poles, on the other hand, are high-quality aluminium alloy DAC Featherlite NSL, in variable diameters. The tent is supplied with 9 lightweight pegs and 2 guylines. The Wild Country Helm Compact 1 has been awarded the Best Value one-person tent in 2022, as reviewed by Trail Magazine. I haven’t tried this out for real yet, but on first erection in my garden: -The tent appears to be well made (I have bought Terra Nova tents before and am confident this will be fine), and really good value for the money, but there are a few points to think about. – I’m 6ft 0ins tall and this is not really long enough inside. My feet touch the end whilst my face is uncomfortably close to the wall at the other end, remember that the walls are not vertical – they slope towards the centre of the tent, so whilst the footprint appears on paper to be adequate, the full length is not useable. If you are say, 5ft 10ins or less, it would be fine.

Is that too much to ask from one tent? Our in-depth, in-field research – undertaken throughout the Highlands of Scotland during a Munro-bagging hiking expedition – concludes a categorical ‘hell no’.

Key questions to ask yourself before tent shopping are: Where am I going? When am I going? What terrain will I need to pitch on? The name ‘super bivy’ is a spot-on description of this. Big Sky have come up with a shelter that you could arguably say comes with all of the benefits of a bivy bag without the claustrophobic downsides. It’s very similar in design to the Six Moon Designs Wisp Bivy – also reviewed here, only it has an extra mini pole and it’s a bit lighter, presumably because it doesn’t have the mesh vents along the base that the SMD Lunar Solo has. A tarp pitched over the front of your tent can make a great gear garage so you have more space inside. It can also double up as an all weather kitchen. we] were impressed with its fast pitching, all-in-one design, practical features and reassuringly robust build quality. The one-person version is just as good as its big brother, and arguably this style of tent is even better suited to solo use.”

The Helm Compact 1 has a mesh panel on the inner door plus a small mesh door with a cover at the rear of the inner (which also allows access to the rear storage space), providing several options for ventilation depending on weather conditions. A footprint or groundsheet protector is an excellent investment – moles have no idea how much financial trauma they cause when trying to surface under a brand new tent! The Helm 2 Compact is a free standing, stable dome design (although requires pegging out to stretch the tent base)

It’s a hybrid tarp / tent design that features a single skin of silicon coated polyester upper that’s suspended off a trekking pole. This upper is pegged down at the edge and corners to form a hexagonal shape around its base. Like all of the products that Vaude manufactures, the Taurus SUL tent is completely PVC-free and instead, uses waterproof tent fabrics made from triple silicone coated nylon which is siliconised on both sides. This gives it high UV reflection and increased tear resistance, ensuring sustainability through longevity without resorting to more harmful treatments. The Wisp Bivy’s incredibly light weight is mainly down to the technical materials that have been used, more specifically, the clever SuperSil fabric, which is a ripstop nylon that’s coated on both sides with silicon to add both waterproofness and durability. For anyone taller than me, I would say this isn’t really big enough. I’ll live with it because I wanted to reduce the weight and bulk of my old Terra Nova Solar 2, which is actually still a good tent, but heavier and bulkier. Like most light tents, I would recommend using a footprint of some sort to protect the thin groundsheet from cuts etc. The inner has plenty of headroom and there's a good-sized porch for kit storage, plus extra storage space under the rear flysheet accessed from a small door in the inner.