Updated November 11, 2024. This post began with my first impressions. I have had time to use the tent extensively in various weather conditions and can add some important new observations for potential buyers and the makers of the tent.
The French outdoor gear company Samaya sent me one of their groundbreaking ultra-light Radical 1 tents to try out. This is a minimalist 4-season solo tent.
I don’t review gear that I wouldn’t myself use, and there are not many tents I would even consider, but this one meets many important criteria, so I agreed. I took it out to the Mount Baker area, which gets an annual average of around 16 meters of snow. This was a short trip in deep snow conditions and almost constant snowfall. The persistent snowfall wasn’t our expectation. We assumed the clouds and snowfall would clear in the morning as forecast but that never happened. It was an enjoyable trip anyway.