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Welcome to another article from your honest company: Novapro Sports! - your hiking tent and outdoor gear supplier who really cares for your love of hiking!
It has been a while since we have written gear review of our products, we deeply apologise to our blog followers and customers as we have been busy! We look forward to an exciting 2020 year ahead of us with new tents, upgraded tents, more gear and information on our products to help you with your choice of tents and most of all - to hike lighter and enjoy the abundance of Nature that Australia has to offer! Wherever you are - in the West, East, North, South, we stock a variety of hiking tents to cater for your adventure hike!
Let's jump in!
The Cloud Up 2 Hiking Tent is an ultralight hiking tent falling under the "hiking tents below 2kg" category. For seasoned hikers, you know this means a price tag above A$350 normally. The tent is a 4 season tent, meaning it is suitable to be used throughout the whole year's season in places like the USA (think: snow!). Australian's beautiful terrain and climate is definitely considered mild for this little amazing tent. It has been tested as a base camping tent, cycling tent, gone on ultralight hikes, alpine hikes, and many many other types of trail - and has toughed out crazy weather - all alright!
What is different in the Cloud Up 2 (upgraded model?)
The Cloud Up 2 Hiking Tent was given an upgrade approximately around the mid of 2019 - 2020. What became different was mainly guy lines that were added to the middle of the tent for further reinforcements from weather. Another main thing that it fixed was a lot of customer's feedback that the outer fly tent sticks to the inner tent when it gets wet from the inside of the tent (moisture from sleeping inside) or external moist when the area is humid / rain etc. Although these occurrences were a minor problem, with the extra guy lines in the middle of the outer tent fly attached, this allows the outer fly to be pulled away from the inner tent - thus solving our customer's earlier concerns - we do take feedback for improvements seriously to improve our tents!
For curious minds, you may have some further questions in mind:
Why does the outer fly stick onto the inner fly for models earlier than the upgraded 2019 ones? Is this a defect?
The Cloud Up 2 was engineered for alpine overnight hikes (cold, dry climates) and even suitable for mild snow conditions. The bucket of the inner tent (i.e waterproofing bucket material) is made much higher than other 3 season or summer tents that you see out there, so that it blocks out more chilly winds at night compared to other types of 3 season / summer tents you may have seen or used before. The high bucket also prevents snow splatters / rain splatters going into the tent.
Comparing to other tents, the Cloud Up 2 hiking tent and our Novapro Sports Illumina X Ultralight Hiking Tent are snugglier, cosier and warmer than most other 3 season tents you may find in the market. This makes it exceptionally great for the Australian night weather when the wind gets really chilly. The high bucket blocks out chilly wind blowing onto your back if you have experienced it before!
However, with pros and cons to everything, being in a warm snuggly tent means more condensation (warm from the inside, cold on the outside) - just like condensation problems we see on our car windows. Also, when occupants in the tent stay really warm and constantly breathing out lots of water vapour, condensation makes you wake up to a wet clammy tent in the morning if it gets out of hand. Not every hiker minds it, and seasoned hikers know that this is one thing to manage by opening doors and leaving some air space to get air circulation in the tent. Yet there is also the temptation to close everything up and keep it warm (provided you do not mind the condensation!) This is also where the upgraded 2019-2020 model helps as it opens up the middle part of the outer tent and allows even more airflow in - but not the chill wind from below.
We do note that we have had new hikers coming to us telling us the tent is leaking water from somewhere when they are not familiar with condensations and we do have to make an explanation on condensations to these customers most of the time!
We wish to note, however, that although the Cloud Up 2 was designed for cold dry conditions use, it doesn't mean it is not suitable for other conditions! It is a 4 season tent, meaning you can indeed use it for summer and other conditions - especially Australian conditions in summer where I get hot in the day and chilly at the night - and even if it is not an alpine hike, it is suitable. It has been used on beaches, rivers, base camping - all tried and tested!
Is there any set back or weakness to the new 2019-2020 Cloud Up 2 Hiking Tent upgraded models?
Yes! The total pack weight has gone up a little. The Cloud Up 2 was initially and approximately weighing around 1.6kg packed weight (this means the whole pack, excluding a free footprint that weighs around 250g). Our tents are made to go without footprint, so can actually really hike around with your tent without that bonus footprint. With the new guy lines in addition, and sometimes differences within the materials used during the manufacturing process, the Cloud Up 2 hiking tent weighs around 1.7kg now in total packed weight. Reason: Extra pegs, guy lines, and fabric for rope attachments sewn in.
The tent still falls under the hiking tent under 2kg category which years ago was reserved only for the big brand USA tents. We wish to note that all mid-range - premium tents on our website comes with a free footprint (tent mat) - although these tents are made to go without footprints. Footprints are really an extra optional recommended for prolong tent protection and if you bring your tent to sharp stony grounds and terrains. The footprint weighs around 250g so that is quite a significant weight to reduce for hikers who are counting every gram! (i.e, don't bring it along if you want to minimise weight) - but bring it along if you think your tent will be going through a rough time!
For more information, honest customer video reviews, and physical videos, please checkout our youtube channel libraries where we have gathered all the Cloud Up 2 (2019-2020) tent reviews for you!
Do you own this tent? Send us your review to share it with other customers deciding on this tent! It can be through email, a review website, or even a video for our youtube channel! Or just jump in and comment below! We'd love to see your comments!
Do check back, we will be updating our articles as we go along - and to follow up we will be posting customer's reviews on this tent up here for your easy reference!
