Lightwave G1 Ion tent review

I’ve been using the G1 ion for about 5 years now, thought you might be interested in a review.  I’ve used it in Canada, NZ, Scotland and of course at home in the rain/bog.

Although described on their website: http://www.lightwave.uk.com/en/tent_g1ion.php as a two person tent, I’d say it really needs to be two close friends.  I’ve shared the tent with the missus without problem, but using it for the Mourne Mountain Marathon a couple of years ago meant semi-spooning with a bloke from work – not great!

For one person however, it is great.  Plenty of room for you and your gear, room to get changed etc. I know many of you will probably look at the weight (2.3kg) and think no way, but this tent is made to stand up to seriously bad weather.  It is very stable and reasonably quiet in strong winds, something you can’t say about many lightweight tents.  A lot of the inner is mesh, which makes it cooler in winter.  It does mean however that there is virtually no condensation inside – even during a frozen week in Scotland recently.  I just use a warm sleeping bag!

The tent goes up inner first (strongest design). To prevent problems when erecting in rain, I have attached the inner and outer with short lengths of cord.  This means I can put the poles in without getting the inner wet.  The tent is then self supporting once the poles are in.  The flysheet attaches to the inner guying points and ladder lock adjusters at one side allow you to tension the flysheet (after pegging of course).

Guying points and lines are highly reflective, very welcome after hours of night navigation tests.

Downsides?  I don’t like the lightweight pegs supplied with any tent I’ve had experience with, and always use plain old alloy ones.  They are much harder to lose, easier to pull out, and cheap to replace.

Here’s a snap to give you an idea of the size: 

Hope this is useful, feel free to ask if I’ve missed anything.