Hilleberg Nallo 2 Review

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The Nallo is a well-refined, high performance, lightweight four-season tent. This is Hilleberg’s lightest four-season model. It weighs five pounds one ounce, which is impressive not because of its weight, but because of the amount of strength and space the tent provides. The Nallo 2 packs 30 square feet of interior space, a 14 square foot vestibule, two walls to protect you from the elements, top quality poles and fabrics, and numerous well-designed features into these five pounds. The result is a remarkably versatile and livable tent that excels at mobile applications in all conditions. Whether it it’s biking across Asia, backcountry skiing, alpine climbing, or summer backpacking, the Nallo excels at all activities that demand low weight and four season functionality.

The Nallo is a tunnel tent; it’s quick to set up. Simply peg out the ground level guy points, insert the two poles into the pole sleeves, and peg and tighten the guy lines.

The rainfly fabric, Kerlon 1200, is the third strongest textile found any tent we’ve ever reviewed. It has a tear strength of 26.5 lbs., yet weighs only 1.47 oz/sq.yd. This is primarily due to the fact that each side of the fabric is coated with three layers of 100% silicon, a coating far superior (and more expensive) than traditional polyurethane compounds used on most other tents. This is better because a stronger fabric is less likely to be punctured by a broken pole and less likely to tear if punctured. A better coating is also more resistant to the sun’s harmful UV rays and therefore will remain its water resistance for longer. Our testers immediately noticed the difference between the Hilleberg fabrics and those of competing tents. The Kerlon 1200 has a slick, thin, crinkly feel, where polyurethane coated fabrics feel rubbery and thick. Even after three months of continuous use water beaded up and rolled off our test model much better than it did on other fly materials.

The Nallo has several features that make it surprisingly strong and stormproof for its weight. First, the outer tent (rainfly) extends all the way to the ground. This blocks wind, snow, and virtually reduces splashback from driving rain. Two, the poles sleeves can accommodate an extras set of poles, which makes the tent significantly stronger. This feature turns the lightweight Nallo, which is strong to begin with, into a mobile fortress with a strength near that of it’s elder sibling, the Nammatj. Three, three ground straps run perpendicular to the length of the tent and absorb stress during high winds and keep the pole arcs at the proper height and tension. They can also be used as guy lines, if needed. (Hilleberg tents are then only ones we’ve tested that comes equipped with ground straps.) Four, the vestibule has a “door band,” which keeps it in the proper shape and minimizes tension on the zippers. Five, all guy points are heavily reinforced; the vestibule adjusters are made of metal, not plastic. Six, the guy lines are made of a Spectra-polyster blend that doesn’t absorb water and doesn’t stretch. The fact that they don’t absorb water is key. With 8 guy points and 4+ ft. of cord at each point, wet lines can make a tent significantly heavier. With no sheath to separate from the core, Spectra is also more durable. The Nallo’s guy lines come pre-rigged with camming adjusters. No, you don’t have to spend an hour cutting and attaching lines!! The camming adjusters are super easy and very fast, too. We much prefer them to the trucker’s hitch knot. Of all the tents we’ve reviewed, the only other one that comes close to matching the quality of the Hilleberg’s guy lines is the North Face Mountain 25. All of these features make the Nallo suitable to serious wilderness travel in exposed conditions.

Ventilation is a key component of tent design. A well-ventilated tent will bring in cold air down low while letting hot, humid air escape from the top. The Nallo does exactly this with its low vent at the foot end and large vent above the door. Ventilation is easy even in driving rain and snow. The vent awning above the door is supported by a flexible wire. In terrible conditions you can attach a guy line to two points on the awning and pull it tight to ensure the vent retains its form. (This also helps keep vestibule fabric tighter and further supports the main pole.)

The tent’s vestibule is also well designed. Unlike most tents from other companies, the Nallo’s vestibule has a continuous zipper that hits the ground in two places, making a large arc. There are four zipper pulls that provide multiple configurations for opening the door: open from the left or the right, or pull both zippers down if you can’t easily reach one of the two down by the floor.

The stakes, too, are high quality. The Jannu includes sixteen DAC V-stakes. This is the exact number you need to stake out every point on the tent. (No other manufacturer includes the sufficient number.) These stakes have cord loops at the top that make them easier to remove and less likely to loose. When camping on snow or sand, larger and wider stakes are better. Hilleberg sells sand and snow stakes that come with a line and clip attached so that you don’t lose them.

The Nallo holds another strong suit: versatility. Removing the inner tent leaves a strong floorless tarp tent that light hikers and backcountry skiers will love. While the tent is already light enough to carry backpacking, the tarp tent leaves the Nallo’s best attributes intact while shaving weight. Of all the four-season tents we’ve reviewed, the Nallo is the most versatile and it’s low weight makes it the best for summer use.

The Jannu comes with a minimalist, lightweight stuff sack. This is designed to be light enough to come with you and can be filled and buried dead man style for an anchor point.

Dislikes
Tunnel tents are not as strong as freestanding tents. They’re best for mobile applications where you move camp everyday and use your tent primarily for sleeping. Freestanding tents, on the other hand, are best for applications that demand high static strength and snowloading capacity. A freestanding dome tent, like the vast majority of the models tested in our broader four-season tent review, excel at basecamps, where the tent may be left standing for days at a time, often unattended. For example, high altitude mountaineers establish high camps by stashing supplies in a pitched tent for a later summit attempt or to come use later to acclimatize. Such an application require a strong, freestanding tent that can withstand being buried by snow and relentlessly pummeled by wind. Tunnel tents excel at mobile applications where weight savings supersede sheer strength. Most, including the Nallo, are plenty strong for terrible storms, they just need someone to be inside the tent to knock off snow and to shovel it away from the tent as it accumulates. The other drawback to tunnel tents is their larger footprint and non self-supporting design. Freestanding tents are better for pitching in tricky conditions, such as in rock fields, small ledges, or on steep snowslopes where you need to chop out a platform.

This author was in the Nallo during an early winter storm that dumped 8” of wet, heavy snow overnight. Roughly 4” of snow fell before he awoke in the middle of the night. This heavy load made the Nallo sag down in the middle and bent the poles significantly (see photo below). In such a storm it’s important to attentively knock snow off the roof and vestibule, and clear it away from the sides of the tent.

While the Nallo is an exceptionally well-designed tent, it’s not perfect. We have two minor suggestions. First, Hilleberg uses clunky metal zipper pulls that are small, hard to grab with gloves, and knock against each other in the wind, creating a high-pitched rattle. Replacing these with reflective cord would make the zippers easier to find, the doors easier to open, and would eliminate the annoying rattle. Second, adding reflective guy lines would be another improvement. There are currently six reflective points on the tent, but reflective lines would make the tent is easier to see at night. This is important because guy lines are notorious trip wires. Being able to see them at night reduces the probability of someone tripping over them, which could damage the tent. The North Face Mountain 25 uses a slightly thinner reflective Spectra cord. A thicker version of this would be ideal for the Nallo.

The Nallo costs $625, a hefty sum for a tent. The numerous points above suggest that it’s far better than the majority of the competition. The question is do you need the super strong fabric, the ability to add extra poles, the Spectra guy lines with camming adjusters, etc., or can you make do with something slightly heavier, not as strong, or not as stormproof ? Our opinion: we believe the Jannu is totally worth it for extended trips into remote areas.

Best Application
Although the Nallo is a spectacular tent, our testers often reach for the company's Ajan (lighter) or Nammatj (heavier) more than the Nallo. The Anjan is one of our top scoring three-season tents and the Nammatj is the single most versatile tent on the planet. See our Four Season Tent Ratings to compare the various tents we've tested. If the Nallo best suited your intended application, it will be an excellent value.

Other versions and accessories
The Nallo is available in three colors!! (No other tent manufacturer gives you this option.) Choose red, green, or sand. We prefer red for high visibility excursions, such as those on snow. The green, which is very successful at camouflaging the tent, abides by Leave No Trace principles. Sand blends in well in the desert. Take your pick.

The Nallo is also available in two, three, and four person versions, all of which also have extended vestibule versions (*GT) that nearly twice the vestibule area.

Accessories include a footprint, extra V stakes, snow and sand stakes, and extra poles.