Black Diamond HiLight Review

Hands-On Review of the HiLight

The Black Diamond HiLight is a super lightweight shelter that offers better livability and more ventilation than most other "bivy-style" tents. That said, it isn't completely waterproof and fairs poorly in moderate to strong winds. It's fine for short-duration rain or afternoon thunderstorms, but you'll likely get wet in prolonged rain and snow.

Ease of Set-Up

The HiLight requires a similar set-up to other single-wall tents. You pitch from the inside, and the poles are secured by little velcro loops and supported by the body of the tent itself. All the tents in our review that pitch from the inside was the hardest to set up. That said, an internal pole set-up should is not a deal-breaker and all of our testers got better at pitching them with practice.

Most of the single-wall models that are pitched from the inside only have two poles. This one has a third half-length pole that slides in a while you stand on the outside of the tent after inserting the two primary poles. It's easy to put in but occasionally tricky to get out, particularly in windy conditions. The Hilight offer several advantages, but a hassle-free setup isn't one of them.

Weather and Storm Resistance

The HiLight uses the same proprietary NanoShield fabric as the Firstlight, which is water-resistant and not waterproof. In light rain or passing thunderstorms, this model offers reasonably water-resistant. In any sort of sustained rain or damp snow, the tent walls become completely saturated, quickly soaking anything that touches them.

The HiLight is a 4 season tent, but only barely. It is not as wind-resistant as the Firstlight and is the least strong tent in this review. Its 1/2-length third pole acts as a mini sail and can strain the rest of the poles in winds of only 35-40 mph. The tent's four primary guy points help, but this is not a tent for stronger, sustained winds.

The advantage of the HiLight is that it has far better ventilation and headroom options for the majority of the time when the weather is nicer. One entire side of the tent zips open, exposing a huge mesh door. The top 1/3 of the non-door side opens to expose a mesh panel. It has as much ventilation as you could possibly need. In light rain, the third pole creates two awnings to allow its occupants to keep the top of the door open without letting rain in.

Weight and packed size

At three pounds 8 ounces for just the tent and poles and three pounds 15 ounces for the tent plus the essentials (stakes, guylines, pole bag, etc.), the HiLight is in line with the lightest tents in our review. While a lot of the models were more-or-less identical in weight and had vastly superior weather resistance, they didn't have near as good ventilation or as much headroom as the HiLight.

While the HiLight has a number of models that were similar in weight, it, along with the FirstLight were the two most compressible models in our review and were at least 25% smaller than the next closest model and packed into a size smaller than a 1-liter Nalgene (excluding the poles).

Livability and Comfort

The HiLight features 27 sq ft of interior space, and unlike most two pole bivy tents, the HiLight is not designed for its occupants to sleep head-to-foot. Instead, it features an asymmetric design, with one end being much wider than the other to help better accommodate people, both sleeping with their heads at the same end. This can be particularly nice for sloping platforms where both people will likely want their heads on the uphill end. We tried sleeping head-to-foot in this tent on several occasions, and while there is marginally less shoulder room on the narrower end for the person whose head is down there, it wasn't too bad.

One of the main reasons to buy this tent is its full side door which drastically increases the livability and comfort of this tent. And it's just plain sweet. Even when the mesh door is closed to keep the bugs out, this tent feels a lot more spacious because the door zips open to the ground. The opposite side of the tent features a second half-sized bug screen flap window that is well covered by an awning. It can be used in light rain with the door partially open to create excellent cross-ventilation.

Adaptability and Versatility

Unlike several of the other super-light bivy-style tents in this review, the HiLight features a lot of bug netting to facilitate ventilation. If we knew we were going to bring this tent backpacking occasionally, or we lived someplace with generally nicer weather like the Sierras, we'd much prefer to have the HiLight over the Firstlight.

While the HiLight's inability to completely seal out the elements and generally poor strong wind performance keeps it from being super versatile, it is far better in 3-season conditions than the majority of single wall tents.

Should You Buy the Black Diamond Hilight

The Hilight is best suited for mostly fair-weather adventures. It shines if you are "pickier" about the weather and rarely face storms. It's among the lightest and most compact models we tested. It has excellent ventilation and decent livable space (for a bivy tent). It is one of the better single-wall tents for lower elevation or warmer nights. The large mesh door and window let air circulate while keeping the critters out. That said, it is not all that versatile due to its poor performance in wetter weather or strong winds. It's a great option if you are frequently using it in 3-season conditions below treeline. If you're at higher elevations and expect moderate to strong winds or heavy precipitation, get something else.

What other 4-season tent should you should consider besides the Black Diamond Hilight

For most people, the Black Diamond Eldorado is going to be better. It is double the price and heavier but is a true 4-season tent. If you want to go lighter yet (and less versatile), the Black Diamond Firstlight is a few ounces lighter and a little more packable. You lose a little headroom and a much smaller door, but it is lighter weight. It shares the same mediocre storm performance. If you like the overall design of this model but want something waterproof, check out the slightly bigger and far more storm-resistant Black Diamond Ahwahnee. The downside of the Ahwahnee is it's over 2 lbs heavier and much more expensive.