Mountain Hardwear Trango 2 Review

The Mountain Hardwear Trango 2 is built for long trips in the harshest of environments. It has a great deal of interior floor space and an enormous vestibule. The vestibule was recently enlarged, making it ideal for spending time with another person and storing large amounts of gear. This combination of factors makes it an excellent choice for mountaineering guide services and other expedition-oriented individuals, thanks to its solid performance and value.

Performance Comparison

Weather and Storm Resistance

This tent is rock solid and incredibly weather-resistant in the most extreme conditions. Its stormworthiness and ability to shed heavy snow and resist strong wind are hard to beat. Heck, it's even good in the pouring rain of Patagonia or the coast of British Columbia, where you can pitch it in a puddle and remain dry.

The Trango has a strong design, quality poles, bomber construction, excellent guyline points, and a solid fly-to-pole connection method that only increases its strength. There is only a single vent at the peak of the main tent body, but we had no issues with condensation. Moisture beads up nicely on the rainfly, and eight stakeout points and guylines make for bombproof anchoring. Our testers have experience with this tent going back as far as 15 years, and not much has changed in the design — which says a lot. Rain or shine, this is an excellent 4-season tent.

Ease of Use

The Trango 2 is one of the easiest models to pitch. Its inner tent has two identical doors and a large zippered vent on one side of the ceiling. When pitching the fly, line up the inner tent's vent with the corresponding polyurethane window on the fly. You can put all the ends of the poles in their respective grommet holes and then quickly attach all the pole clips to the body.

If you start at the bottom and work up, the tent stays relatively well protected, even if pitching in high winds. This is one of its most significant advantages over pole sleeves.

The Trango 2 also has several locations to attach the poles to both the fly and the body. While we don't use them when camping in more protected areas, we clip the fly onto the poles when on multi-day adventures in harsh conditions. It's relatively easy and quick to pitch, regardless of conditions.

The Trango 2 is tremendously spacious inside and has an enormous amount of floor space. Three people can squeeze inside, and it's not even that cramped. There are three large pockets on each side and four in the ceiling, which all provide a decent amount of storage space.

Many loops in the ceiling make it easy to rig up a custom clothesline. The large and improved hooped vestibule is great for cooking but also easily stores two full backpacks, leaving enough room for its occupants to sneak by. One thing to note is that this tent doesn't have a particularly high ceiling, which allows it to function well in high winds. While it hardly feels cramped, it is a bit lower than comparable models. If you're six feet tall, you'll be able to sit up with no problem; if you are taller than six feet, you can sit up in the very middle and will have to slouch if you're facing your buddy and playing cards.

Weight

One word: Heavy. At just over 9 pounds, this tent is a bit of a beast, but it is designed to be used as a burly, basecamp-style tent. You just wouldn't want to pack it up into the high alpine — for that, you'd want something much lighter.

If you're not going to Alaska anytime soon and want something for routes on Mt. Rainier, Shasta, or other similar locations, we'd recommend looking for something that's lighter-weight or more packable.

Quality of Construction

The Trango 2 is super tough. It's proven itself time and time again on expeditions around the world, from Alaska to the Himalayas. Companies like Mountain Trip, a longtime Denali guide service that retires their tents with plenty of life left in them, still gets 8-12 Denali expeditions (which can last twenty-two days) out of each Trango 2. To say this tent is durable is an understatement.

The last round of updates this tent received significantly upgraded the materials, making them lighter and more fire-resistant while also making the doors larger. Mountain Hardwear also increased the vestibule size while dropping the weight. This basically makes the world's most popular expedition tent even better.

Versatility

If you don't mind the weight of the Trango, this tent is versatile in its own way. It performs better than most 4-season tents in warm, wet conditions, so you won't have to shelf it during the spring and summer months. However, it is also 2-3 times the weight of your average 3-season backpacking tent and 2-3 times the packed volume.

Because this is one of the heavier tents we tested, it is not ideally suited for lightweight backpacking or light and fast alpinism. It is meant for basecamping and car camping. We would happily bring it along (and have) with a horse, porter, or burro to carry it in for us. Otherwise, we'd want to be pulling it on a sled so it can glide across a frozen lake or glacier to a snowy basecamp. Just think expedition-style when considering the Trango unless you don't care how heavy your pack is.

Should You Buy the Mountain Hardwear Trango 2?

There are several good options to choose from when searching for the best expedition tent. But after extensive group deliberation, we settled on the Trango 2 as our top choice. It has spacious interior floor dimensions, is easy to set up, has a huge vestibule, and can handle a wide range of conditions due to its burly design. It excels on expeditions and expedition-style mountaineering, where a little extra weight is well worth it for top-notch comfort and livability. It is decent for mountaineering in the lower 48, though it is certainly on the heavy side. The primary advantages of this tent are the extra space and the use of pole clips, making it easier to pitch and safer in high winds. Thanks to its livability and space, the Trango is just plain nice to hang out in for extended periods of time.

What Other 4-Season Tents Should You Consider?

If you love the idea of a super burly, double-wall tent but want to step it up a notch, the Hilleberg Jannu can't be missed. Another great option for an expedition tent is The North Face Mountain 25. Both of these tents are just as weatherproof but a bit lighter. If you'd rather go fast and light in a single-wall tent, we really like the Samaya2.0. And for the ultimate in customizable ultralight shelters, the Hyperlite Mountain Gear Ultamid 2 is one you'll barely feel in your pack.