www.terra-nova.co.uk | £270
As you might expect from a product called the Terra Nova Blizzard 2, this is a four-season tent (see more tent reviews here), meaning it can be used in seriously bad weather. The fabric’s hydrostatic head is high: 4,000mm on the flysheet and 6,000mm on the groundsheet. It therefore isn’t the lightest, but actually, with a packed weight of 2.2kg and a minimum weight of 2.03kg, it isn’t that heavy either.
The tent pitches inner and outer together, which makes it easier to put up and means the inner tent won’t get wet if you’re camping in bad weather (unlike tents that pitch inner first). It’s a three-pole structure and each pole is colour coded so it’s easy to know where to put it. A downside is that the tent isn’t free standing, meaning it’s a little more faff to put up if you’re on your own, and it’s less good if you’re camping on hard ground where you can’t get the pegs in – you’ll need to find rocks to support it.
You can see straight away that this tent will be effective in bad weather. The pegs are chunky; the flysheet comes all the way to the ground, to stop snow, wind and rain from coming in; the bathtub groundsheet comes up nice and high, and it’s quite a low tent, to offer more stability in strong winds. The downside of this is that there’s less headroom – I could sit up comfortably enough, but anyone much taller than me (I’m 5ft 7”) would start getting cramped.
The Blizzard 2 is tunnel shaped with one door, so it isn’t the easiest to get in and out of. The inner tent door is mesh, and has a two-way zip; there’s a also a mesh panel at the far end of the inner tent with a corresponding vent on the flysheet (protected by a storm flap) to allow air to flow through. The porch will be big enough for two packs. The flysheet door has a whopping four zips so you can roll it completely away; it snags a bit (on the loops to hold it back) when opening it and closing it though.
The inner tent is a light colour, so it feels nice and airy. There are four good storage pockets for items you want to keep close to hand, and hooks on the ceiling too. There’s also a little bit of extra width in the tent once two roll mats are in – great if you want to try and minimise the amount of kit you keep in the porch. Another thing I like about the tent is how easily it fits back into the tent bag – there’s so much space that you could even consider getting hold of a compression strap to squash it down smaller.
In conclusion, this is a tough little tent suitable for bad conditions and at a good price. It’s quite light weight given the amount of protection it offers. It’s not the most comfortable, but it will keep you dry.
In a line: The Terra Nova Blizzard 2 is good in bad weather.