Marmot Grid Plus Review

Excitement as the delivery man knocks on my door.

"A parcel... for me? Why thank you kind sir"

Upon opening the box I'm not entirely sure whether the tent bag is overly large or normal.

First impressions for definite however are that the material used for the bag is quite thick/hefty so I'm sure I'll be transferring the tent into another bag when it comes to actually using it out Wildcamping.

Next to the bag I used an A4 sheet of paper I had to hand as a reference of size. It was my self-made research document for my tent purchase where I'd not only documented weights and prices of verious tents but also their layout, dimensions etc. It was done in an effort to better compare the living areas of each tent.

Having used a Terra Nova Ultra Quasar before and having led in a North Face Tadpole in the Chester ranch of Ellis Brigham it better aided my decision making process.

I was dying to pop the tent up in my garden so I indulged myself and did just that. It would be rude not to as I go away tomorrow and won't see it for 2 weeks. On returning I'll plan my next Wildcamp.

With the tent comes the usual gumph:

- Pegs 18 'v shaped' spikes.
- 2 Alu 'Nails' (seemingly as the tent it free-standing the nails are for if you only want to peg out the porch area)
- Repair patches for all materials contained in the tent.
-  Repair sleeve for temporary fixation of a broken pole.
- Spare buckle for either inner attachment or unsupplied footprint (I'll come to this later).
- 2 Elastics with brass grommets (I suppose these are for if any of the pole attachments fail)
- Spare clip attachment for the poled porch area.

Putting the tent up is relatively simple. The 3 pole sleeves that form the main semi-geodesic structure of the tent have 'blind' ends much like alot of Hillebergs do I believe. Added to this the fact that the grommets that receive the end of the pole on the non-blind side have ladder-lock adjustment (meaning that last push to bend the pole into it's final resting place is simplified) has made it relatively easy to put up solo.

If you look at the tent side on you can see how the poles are pre-bent at the foot end, this is unlike anything the Tadpole or Voyager has and means that in the inner theres plenty of room at the foot end in terms of height but the important thing as far as I'm concerned is this lessens any chance of my sleeping feet pushing the inner onto the outer and getting a condensation-rich helping of water on my down sleeping bag.

Looking from the rear the pre-bent boles can be seen again along with the large rear vent that can be accessed from the inner tent via a zip beneath a mesh panel. One other thing you've probably noticed for yourself is the abundance of guy lines.

Let's go around the front....

If you look closely at the porch door it looks as though I haven't fully unzipped the door. This is in fact as far as the door opens, it is deceiving. My thinking behind this is that if the door opened any more there is potential for rain/residual water on the flysheet to drip into the inner tent.

As can be seen there are more guy lines and from here you can see the remaining external vents: One at the head of the porch and one (of a pair, it's brother on the opposite side) where the poles cross near the ground. Each of the vents has a short pole with 2 velcro attachments. One is to stow it to one side and the other to hold it in placce. I will post more detailed pictures of these and the adjustable ladder locks at the foot of the poles at a later date. I simply got too drawn in playing with the rest of the tent.

And inside....

The inner is a beautiful orange. I was always destined to get the green version as opposed to the one with orange flysheet as its intended for wildcamping so I'm content with a splash of orange inside.

                       Left: View from the foot end.                                                  Right: View from inside the porch

The next picture confirms something I already knew about but unfortunately not the full extent of the 'issue'.

As is visually represented by a Regular Airic and Wee Airic (with normal blue roll mat underneath to show full length) the tapering down to the foot end causes an overlap in normal length sleeping matts. In real terms there is plenty of room for legs/feet however I use a Thermoarest NeoAir and should my camping buddy invest in something similarly thick I feel it could become quite a tricky affair.

The final thing on my tent tick list was to find a tent with an extended porch which could easily contain 2 packs and leave enough room to cook if need be.

I didn't have a gas canister at hand for my mock up but I'm sure you get the gist. Out of interest the pack furthest away is 70 litres and the one to the right i 50 litres.

I am impressed with the tent, I'll be able to give more constructive feedback once I've had a trip away. Hopefully that will be sooner rather than later. One disappointment I have already is that there are only 2 'anchors' on the roof of the inner tent. There is one at the tip of the mesh vent at the foot end and one just above the door of the inner tent as yet I don't know if they're upto the task I intend for them as I usually like to hang a light up in the evenings. The potential for any type of drying line is also reduced.

I am understanding enough to know this would add more weight, it is just a observation at this point.