Columbia High Trail Family Dome Tent Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Don't mess around with cheap $100 tents. Spend the extra money on this one and you won't go wrong. I tried the $119 Costco special and was extremely disatisfied. The Kelty tent had too many large panels that kept catching the wind and waking us up all night. This tent is especially great in the wind and stays solid even for one this size. It's light weight and packs up nicely. The best feature is the room divider that will divide the tent into two symetrical individual rooms...A great feature when two couples are camping together or if you want to put the kids in their own space. Each side even has its own door so you won't disturb the whole tent when getting up for the bathroom in the middle of the night.
We used the tent without the rainfly for the first time last trip and loved sleeping under the stars with full mosquito netting over the entire ceiling.
This is a well-made tent that will rival The North Face tents costing $450 or more. My Dad took his North Face tent back to REI and bought this one for $200 less at the Columbia outlet store.
Happy camping!

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Bring the family to the campsite and still have room to spare with the Columbia High Trail dome tent. The High Trail--which sleeps up to eight people--is spacious and versatile, with a room divider that turns the tent from one large room to two smaller rooms. As a result, you'll enjoy plenty of elbowroom while you sleep. The tent also includes four large no-see-um mesh windows, roof vents, and side vents, so you'll enjoy optimum ventilation even during rainstorms. And thanks to the factory-sealed fly and floor seams and the polyester bathtub floor--which wraps up the sides and is protected by a rain shingle--the High Trail keeps the wet weather at bay.
The tent also stores plenty of gear in addition to its eight campers, with two mesh interior pockets, a gear loft for organization, and two hanging cupholders. Finally, the tent sets up easily thanks to its freestanding design and combo clip-and-sleeve assembly. Other features include two large D doors for easy entry and exit, a woven reflective zipper pull, a flashlight loop, a small Camp Port for stretching electrical cords into the tent, and two mud mats sheltered by an overhanging semi-vestibule. The High Trail tent comes with poles, stakes, and an oxford nylon carrying bag with expandable gussets.



Key Features

Capacity: 6 to 8
Dimensions: 15 by 11 feet
Weight: 28 pounds, 2 ounces
Area: 165 square feet
Interior height: 6 feet 6 inches
Pack size: 29 by 10 inches
Poles: 9
Pole size: 19mm steel (2), 9.5mm fiberglass (7)
Pole material: Fiberglass and steel
Doors: 2
Hooded fly: Yes
Windows: 4
Gear loft: Yes
Floor material: 190T polyester taffeta, 1,000mm coating
Fly material: 190T polyester taffeta, 800mm coating
Wall material: 190T polyester taffeta, 800mm coating/no-see-um mesh
Roof material: No-see-um mesh
Netting: No-see-um mesh
Style: Modified hybrid dome
Use: 3 seasons

About Columbia Sportswear Founded in 1938, Columbia Sportswear Company has grown from a small family-owned hat distributor to one of the world's largest outerwear brands and the leading seller of skiwear in the United States. Columbia's extensive product line includes a wide variety of outerwear, sportswear, rugged footwear and accessories. Columbia specializes in developing innovative products that are functional yet stylish and offer great value. Eighty-year-old matriarch Gert Boyle, chairman of the board, and her son, Tim Boyle, president and CEO, lead the company.

Columbia's history starts with Gert's parents, Paul and Marie Lamfrom, when they fled Germany in 1937. They bought a small hat distributorship in Portland, Oregon, and named it Columbia Hat Company, after the river bordering the city. Soon frustrated by poor deliveries from suppliers, the Lamfroms decided to start manufacturing products themselves. In 1948, Gert married college sweetheart Neal Boyle, who joined the family business and later took the helm of the growing company. When Neal suddenly died of a heart attack in 1970, Gert enlisted help from Tim, then a college senior. After that it wasn't long before business really started to take off. Columbia was one of the first companies to make jackets from waterproof/breathable fabric. The company introduced the breakthrough technology called the Columbia Interchange System, in which a shell and liner combine for multiple wearing options. In the early 1980s, then-60-year-old Gert began her role as "Mother Boyle" in Columbia's successful and popular advertising campaign.

The company went public in 1998 and moved into a new era as a world leader in the active outdoor apparel industry. Today, Columbia Sportswear employs more than 1,800 people around the world and distributes and sells products in more than 50 countries and to more than 12,000 retailers internationally.

Amazon.com Tent Guide

Selecting a Tent Fortunately, there are all kinds of tents for weekend car campers, Everest expeditions, and everything in-between. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

Expect the Worst In general, it's wise to choose a tent that's designed to withstand the worst possible conditions you think you'll face. For instance, if you're a summer car camper in a region where weather is predictable, an inexpensive family or all purpose tent will likely do the trick--especially if a vehicle is nearby and you can make a mad dash for safety when bad weather swoops in! If you're a backpacker, alpine climber or bike explorer, or if you like to car camp in all seasons, you'll want to take something designed to handle more adversity.

Three- and Four-Season Tents For summer, early fall and late spring outings, choose a three-season tent. At minimum, a quality three-season tent will have lightweight aluminum poles, a reinforced floor, durable stitching, and a quality rain-fly. Some three-season tents offer more open-air netting and are more specifically designed for summer backpacking and other activities. Many premium tents will feature pre-sealed, taped seams and a silicone-impregnated rain-fly for enhanced waterproofness.

For winter camping or alpine travel, go with a four-season model. Because they typically feature more durable fabric coatings, as well as more poles, four-season tents are designed to handle heavy snowfall and high winds without collapsing. Of course, four-season tents exact a weight penalty of about 10 to 20 percent in trade for their strength and durability. They also tend to be more expensive.

Domes and Tunnels Tents are broadly categorized into two types, freestanding, which can stand up on their own, and those that must be staked down in order to stand upright. Freestanding tents often incorporate a dome-shaped design, and most four-season tents are constructed this way because a dome leaves no flat spots on the outer surface where snow can collect. Domes are also inherently stronger than any other design. Meanwhile, many three-season models employ a modified dome configuration called a tunnel. These are still freestanding, but they require fewer poles than a dome, use less fabric, and typically have a rectangular floor plan that offers less storage space than a dome configuration. Many one and two-person tents are not freestanding, but they make up for it by being more lightweight. Because they use fewer poles, they can also be quicker to set up than a dome.

Size Matters Ask yourself how many people you'd like to fit in your fabric hotel now and in the future. For soloists and minimalists, check out one-person tents. If you're a mega-minimalist, or if you have your eye on doing some big wall climbs, a waterproof-breathable bivy sack is the ticket. Some bivy sacks feature poles and stake points to give you a little more breathing room. Also, if you don't need bug protection and you want to save weight, check out open-air shelters.

Families who plan on car camping in good weather can choose from a wide range of jumbo-sized tents that will accommodate all your little ones with room to spare. A wide range of capacities is also available for three- and four-season backpacking and expedition tents. Remember, though, the bigger the tent you buy, the heavier it will be, although it's easy to break up the tent components among several people in your group. It's also helpful to compare the volume and floor-space measurements of models you're considering.

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