The ‘Hubbas’ are the MSR ‘fast and light’ range of three season tents.
The Hubba-Hubba is the two person version and it weighs just 1.8 kg (including footprint, pegs and poles) and therefore weights just a little more than carrying two average bivvies. It is a two skin tent that takes about 3-4 mins maximum to assemble due to an innovative pole-hub system. There is just one pole, with circular where three or four sections can join. This pole design saves weight but not strength by shortening the ‘third’ pole to just cover the top, rather than extending to the ground:
Features worth mentioning are:
- the surprisingly strong and durable, super-fine no-see-um-stopping mesh
- the ultralight and strong pegs
- the doors and vestibules on both sides of the tent. These vestibules stay dry even in driving rain, providing water is not running along the ground into them, of course!
- the shape of the tent eliminates dead space above your head when you are lying down and transfers it to the centre so that two people can sit up at the same time without touching the top or sides.
Although this tent is designed for three season use, we have used it in deep snow at temperatures as low as -5C. The plastic clips may not be adequate for heavy snowfalls or for extremely low temperatures. But since these conditions are rare where we live (in Australia), this tent fulfills our needs twelve months of the year.
The very light material of the fly has a shiny inner surface that seems to hold on to a higher than average amount of condensation. Although this condensation evaporates very quickly when the tent is dismantled, it can of course drip down into the tent if the fly comes into contact with the mesh inner. On still, cold nights we have found that it is better to peg-out the fly, rather than using the free-standing loops, to avoid any contact between the two.