I live in Washington state, and what JohnDavid says seems just right on to me. I tried the hammock route, but I like to hike in places that can get to fairly high elevation, hence I can't count on summer nights all being warm, and with the hammock approach it's tough to stay weight neutral in that case. I'm not an ultra-lighter, but I do generally keep my base weight down into the teens.

For solo trips and now most recently for trips with my wife I'm using Henry Shires tents, www.tarptent.com. If you get (as can happen too often) an extended period of rain or drizzle or just heavy mist and overall wet, these are a bit of a pain --- in these cases I might wake up in the night and towel off the *inside* of the tent with a little pack towel, and both inside and outside of any single wall tent can be wet in the morning in such a situation. Not a killer, but less comfortable overall than a double wall tent.

If I knew I would have extended wet in the forecast --- and decided to go out anyway (!) --- a double wall tent (like hubba or hubbahubba) would be preferable, but I expect I'll continue with single walls and just deal with it. Very much a variable individual preference depending on what you want to optimize: in-camp comfort or weight in the backpack.


Brian Lewis, http://postholer.com/brianle