Mons Peak IX Review: A great tent for group backpacking! by Tim Satterfield It was a cloudy, rainy day when I left for the valley. I had made arrangements to stay with my sister that evening and I hoped I would get over the mountain without an incident. My luck held, no problems with the weather other than the rain. Once over and into the capital I headed for my favorite camera shop. I am not sure why it’s my favorite camera store, they don’t sell any of my camera systems at the store, I think I just like the folks that work at the store. I did find a used lens I wanted and then I headed out into the middle of nowhere for my sisters to camp out, in her bed, and eat her food and … The next morning I continued my sojourn into Mac for my assignment, once concluded it was on to Portland to spend the afternoon with my good friend PC Peri. Next morning I was headed west toward the Dalles. I thought I would turn off Hwy. 84 and try to get some photos along the Columbia Gorge highway, error by the time I figured out that all the roads were blocked (fire repair) and retraced my track, I was way behind getting to the Dalles. Hanging a south bound right turn I head out through wheat country on a snow-covered highway. Nope, not going to make it home tonight. I found a small piece of ground along the snowy road, I back the car up a short but steep incline such that I could easily get myself back on the highway in the morning. I hastily threw up my tent, put all my sleeping paraphernalia inside, locked the car, climbed into the tent, and sleeping bag to await the monster storm that was about to endure. As the wind came up and started to howl I quickly drifted off to sleep. The next morning I found that the monster storm hadn’t even come close. It must have past by me by quarter of a mile or so. So much for the severe weather test. As I set up in the tent to assess my surrounding I had time to pay attention to the tent before I had to get on the road to home. The Mons Peak IX is an unusual tent in that it has the ability to switch from a four-man tent to a three-man tent by changing out the lower section tent and tent poles, (I used the tent in the three-man configuration). As I sat there, I closely examined the stitching where the two sections of the tent come together, and found the stitching excellent, then I checked the rest of the stitching and found that it was all equally very good. One of the places where in the past I have had problems with tents is in the stitching. There should be no such problems with this tent. Ventilation was no problem for me evening in the cold overnight. The tent is engineered using light high strength nylon fabric, comes with hanger loops and plenty of exterior ties, and aluminum poles. Accessories for the tent system include a gear loft and 3P and 4P footprints. The tent is engineered to be configured also as fly/footprint if you really need to keep the weight down during the non-bug season. Trail weight is listed at 6lbs 14 oz (3P) if you divided that by three that means it only weighs 2 lbs. 4.7 oz each in trail weight for a party of three. If you a group of four, you can divide out the tent and each person carry less than two pounds and have with plenty of room for everyone. As I get a little older, I find that I like using this tent as my primary car camp tent, its fast to setup, I can get my cot in it without any trouble and I like the extra space it affords me when I am trapped by bad weather conditions out in the boonies waiting to photograph. As I write this review, I am in the process of packing my car for a six-hour trip to Leslie’s Gulch for photo a safari. And yes the yellow and green Trail 43 is packed and ready to go. I think I will give this tent a 5 out of 5 for car camping and a 4.5 for group backpacking. A very very good tent. I will add the companie’s tent info to my website when I post it. www.tsatt.com https://www.monspeakix.com