Nemo Dagger 2 Freestanding Tent

Jim (my son) and I got to use a Nemo Dagger 2 on a 6 day trip in the Sawtooths, and I also used it on a 5 day hike in the Sierra with Tuckie.  Here are my thoughts. 

The tent without the fly is shown below. 

Most "two man" tents are really very roomy one man tents.  The Dagger 2 actually works for 2 adults.  I'm 5'9" and Jim is about the same, and we had room to sleep without a lot of bumping each other.  Due to the side walls being vertical, as shown above, one can sit up and not bump into clammy sidewalls.  Each side has a door, and they are set up for foot to shoulder sleeping.  Each door has a substantial vestibule which can hold all your gear.  The headroom is very good, sufficient to sit up on your knees.  The light color makes the interior seem bright.

This is the tent with the fly up, below.

As you can see the fly comes down pretty low on the tent, and we had the chance to test it in bad weather.   We got a fierce hail storm, followed by hard rain.  Jim and I were in the tent, and after a while we noticed that we were in a water bed.  There was about 2 inches of water under the tent, but luckily we were bone dry inside.  We got out, and moved the tent a few feet to dry ground, a big benefit of having a free standing tent.

On one trip, we slept in a group of tents, 2 Big Agnes tents, a Tarptent, a Mountain Hardware dome tent, and the Nemo. It rained all evening , and all night, and we packed it up in the rain. We and everyone thought we had the best tent of the bunch for bad weather.

This nice little tent, a genuine 2 man, weighs 4 lbs 6 oz, which is very decent for a two man tent.  It will make one feel very protected from the elements.  The price I saw on this tent was $400, and I don't think you would regret this purchase, and it will last you for many years. This tent gets 5 stars out of 5 stars in my book. They make a Dagger 3 man, but this tent is sufficient for two hikers.