A few years ago I went backpacking and shared a tent with my friend, which I'm nearly positive was the 2 man version of the solitaire. However, this tent may have been made by another manufacturer and just looked like the solitaire. Anyway, after spending a week in the thing, my only complaint was was my friend's obnoxiously loud snoring. The tent performed just fine, not too hard to set up, reasonably light, collapsed down pretty small, etc. I say go for it

Well I think I may need to reconsider my budget. I just found out that I've been accepted to volunteer for a local Search and Rescue group for a county that covers 246,652 hectares. I'll be required to carry my own 'spend the night' gear at all times while on a search. Might be worth it to re evaluate some of my options and make sure I'm getting something light and high quality.

Could the poles be removed, and what kind were they? Poles aren't usually that hard or expensive to replace.

The poles are like these:

http://www.campmor.com/webapp/wcs/stores...p;keyword=61982



They work fine, but they aren't super strong. Especially after a few years of use.

I had one for a while and it was roomy enough, but I got rid of it because of the reason mentioned. I prefer a free-stander. I ended up replacing it with a Eureka Aurora Lite. Free-standing, low profile and a huge vestibule.

To be clear, the Spitfire is NOT free-standing. It requires stakes in front and back, and preferably stakes on the sides to pull out the rainfly/vestibule.

Also, there won't be a whole lot of room in either the Solitare or Spitfire 1 for gear. When my son uses his Spitfire 1 he puts his backpack in a large plastic bag for the night and leaves it outside. Many feel packs shouldn't come inside a tent anyway, just to protect it from accidental damage.