MSR Access 1 Tent Review

The MSR Access 1 is a freestanding, double-wall tent designed for ski touring and winter backpacking that solely weighs 3 lbs. While it’s a lot hotter than a three-season tent and robust sufficient to deal with average snow masses, it’s meant to be used in additional protected terrain and circumstances than an expedition-class mountaineering tent that weighs significantly extra. The Access has an exoskeleon body like a lot of MSR’s different freestanding tents, with an interior tent that’s suspended from Easton carbon fiber poles after which lined with a rain fly. The tent has a aspect door and vestibule that present quick access and kit storage, together with further pre-attached guylines to anchor the tent in windy circumstances. The Access 1 is one the lightest weight 4 season tents out there and an incredible possibility for self-powered winter journey.

RELATED: 10 Best Lightweight Winter Backpacking Tents and Shelters

Specs at a Glance

• Claimed Minimum Weight: 3 lbs / 1.37 kg
• Actual Minimum Weight (weighed minus stuff sacks and tent stakes) is 2 lb 14.5 oz
• Claimed Packaged Weight: 3 lbs 8 oz / 1.6 kg
• Actual Packaged Weight (weighed with all stuff sacks and tent stakes) 3 lbs 6.5 oz
• Type: Freestanding
• Capacity: 1 Person
• Doors: 1
• Vestibules: 1
• Tent poles: 1 shock-corded Easton Syclone CF pole w/25 segments
• Seam-taped: Yes
• Rain fly: 20D ripstop nylon 1200mm Xtreme Shield polyurethane & silicone
• Floor: 30D ripstop nylon 3000mm Xtreme Shield™ polyurethane & DWR
• Floor Dimensions: 84″ x 33″ (213 x 84 cm)
• Actual Usable Floor Dimensions: 79″ x 32″ (201 x 81 cm)
• Peak top: 40″

Freestanding Tents in Winter

The MSR Access 1 is a freestanding tent that’s straightforward to arrange whereas sporting gloves, which is a winter must-have that most individuals don’t take into consideration. Freestanding tents are nice in winter as a result of you possibly can assemble them off to the aspect after which transfer them onto a tent platform you’ve stomped out along with your skis or snowshoes, as soon as it’s hardened, a course of referred to as sintering. This allows you to get out of the climate sooner and into dry garments sooner, so that you heat up and begin making dinner or melting snow for ingesting water.

Inner Tent

The Access 1 (there’s additionally an Access 2 and an Access 3) units up as an exoskeleton-style tent the place the interior tent is clipped to a pole construction after which draped with a rainfly. The interior tent has breathable semi-solid partitions as a substitute of mesh that permit moisture out however forestall snow (spring drift) from being blown beneath the rain fly and into the sleeping space. The interior tent can be loads hotter than a tent with mesh partitions or a mesh roof, which is a welcome bonus in winter. While this structure would possibly offer you pause in a three-season tent because it makes the interior tent prone to rain throughout setup, that’s a lot much less of a problem in winter when the precipitation you encounter is more likely to be snow and won’t penetrate the strong partitions of the interior tent throughout setup.

The interior tent has two stretch pockets that span the width of the tent on the foot and head finish, however nothing alongside the edges or on the door. There are quite a few cling loops within the ceiling although the place you possibly can droop lights or dry garments (I’m not a giant fan of hanging candles or stoves, however these too). There is one small mesh window within the aspect door so you may get a glimpse into the aspect vestibule, however the one different mild getting into the tent is the nice and cozy glow supplied by the tent’s orange rain fly.

The interior tent will not be cramped for those who’re beneath 6′ in top, which is an actual bonus in winter when the times are brief and it’s important to spend a very long time within the tent in your sleeping bag. But the listed dimension specs of the interior tent (84″ x 33″) are measured from the surface per business norms and never the within (79″ x 32″) which is what we desire, which means you’ll be cramped for those who’re on the taller aspect.

Vertically, it’s straightforward to sit down up inside and get out and in of clothes and to placed on or take off your boots within the vestibule to keep away from bringing snow contained in the tent. There’s additionally loads of open area above your head and ft, so that you don’t need to stare at a ceiling two inches above your face or fear about inner condensation switch to your sleeping bag footbox.

Carbon Fiber Poles

The Access 1 comes with a single multi-segment MSR’s carbon fiber pole, which are actually used on a lot of their different tents and assist decrease the general tent weight. They don’t require any particular dealing with in comparison with aluminum poles, though you continue to need to fastidiously seat every phase so that you don’t cut up the ends. However, when organising the Access 1, you’ll wish to interact the lateral pole segments which can be perpendicular to the lengthy aspect of the tent final, after you’ve hung the interior tent from the remainder of the pole construction. Otherwise, the lateral poles, that are beneath excessive pressure, generally tend to come out of their guy-out factors. If that doesn’t work, do it after staking out the corners.

While there is only one pole on the Access 1, it has many segments and is a bit cumbersome to pack as a result of among the segments have bends in them and don’t fold collectively completely flat. Tent corporations desire packaging their tents with one complicated pole fairly than two or extra as a result of individuals misplace them or lose them. The bulkiness issue isn’t horrible with the Access 1 pole, however it makes it extra awkward to pack inside or on the outside of my backpack.

While MSR does present a cylindrical tent bag and stuff sacks for the poles and tent stakes included with the Access 1, I wish to repackage my rain fly and interior tent right into a smaller stuff sack with the poles packed elsewhere as a result of it makes it a lot simpler to pack the tent in a backpack. My separate stuff sack can be waterproof for these occasions after I have to pack a moist tent.

Rain Fly

The rain fly is draped over the exoskeleton pole construction and attaches to the identical stake-out corners because the interior tent, so that you solely need to stake out the corners as soon as. While the tent is freestanding, the entrance vestibule and a rear panel (which boosts air flow and wind resistance) nonetheless want the be staked out for optimum efficiency.

While MSR consists of 8 groundhog stakes with the tent, they’re probably not optimum for winter use once you want deadmen or for much longer stakes to get a strong anchor that may freeze into place. I usually use items of drugs for this objective when winter tenting, like my shovel deal with, trekking poles, or an ice axe, or I carry plastic delivery baggage to bury as deadmen as a result of they’re so light-weight. If I’m tenting under treeline, I’ll additionally use branches which have fallen onto the snow and break them into smaller items to make use of as tent stakes, as I’ve completed right here.

One of the issues I notably like in regards to the Access 1 is the aspect place of the door and vestibule. It makes entering into the tent and out a lot simpler than a tent with a entrance entrance. While the vestibule isn’t enormous and never deep sufficient for cooking with a white gasoline range, it’s sufficiently big to retailer a big backpack whereas offering quick access to non-public gadgets at night time. The door can be straightforward to open at night time as a result of the underside slider terminates at your head close to the bottom and never in the midst of the vestibule, whereas the highest zipper slider may be pulled down individually to vent the highest of the tent.

When it involves waterproofing, the Access 1 is absolutely seam-taped, so it may be used with none preparation…though I do advocate working towards the pitch a couple of occasions prematurely of your first use. The hydrostatic head ( a measure of waterproofness beneath strain) of the ground is a full 3000 mm which is sort of excessive and whereas the rain fly hydrostatic head is just 1200 mm, it’s completely satisfactory for winter use.

Recommendation

The MSR Access 1 is a light-weight double-wall tent that’s straightforward to arrange and enjoyable to make use of for winter tenting and backpacking. Weighing simply 3 kilos (ours weighed 2 lb 14.5 oz), it’s fairly light-weight for a four-season tent with out skimping on the luxuries, climate resistance, and performance that you really want for enduring the chilly lengthy nights of winter. Being a double-wall tent, there’s a lot much less threat of inner condensation switch to your gear, whereas the material (not mesh) partitions of the interior tent forestall snow from blowing in beneath the rain fly and make the tent really feel a lot hotter inside. The Access 1 packs up small and is freestanding, which makes it very fast to arrange or take down.

Personally, I actually just like the aspect door and vestibule which make sit a lot simpler to get out and in of the Access 1 than tunnel-style tents just like the Black Diamond FirstLight 2, which has been my go-to winter backpacking tent for a few years. I feel I’m going to change to the MSR Access 1 for winter backpacking from right here on out. It’s actually a step up by way of consolation and it even weighs much less.

Disclosure: MSR donated a tent for overview.

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