Heksa - 4 person mountain base camp tent

Hi

I bought three of these fantastic tents for my son’s local Cub Scout group as a charitable donation. However we managed to get 7-8 little ones in them with all their kit (in the porches) in two tents (15 kids) and the leaders in the third.

Believe me the three doors were invaluable for such a group for the nightly trips to the loo or to keep them all out the wind. Two kids can get out each exit without any problems.

The big entrances meant they could all pile in and get out of wet weather and muddy gear before heading into the sleeping accommodation.

With the height of 160cm they could all stand up and most of the leaders even the 6+ footers found the height amazing. the portholes and snow hole were great for the kids also. The inner mesh to the sleeping area protected their privacy and from the Scottish midges also.

Oh with all the perimeter storage they all had a little nook each for mid night feasts, teddies and all had some hanging space also for drying wet clothes and hanging lanterns to keep the night terrors away.

The tent is bomb proof for cubs, the extremes of Scottish weather and from family camping to a great base camp tent. The Alpkit tents did just as well as some of the leaders top of the range tents but with massively more room and excellent price. Can’t wait for the linking connectors so we can link them this year but we can get by with the door overlapings in all but the very worst of gale force winds.

Also if you get the good weather it’s amazing to throw open all the doors and feel as if you in the wilds for sun rise, sun set or a night under the stars with protection functional insect nets if needed or fold away points if you’re insect free.

With such a big group its wasn’t a problem to break all the tents down into more manageable packs – kids with the poles or pegs – leaders with the flysheets or inners without the weight pain of a big four season / four plus person tent.

Thanks

Steve

Just got back from our first outing in our new Heksa. North Wales in April could always have gone either way with the weather but gale force winds & heavy snow wasn’t really expected. The Heksa was brilliant, went up in very short order with three of us & was stable through the very worst the storm could throw at us.

The highlights of the Heksa for me were the net storage for compression bags, torches etc, the hanging loops which we used for LED lights, the great headroom (I’m 6 foot & not exactly slightly built) to make getting dressed easy but the best bit has to be the instructions sewn into the inner wall - anchors are heavy!! - I wish more companies had a sense humour.

We also took a lightweight tarp which coupled with a wind break made up our cooking & eating area. I’m afraid to say it didn’t fare as well as the Heksa & was destroyed in one night!!

Now if Alpkit made an extension to the Heksa that could do a similar job…...- add on via vestibule hinted at on web site??

First proper trip in this tent done now. A weekend in the peak district with the family and dog. The tent went up so well and proved to be excellent in every way (though the weather was warm and sunny so not a major test of the real reason we bought this tent. We camp all year round in all conditions)

Great tent. I pitched this in 10 minutes, on my own with no instructions…no problems. It is very straight forward. The build quality is excellent, the space is huge, the little details add up. (watch out for the wording on the inside tag - good to see Alpkit hasn’t become too serious!)

My family and I think the tent is fantastic. It was fairly easy to put up, although it does really need two people to do it. Once up, the tent was a dream. There was plenty of room for the three of us and we had space to store essentials in the tent’s main area as well as sleep in it. The idea of the doors at different points is good, as we could just pitch it, then decide which door to use depending on the wind direction. The storage is inside is ample and very handy. The height of the tent means we could sort out our gear inside without being exposed to the elements. The height also means that we could move around easily.

We were camping on an exposed field with some strong winds one night. One family’s tent collapsed, some people had to spend the night in cars and others spent the night securing their tents. We were fine, as the tent was very secure and we didn’t have any problems at all. I have to admit that we did secure it some additional pegs from an old tent of ours, as we felt there weren’t enough pegs with the tent. The design and structure meant that we felt confident we were safe during the night, especially as our little girl was worried by the strong winds.

Overall we think the tent is very good quality, has plenty of space, is sturdy once erected and is definitely up to the job (altough ours will probably never be used in alpine conditions). The only downside was the lack of tent pegs (we didn’t know if this was down to it being a prototype).

Family camping with the Heksa

In May I took my two nephews on their first camping trip, and thought it would be good to get some more hours in the Heksa especially in a less extreme environment. The idea was to get in a mix of activities, climbing, bouldering and looking for downed planes up on the moors.

The tent went up easily enough and although it’s possible to put it up by yourself having a couple of extra hands does help. True to form the weather kicked up and to be honest it got pretty windy, it wasn’t until I stepped out in the morning that I saw how windy it had been, one tent on the campsite had popped it’s poles and was lying nearly flat and the remains of another tent was being stuffed in the back of a car. I could hear that it was windy but the Heksa always felt very firmly planted.

After a pretty busy day we had a tent bound BBQ, now I know you are not supposed to cook in tents but I have to test these things out. So I had my propane double burner with a griddle on the top and slapped on the burgers and sausages. With three doors we had a pretty decent ventilation, miminmum condensation and two fire escapes as I had the double burner set in the other of the porches. With just three people I could imagine spending a lot of time in the Heksa. Equally as a family tent there is enough space to fit a weekends load of kit and the height means it’s easy to change out of wet clothing.

I’m especially happy how the Heksa has turned out even though it’s going to be quite an investment I can see people getting a lot of use out of it, from family trips away to mountain trips where having the space to spread out is going to make it feel pretty cushy.

Pre-Release Staff Gear Testing - Kenny Stocker
Back in January of 2010 I was in the Ecrins for the 20th edition of ICE. It was customary, as part of the festival, to make a bivvy with the theory being that by spending the night under the stars in winter it would bring everyone closer to, and therefore develop a greater understanding of the mountain environment. Having already made 2 open air bivvies in previous years staying in the Heksa felt like cheating!

This spacious tent goes up quickest with three, and despite its size and number of poles doesn’t take as long to pitch as you might think, and when you have got it up you really have a little palace!

Camping in January at over 1000m night time temperatures regularly drop to -10˚C and below which with snow on the ground presents new challenges for the mountain camper. The ground was frozen so we buried sticks in the snow to pull out the doors tight. To be be honest it was a windless night and the freestanding geodesic structure was stable enough by itself. (in fact we may have even forgotten the pegs).

With snow you really have to be careful not to bring it inside the tent. Snow melts during the day and turns to water and gets everything wet. Wet equals cold so the large vestibule areas were really useful for brushing snow off clothing in relative shelter. Of course it is difficult to totally avoid condensation building up, but with three doors available our ventilation options were as good as they could be.

We slept just 4 in the Heksa so there was a good deal of spare room for kit. The numerous mesh pockets made it easy for us to keep our stuff tidied away, which made the whole space feel pretty habitable.. important when you are in a communal but confined space.

With acres of space getting going in the morning was easy. I could just about stand up inside the tent which made it a synch to pull on sallopettes and other warm clothing. Paul and James both spent the night out in a bivvy, they were also last to get going that morning!!