We used the Big Agnes Tiger Wall UL2 tent on our Pacific Crest Trail thruhike in 2018.
Specs:
Tent & Fly:
- Packed weight: 2 lbs 8 oz (tent, fly, stuff bags)
- Trail weight: 2 lb 3 oz
- Type: double wall, free standing (need to stake out feet area though)
- Capacity: 2 person with 2 doors/vestibules
- Floor area: 28 sqft
- Head height: 39”
- Seasons: 3-season
- Price: $399.95
Footprint:
- Weight: 6 oz
- Price: $70.00
Pros:
- Light
- Two full vestibules
- Free standing
- Durable
- Packs small
Cons:
- Two zippers per door inconvenient
Background:
We started the trail with a 5-year-old Big Agnes Copper Spur UL2 (3 lbs 7oz). We replaced a lot of our backpacking gear with new ultralight gear before the trail, including our backpacks and sleeping bags. But, we thought our existing tent was light enough and in good enough condition to use. However, we started to have some problems after a few hundred miles with the zippers failing, and we snapped a pole. We contacted Big Agnes, and they offered us 50% off a new tent! At Kennedy Meadows South, we stopped by Yogi’s Triple Crown Outfitters. She told us that Big Agnes had just released the Tiger Wall, a new ultralight 2-door tent that was almost as light as the 1-door Fly Creek, but just as spacious as the the 2-door Copper Spur. Meanwhile, we had duct taped our pole and fought zippers every night. We ordered the Tiger Wall as soon as we could, and we received our new Tiger Wall in Sierra City at mile 1200. We hiked the remaining 1450 miles with it. We love the Tiger Wall.
The tent that we started the PCT with.
(Copper Spur HV UL2 in background.)
Size:
We shared a tent the entire trail. There wasn’t too much room to spare in the Tiger Wall, but it worked really well for us. We are not big people (5’-2”/105 lbs and 5’-10”/160 lbs), so larger folks might feel more cramped or want to consider a three person tent. But, a smaller tent means less weight, and we are very happy with the balance of weight and size that the Tiger Wall provides. The Tiger Wall has the exact same floor space (and shape) as the Copper Spur, so hikers who are familiar with that popular tent should already know what they are getting themselves into. In fact, we used our Copper Spur footprint with the Tiger Wall for the entire PCT, but we have since replaced it with the official Tiger Wall footprint. The Tiger Wall does have less total volume than the Copper Spur (the interior walls are not as lofted), but that was a non-issue for us.
Free Standing vs. Non Free Standing:
A free standing tent has poles that enable it to stand upright without requiring tension from the stakes. A non free standing tent cannot stand upright without tight stakes holding it into the ground. Usually, non free standing tents do not include poles and instead you rig up your hiking poles as tent poles. The weight saved by leaving out poles compels many hikers to get non free standing tents. However, this adds the stress of making sure that you have a nice tent-pad every night with good places to stake down your tent, or risking collapse from a sub-par setup. We are willing to carry a few extra ounces in exchange for the flexibility that a free standing tent like the Tiger Wall provides. It is worth noting that the Tiger Wall is sometimes referred to as a ‘semi free-standing’ tent. This is because there is only one pole on the foot end of the tent, so the foot corners need to be staked out in order for the tent to be properly set up. Rest assured that the Tiger Wall still stands freely whether or not the foot corners are staked, and that collapse due to failure of one of the foot stakes is virtually impossible.
Double Wall vs. Single Wall:
Double wall tents are traditional tents that have a separate tent body and rain fly. Single wall tents have one piece of fabric which doubles for both bug protection and as a rain fly. The Tiger Wall is a double wall tent. We really liked having separate tent, fly, and footprint when it got rainy in Washington. This enabled us to pack each piece of the tent separately, thereby keeping the water that was on the fly and footprint away from the tent body. But, even in dry conditions the double wall design was nice. For much, if not most, of the trail, we didn’t bother putting the rainfly on at all. Most of the PCT had little to no overnight condensation, so the fly was only necessary if there was the risk of rain. Leaving the fly off made the tent feel spacious and open, while still giving us complete protection from insects. Hikers with single wall tents did not have the option to remove their rain flies in good weather. Moreover, single wall tents had a terrible tendency to condense on the inside, so even on warm dry nights their occupants often experienced wet conditions by brushing against the inner walls of their tents.
Packability:
The Tiger Wall packs very small. Tim kept it inside his backpack every day. When the weather was good, we would roll the tent up each morning with the ground cloth on the bottom and rain fly on top, which made for easy unrolling and setup at night. When the weather was bad, we rolled or folded the parts separately and kept the wet rainfly and ground cloth away from the dry tent body.
Zippers:
The Tiger Wall zippers seem sturdy–they haven’t failed once after about 80 nights of use. But, they have a design quirk that we don’t like very much. Each door has two separate zippers that operate independently, rather than one long zipper with two zipping mechanisms. This can be moderately inconvenient for one-handed operation, but it isn’t terrible. Since the zippers are what failed on our Copper Spur and ultimately led us to upgrade, we have paid a lot of attention to the Tiger Wall zippers and we’re pleased so far.
Pockets, Pouches, and Lines:
The Tiger Wall has a few conveniently located pockets/pouches. There is one placed near the head of each occupant, and one large pocket on the back wall of the tent above both occupants heads. These pockets were perfect for our cell phone, head lamps, and other miscellaneous small items. We never put food in the pockets because it was not uncommon on the PCT for mice to chew through tents to access food. By keeping our food in its food bag (at the foot of the tent), this never happened to us. The Tiger Wall also has a few interior loops that worked perfectly for setting up an indoor clothes-line in Washington when we had wet socks and clothes to dry out every day. These items never came close to fully drying overnight, but we liked to tell ourselves that having them strung up made a difference.
Pocket #1 
Pocket #2 
Pocket #3 
Making use of the interior loops to hang a line
Setting up the Tiger Wall:
Step 1: Lay out footprint
Step 2: Lay tent on top of footprint
Step 3: Set up poles
Step 4: Attach tent body to poles
Step 5: Stake tent/footprint – 5 stakes (2 head, 3 feet)
Step 6: Put fly over tent and attach at corners
Step 7: Attach fly to tent cross-beam pole
Step 8: Stake out fly doors – 2 stakes
Note: Add additional stake at head of fly if there is a chance of rain – 1 stake
Note: We carried 8 stakes. We also carried a pole splint, especially after snapping a pole on our original Copper Spur in the desert.
Conclusion:
We are extremely pleased with the Tiger Wall and highly recommend it. With the size being virtually as big as the Big Agnes Copper Spur, and the weight being only a few ounces more than the single-door Big Agnes Fly Creek, we think this is by far the best tent in Big Agnes’s lineup. For some hikers, there are good reasons to check out single-wall and/or non free-standing tents, but for us the Tiger Wall is the perfect balance of weight, size, and durability.
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