ALPS Mountaineering Lynx 2 Review (Bought & Tested!)
This page contains affiliate links, and that means that I may earn a commission if you buy something, at no extra cost to you. You can find my full disclosure policy here.
This is my review of the Alps Mountaineering Lynx 2.
I spent 7 days camping, testing and filming my experience with this tent, and everything you need to know about this can be found right here.
Recommendation
If you’re a shoulder season car camper on a budget, the Alps Mountaineering Lynx 2 is a fantastic pick for you; I haven’t tested other tents that are better.
However, it’s not the best for summer car camping or even for backpacking. You’ll find out exactly why in this post.
Check out the Alps Lynx 2:
What I Love
Affordable: I got mine for just slightly over $100.
High peak height: Almost 4 feet.
Huge base area: Inner tent area is 36.5 square feet, total vestibule area is 19.2 square feet.
Fits tall campers: Longer than average length of 89 inches, fits two adults perfectly.
Two doors: Huge size, and there’s cross-ventilation with this two door design.
What I Didn’t Like
Weather protection not the best: Seam sealing required for heavy rain.
Check out the Alps Lynx 2:
RELATED: The 6 Best Tents Under $100 (Bought & Tested!)
Set Up
The Alps Mountaineering Lynx 2 takes me about 6.5 minutes to set up.
Overall, I didn’t find the set up process difficult at all; it’s actually very easy. There’s just two tent poles, these two poles cross over each other, there are pole clips to quickly snap the body to the poles, and the rain fly goes on top.
After that, all I had to do was to stake the tent down, stake the vestibules out, and guy out the tent with the provided guy lines.
This is a free standing tent though, so you don’t have to stake and guy it out, if you don’t want to.
Pack Away
The pack away back into the carry bag usually takes me about 7 minutes.
One minor con I found here is that the tent felt a little difficult to pack away. It takes some struggling to get everything back in. The carry bag could have been made bigger, or compression straps could have been provided.
For more details on setting up and packing away this Lynx, check out my YouTube video here:
Peak Height
The peak height inside the Alps Mountaineering Lynx 2 is about 47 inches, and I found this to be very tall for a two-person tent. Here’s a picture of me leaning over the tent a little bit, and basically I’m not that much taller than the tent:
In fact, I found the peak height to be so high that I could fit a 6-inch-thick mattress no problem at all, still with lots of headroom left.
Note that tents with high peak heights don’t fare well against high winds though. So, in such weather, use all available guy ropes to guy the tent out.
Base Area
The length inside this 2-Person Lynx comes in at about 89 inches, while the width comes in at about 59 inches.
I found fitting 2 regular sleeping pads (or sleeping bag, whichever you prefer) inside to be super easy. I even got plenty of leftover space for gear storage.
However, I couldn’t fit a true Queen mattress into the tent; the width was too short. But I could easily fit a slightly smaller than Queen mattress though, this was my 80 by 56-inch Alps Vertex Airbed.
Vestibules
This Alps Lynx 2 comes with 2 vestibules, which are exactly the same on both sides, and the longest width of each vestibule is about 31 inches.
There was more than enough space to fit my flip flops, my tripod, still with plenty of leftover room for gear.
The vestibule also comes with 2 different loops at the bottom, so you can stake down either loop, and this allows you to open either side of the vestibule.
You can also un-stake the vestibule completely, and tie it up with the 2 vestibule toggles.
Doors
Behind the 2 vestibules, you’ll get two doors, 1 at each length of the tent.
I could tie the door fabric up with the 2 door toggles at the side of each door, and when opened, each door has a longest length and width of 41 inches and 39 inches respectively, which is pretty big.
Pockets and Loops
There are 2 pockets in this 2-Person Lynx, 1 at each width of the tent. Each pocket isn’t too big though, coming in at just 9 by 7 inches.
There’s also 1 lantern loop at the very top of the tent for easy access.
Gear Loft
There’s actually another 4 loops around the top center lantern loop, and this is for the single gear loft.
It comes with S-hooks for hanging up, and it fits nice and snug at the top of the tent. The dimensions of this gear loft is 21 by 12 inches. This fits more gear than each pocket, and there’s even enough space to fit a small light on the top loop at the same time.
Heavy Rain Test
I put my Lynx through about 2 hours of heavy rain.
And after that, I found that the pockets of the Lynx were completely wet, and were leaking water into the tent.
Why? Because the seam connecting the tent body and the tub floor was not factory sealed. On top of that, this is the seam that each of the pockets are attached to. So, water seeped into the seam, drenched the entire pocket, and then leaked into the tent.
So, if you intend to buy this tent and you expect serious weather and heavy rain, you would need to seal at least this seam, from both the inside and the outside of the tent. That was the main leakage I found.
One of the corners in my Lynx leaked too, but that’s because of the flooding in my yard.
Do check out my YouTube video here for the full rain test (especially if you’re considering buying this tent!):
Vents
The Lynx 2 has 2 rain fly vents at the top, each with a Velcro kickstand.
I left these 2 vents open during my heavy rain test, and they let 2 huge puddles of water into the tent.
That’s because they’re not facing downwards enough, and there’s not enough of an overhang to prevent water from getting in. Also, sadly, they’re accessible only from the outside.
Ventilation
For rainy days, on top of the 2 vestibules of this tent, I also really liked that I could attach my own guylines to the width of this tent, and guy out the widths.
Pulling the rain fly away from the body at all four sides is super useful in preventing condensation.
As for hot days, here’s the Lynx with its rain fly taken off.
The mesh walls of this tent aren’t big; I would say that about only 40% of this tent is covered in mesh.
My first night camping in this tent was definitely a little hot and stuffy. (Take note: Though my overnight camp in the Lynx wasn’t the most comfy, I didn’t experience any condensation the next morning.)
However, this is exactly what makes it ideal for shoulder season car camping; the lack of mesh keeps the heat in the tent, instead of dispersing it to the surroundings.
Materials
Here are the materials that the Lynx is made of:
Tent floor material: 75D polyester taffeta
Rainfly material: 75D polyester
Body material: 75D polyester
Pole material: 7000 series aluminum poles
Zippers: #8 size, not branded
Mesh: micro mesh
The fly also has a 1500mm coating that is UV damage-resistant (this was not something I was able to test though), and the flooring has a 2000mm coating.
Weight and Packed Size
The packed size of my Lynx 2 is about 22 x 8 x 7.5 inches. Here’s what it looks like beside a Coleman Sundome 2, which is a car camping tent.
Note that although the Lynx is known as a backpacking tent, it doesn’t exactly pack down that small.
The Lynx 2 has a total weight of exactly 6.0lbs. This includes all the provided stakes and guylines.
Not a Backpacking Tent
I’m not sure why this is called a backpacking tent; I think it’s a little bit heavy for that. My Sundome 2 weighs 6.4lbs, which is not even half a pound heavier.
This is definitely more for car campers than backpackers. (And lucky for me, because car camping’s exactly what I use it for! I don’t go backpacking quite as much.)
Comparison to Other Tents
To get a full picture of how the Alps Lynx 2 compares to other 2-person camping tents, check out this blog post where I bought, tested and very thoroughly compared the 6 best tents under $100. This comparison includes the Lynx 2, of course.
Or, check out the Alps Lynx 2:
