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Discontinued The Columbia Mammoth Creek 10 has been discontinued and is no longer sold. I’m keeping this review up as a record of my testing — every measurement below is still exactly what I found. If you’re shopping now, start with the 6 Best 10-Person Tents — my top pick there is the Coleman WeatherMaster 10.

See the 8 tests

1. In the Box
2. Set Up & Take Down
3. Spaciousness
4. Comfort & Features
5. Ventilation
6. Rain Protection
7. Quality
8. Portability
9. Pros, Cons, Recommendation
10. Bonus – MUST read!

In the Box

I bought the 10-person version of the Columbia Mammoth Creek 10 from Amazon, in a plain cardboard box. Inside: the carry bag, tent body, rainfly, poles in their own bag, 19 steel stakes in another, a pre-attached room divider, 10 pre-attached guylines, and set-up instructions.

Set Up & Take Down

• Set-up time (2 people) 14 min
• Set-up time (1 person) 28 minnot recommended — I couldn’t get the roof poles in alone
• Take-down (2 people) 8.5 min
• Take-down (1 person) 16 min
• Poles 4 fiberglass + 8 steelfiberglass roof poles, 2 steel roof poles, 6 steel wall poles

• Stakes / guylines 19 / 10guylines come pre-attached

Four color-coded fiberglass poles slide through matching blue- and white-tipped roof sleeves, then clip into connectors: the short blue pair makes an oval, the long white pair crosses diagonally. Two steel roof poles finish the ends, six steel wall poles drop into a pin and ring system, then the rainfly buckles on. Last, the two pull-out windows get assembled and guyed out.

With two of us it took 14 minutes — a few minutes longer than my other tents this size, which is the price of the extra features. I tried it solo and couldn’t get the blue roof poles in at all; I put so much strain on one that it started splitting. So treat the 28-minute solo figure as theoretical: get a second pair of hands. Take-down is far easier at 8.5 minutes with two, 16 minutes alone.

Spaciousness

• Capacity 10-person10 sleeping pads or 4 queen mattresses
• Peak height 80in

• Lowest height 62inat the four corners
• Length × width 13ft 11in × 9ft 11injust under the marketed 14 × 10ft
• Base area 138.0 sq ft

• Vestibule None

At 80in I can touch the ceiling with my arm stretched out. The corners drop to 62in and I’m about 63in, so I stand upright everywhere except right in the corners — and even there I’m nearly straight.

The floor measured 13ft 11in × 9ft 11in, a shade under the marketed 14 × 10ft, for 138.0 sq ft. That’s 10 single sleeping pads with a strip down the middle for gear, or 4 near-queen mattresses that fill it completely. No vestibule, so shoes left outside get wet.

Comfort & Features

• Doors 2a T-door and a smaller side door, both on the same wall
• T-door size 91 × 55in60in from the floor to the top

• Side door size 47 × 55in59in to the top
• Windows 42 of them tilted pull-out windows
• Window sizes 50 × 36in / 45 × 24in / 45 × 22inbiggest, smallest fixed, and the two pull-outs
• Room divider Yes (1)pre-attached and completely full length

• Pockets 215 × 8in each

• Lantern loops 2one per room, so the divider still works

• E-port 1
• Gear lofts None
• Zippers SBS
• Bug net No-see-um
• Black-out No

The T-door is enormous at 91 × 55in, with a Velcro closure so you don’t have to keep zipping it, and three zippers that never snagged on me. The smaller side door sits right next to it. Both have no-see-um mesh running nearly their full length, and both roll back and clip open.

The four windows are all different sizes, from 50 × 36in down to 45 × 22in. Two of them are tilted pull-out windows, which is the feature I ended up caring about most.

The pre-attached divider splits the tent into two rooms, each taking 2 queen beds or 5 pads. It’s completely full length — no gaps, not even at the bottom like my other tents — and it isn’t very see-through, so you get real privacy.

Storage is the weak spot: just 2 pockets at 15 × 8in, which is very little for a tent this size. There are two lantern loops though, one per room, plus a single e-port in the middle.

Ventilation

• Ceiling mesh Yesrainfly removes from the outside

• Window + door mesh 7 panelsno-see-um throughout

• Roof vents None
• Ground vents 140 × 12in

• Open in the rain 2 pull-out windowsthey stayed open through moderate to heavy rain

This is where the tent earns its score. There’s a lot of ceiling mesh, and on a hot day you can open all 4 windows plus 3 mesh panels from the doors — one window is 50 × 36in on its own.

In rain it’s still ventilated, which is rare. The two tilted pull-out windows stayed open through moderate and even heavy rain, and there’s a 40 × 12in ground vent feeding air in low.

The other windows and the doors do have to be shut — the rainfly only partly covers the tent, so rain drips onto the mesh and soaks it.

Rain Protection

• Rain hold 1 hr, no leaksmoderate to heavy, nothing through any seam

• Corner leak After several hoursthe only leak I found
• Seam taping Every seam exposed to water
• Bathtub floor ~5inestimated — I never measured it
• Guylines 10

I didn’t need a hose for this one: it rained for hours a day, several days running, moderate to heavy. After a full hour there were no leaks at all — not through a door, not through a seam — and the fabric was completely dry. Every seam exposed to water was taped, which almost none of my tents can say.

There are small thoughtful details too, like a zipper pouch on the side door and extra fabric sewn into the T-door to catch anything that gets past the zip.

After several more hours the corners did start letting water in. The bathtub floor and the body fabric stayed completely dry regardless, even the lighter blue panels taking the most rain.

It handled light wind fine, but it’s a cabin tent with near-vertical walls, so the shape isn’t aerodynamic. One fiberglass pole bent in a stronger gust — I pulled it back into shape, but the stakes are standard ones, so I’d swap them if I expected wind.

Quality

• Floor 150D polyester2,000mm water resistance, crunch-free, with a bathtub
• Tent body 75D polyester800mm water resistance

• Rainfly 75D polyester800mm water resistance
• Poles 4 fiberglass + 8 steel
• Zippers SBSno snagging, no leaking
• Mesh No-see-umsmooth and silky
• Stakes 19 steelstandard, nothing special
• Seams Tapedbody and rainfly both

This is the only tent I’ve scored a perfect 10 on quality. The 150D polyester floor is rated to 2,000mm of water resistance, is crunch-free, and feels a class above my other tents this size. My yard partially flooded while I had it up — the tent sat in about an inch of water and still barely let anything in, and only at the corners after many hours.

Body and rainfly are 75D polyester at 800mm of water resistance, and every seam on both is taped properly. Stitching is consistent with none of the gaping holes I’ve found elsewhere, the SBS zippers never snagged or leaked, and the no-see-um mesh is smooth and silky.

The fiberglass roof poles are the one soft spot: they’re flexible and bend more easily, and I cracked one down the middle trying to pitch the tent alone. It still works. The steel poles are far sturdier, and I like that the protruding pin keeps dirt out of the pole.

Portability

• Packed size 30 × 14 × 12in
• Weight 34.4 lbseverything, including poles and stakes
• Carry bag Front pocketholds the set-up instructions

Packed it’s 30 × 14 × 12in and 34.4 lbs all in — the heaviest 10-person tent I’ve tested. Here it is beside a Coleman Sundome 2 and a 32-ounce Nalgene for scale. Everything went back into the bag without much of a fight.

Pros, Cons, Recommendation

Now, what are the pros and cons, and would I recommend the Columbia Mammoth Creek 10?

Feature-rich

A full-length divider, a 91 × 55in T-door, two pull-out windows, two lantern loops, SBS zippers, a leak-catching door pouch. It’s the most thought-through tent of the six I tested.

Ample ventilation

On hot days, all 4 windows plus 3 door mesh panels. On rainy days, the ground vent, both pull-out windows, and the gap between the ceiling mesh and the rainfly. Leaving windows open in moderate to heavy rain is something almost none of my tents allow.

Water-resistant

It passed the 1-hour rain test with no leaks through any seam and the fabric bone dry. It’s one of the few tents I own that came with every seam taped.

Superb quality

Silky no-see-um mesh, crunch-free polyester flooring, SBS zippers that never snagged. A 10 out of 10 on my quality test.

Takes a few more minutes to set up

More roof poles, more pole clips, more guylines and the pull-out windows all add time compared to my other tents this size. And I don’t recommend pitching it alone — you need two people.

Both doors are on the same side

So are both pull-out windows. Use the divider and one room ends up with no doors, the other with no pull-out windows.

A bit more pricey

It took me about a month of saving to afford it.

Bonus – MUST Read!

Every figure above is from my own testing — measured by hand, bought with my own money.