Teton Sports Mountain Ultra 1-Person V.S. 2-Person Tents (TESTED!)

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I have both the Teton Sports Mountain Ultra 1-Person Tent, as well as the Mountain Ultra 2-Person Tent, and in this blog post, I’ll go through all the differences between these tents.

Here’s a table listing all the differences I found during my testing:

Characteristics	Mountain Ultra 1P	Mountain Ultra 2P
Number of Poles	1 pole	3 poles
Number of Guylines	2 guylines	4 guylines
Set Up Timing	4.5 minutes	6.5 minutes
Pack Away Timing	5.5 minutes	6.5 minutes
Peak Height	38.5 inches	44 inches
Base Dimensions	81 x 32 inches	81 x 61 inches
Number of Vestibules	1	2
Number of Doors	1	2
Door Stowing	Door toggles	Door pocket
Weight	4.2lbs	6.4lbs
Packed Size	22 x 7 x 6 inches	23.5 x 8 x 6 inches
Vents	2	4
Pockets	1	2
Gear Loft	Pre-attached	Removable
Lantern Loops	0	1

Check out the Mountain Ultra Tents:

RELATED: The 6 Best Tents Under $100 (Bought & Tested!)

Set Up

Mountain Ultra 1P

The Mountain Ultra 1-Person Tent comes with just a single orange pole, which you need to put together, and then connect to the 4 grommets in the tent body.

After attaching the pole clips, you’ll find this short pole at the top, which can be rotated on the spot, and this is also to be connected to the 2 grommets at the top.

Mountain Ultra 2P

On the other hand, the Mountain Ultra 2-Person Tent comes with 3 separate poles, 2 orange, and 1 gray.

The 2 orange poles are to be secured diagonally across the tent into the 4 grommets in the tent body. And the last gray pole is like the twirly short pole of the 1-Person Tent. It goes above the 2 orange poles, also to be connected to the 2 grommets at the top.

Guylines

On top of the difference in the pole set up, the 1-Person Tent has just 2 guylines, while the 2-Person Tent has 4 guylines.

Velcro

Also, the 1-Person Tent has 2 Velcro strips underneath the rainfly to attach to the poles, while the 2-Person Tent has 4 of these Velcro strips.

Set Up Timings

And the 1-Person Tent took 4.5 minutes to set up, while the 2-Person Tent took 6.5 minutes to set up.

Pack Away

Taking down both tents is just the opposite of the set up, and it took me about 5.5 minutes to take down and pack up the 1-Person Tent, while the 2-Person Tent took me about 6.5 to 7 minutes.

Height

The peak height inside this Mountain Ultra 1-Person Tent is about 38.5 inches, while the peak height in the 2-Person Tent is about 44 inches, or about 5.5 inches taller.

Base Area

Dimensions

The dimensions of the 1-Person Tent are 81 by 32 inches, while the 2-Person Tent has dimensions of 81 by 61 inches.

So, the length is the same, while the width is slightly less than double.

Mattress Sizing

The 1-Person Tent can fit up to extra wide single pads (25-30 inches wide), while the 2-Person Tent can fit not just 2 regular pads, but even an entire queen bed.

Vestibule(s)

Number of Vestibules

With the rainfly in place over the tent, the 1-Person Tent comes with just 1 vestibule, while the 2-Person Tent comes with 2 vestibules, which are exactly the same on both sides.

Size of Vestibules

The longest width of each vestibule for the 1-Person and 2-Person Tent are the same, coming in at about 25 inches for both tents.

Door(s)

Number of Doors

And once you tie the vestibule up, the Mountain Ultra 1-Person Tent comes with just 1 door, while the 2-Person Tent comes with 2 doors behind the 2 vestibules.

Size of Doors

The size of the 1-Person door (dimensions of 44 by 32 inches) is about the same as the doors on the 2-Person Tent (dimensions of 44 by 30 inches).

Door Stowing

However, for the 1-Person Tent, you can tie the door fabric up with these 2 toggles near the top of the tent.

On the other hand, for the 2-Person Tent, each door comes with its own door pocket, for stuffing the fabric of the door, so no toggles like the 1-Person Tent. This is much more user-friendly, and takes less time to stow the door away.

Ease of Zipping

One more significant difference is the ease of zipping. For the 1-Person Tent, the door unzips straight, and then up, so a little more than halfway.

However, for the 2-Person Tent, the door unzips almost all the way. So, sometimes when I’m unzipping the door, when the zippers hit this bend here (red arrow below), it doesn’t snag, but I do need to use 2 hands to get the zipper around this bend.

I highly recommend not forcing the zipper around the bend with 1 hand, because after I did that a few times, I noticed that the door stitching started showing signs of wear.

Storage

Mountain Ultra 1P

For storage, the 1-Person Tent comes with 1 pocket near the door (dimensions of pocket: 8 by 8 inches), and 1 pre-attached gear loft that cannot be removed (dimensions o 14.5 by 14.5 inches). And there’s no lantern loop, so I just squished my lantern into the gear loft, like so:

Mountain Ultra 2P

The Mountain Ultra 2-Person Tent comes with 1 pocket beside each door (dimensions of 14 by 7 inches), so 2 pockets altogether, and this isn’t the door pocket that I talked about before.

There’s also 1 lantern loop at the very top of the tent, and 4 more loops around it for the provided gear loft (dimensions of 24 by 20 inches), which you can install or remove, whichever you prefer.

Vents

For rainy day ventilation, the 2-Person Tent comes with 4 built-in rainfly vents, while the 1-Person Tent has just 2 such vents.  

Mountain Ultra 1P

I prefer the rainfly vents of the 1-Person Tent, because in addition to the rainfly vent in the vestibule, there’s 1 more rainfly vent at the back of the tent, which is angled downwards.

So, even though I left this vent open in the heavy rain, no water got into the tent from this vent.

Mountain Ultra 2P

On the other hand, for the 2-Person Tent, while the 2 rainfly vents in the vestibules are exactly the same as the 1-Person Tent, the other 2 rainfly vents are at the very top of the tent, and not angled downwards.

So, during my heavy rain test, because of the angle of the water from the hose, I had to shut the vents at the top of the tent, because it was letting in a lot of water into the tent.

Rainfly

Mountain Ultra 2P

However, for the 2-Person Tent’s rainfly, I really liked that I could pull the rainfly away from the tent body at both widths of the tent, which gives me 2 extra ‘bottom’ vents.

These, plus the vestibules, give me all around ventilation.

Mountain Ultra 1P

On the other hand, for the 1-Person Tent, while it has 1 vestibule at the front of the tent, and I could pull the rainfly away from the tent body at the back of the tent, unfortunately, I couldn’t pull the rainfly at the widths of the tent away from the tent body, so there’s less ventilation here.

This photo shows the back of the tent, not the width:

There’s no stake loop at the width for pulling the rainfly away.

Packed Size

The Mountain Ultra 1-Person Tent has a packed size of 22 by 7 by 6 inches, while the 2-Person Tent has a packed size of 23.5 by 8 by 6 inches, so the 2-Person Tent is only about 20% bigger in packed volume, and just 7% longer.

Weight

The 1-Person Tent weighs about 4.2lbs for everything, while the 2-Person Tent weighs about 6.4lbs for everything, so about 50% heavier.

Price

I paid about $30 more for the 2-Person Tent than I did for the 1-Person Tent.

I bought both these tents from Amazon a couple of years ago, and here’s what came in the box:

• Carry bag
• 2 compression straps
• Tent body
• Rainfly
• Pole(s)
• Stakes
• Guylines
• Instructions
• Lifetime warranty

Recommendation

Overall, I really enjoyed using both Teton Sports Mountain Ultra Tents, I think they’re both incredible value for money, and easily the best budget tents in the market for the price.

When to Pick the 2P

But personally, in my opinion, I prefer the 2-Person Mountain Ultra Tent.

Why? Well, there are 6 reasons:

1. I don’t usually camp alone: 2P can fit more pads or even an entire queen bed.
2. 5.5 inches more headroom: I could even fit a 6-inch thick mattress.
3. 1 extra vestibule, 1 extra door: Added benefit of cross-ventilation.
4. More rainfly ventilation: The 2P can be staked down at the widths, the 1P cannot.
5. Not that much more expensive: Only $30 more.
6. Not too much heavier and bulkier: 20% bigger in packed volume.

But just remember to shut the 2 top rainfly vents if you expect heavy rain and wind, and use 2 hands to work the zipper.

When to Pick the 1P

On the other hand, here’s when the 1-Person Mountain Ultra is better for you:

1. If you usually camp alone.
2. If you prefer something that’s lighter.
3. If you prefer the 2 minutes less in set up, and in the pack away as well.
4. If you prefer to save on the extra $30.

But just bear in mind that if you’re tall, like 5’10 and above, the length of the 1-Person Tent is rather short, so you might want to get the 2-Person Tent instead, where you can sleep a little diagonally across the tent instead.

Bonus: Must Read!

To find out how these 2 Teton Sports Mountain Ultra Tents compare against other similar tents in the market, check out this blog post right here: I bought and tested 6 of the best budget tents in the market!

Or, check out the Mountain Ultra Tents here: