TETON Sports Mountain Ultra 1 Review (Bought & Tested!)
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This is my review of the Teton Sports Mountain Ultra 1, after I spent 2 weeks camping in, testing and filming this tent.
Recommendation
The Teton Sports Mountain Ultra 1 is one of the best tents under $100 that I’ve ever tested. The quality is superb, there’s tons of mesh for ventilation, I didn’t have to do any waterproofing prep work at all, and I stayed dry even after 13 hours of rain.
However, the biggest downside of this tent is that the length’s a little bit short, so if you’re taller than 6 feet, you’re not going to be able to fit in here, and you may need to upgrade to a 2-person tent.
Check out the Teton Mountain Ultra 1:
What I Love
Affordable: I managed to purchase mine for slightly less than $100 on Amazon.
High quality: Durable materials, lifetime warranty, perfect factory taping.
Waterproof: It survived 13 hours of bad weather, no waterproofing work required.
Fantastic ventilation: Lots of mesh on hot days, lots of vents for rainy days.
Vertical side walls: 2 out of 4 side walls are vertical, maximizing livability.
What I Didn’t Like
Not for tall folks (6′ and above): Shorter than average tent length (81 inches).
Widths of tent can’t be staked down: Bigger models (2P-4P) can be staked down though.
Check out the Teton Mountain Ultra 1:
RELATED: The 6 Best Tents Under $100 (Bought & Tested!)
What’s In the Box?
Here’s everything that I got out of the box:
Storage bag,
2 compression straps,
Tent body,
Rain fly,
1 pole,
8 stakes and 2 guylines (in separate bag), and
Instructions.
Take note that Teton Sports no longer offers a free footprint with the tent. My instructions say that the footprint is provided, but I didn’t get one.
Set Up & Pack Away
Setting up the Teton Sports Mountain Ultra 1 took me about 4.5 minutes, it was very hassle-free, and I didn’t spend any time wrestling with the setup.
The setup consists of just a single pole, 6 pole clips to attach the tent body to the pole, a rain fly with color-coded red and black webbing, and super-quick buckles to secure the rain fly.
On the other hand, taking down and packing away the tent took just 5.5 minutes.
Here’s my full set up & take down YouTube video for more details:
Height
The peak height in the Teton Sports Mountain Ultra 1 is about 38.5 inches. For someone of my height, I was able to sit upright at the peak height, without my head touching the top of the tent.
I was also able to use my Sea to Summit pad no problem at all.
Take note that the peak height is only at the center, the rest of the tent slopes downwards.
Base Area
The length in the Teton Sports Mountain Ultra 1 is about 81 inches, and the width is about 32 inches. Because I’m not very tall at just 5’3 (160cm), the length of this tent was more than enough for me. But I think if you’re taller than 6′, this might be a bit of a tight fit.
As for the width, this can fit a regular pad, like my Sea to Summit pad no problem at all, with some leftover space, and it can even fit wider pads of about 25-30 inches.
Side Walls
One thing I really liked about this Teton Sports Mountain Ultra Tent is that the side walls of the lengths of the tent are almost vertical. Here’s what the side wall of the tent looks like from the outside of the tent.
Why does this tent have vertical walls? Well, because of the short pole and the 2 tent grommets at the top of the tent, which holds up the tent body.
Vestibule
The Mountain Ultra 1 has 1 vestibule area, and the longest width of this vestibule area is about 25 inches. This was more than enough space to fit my flip flops, with lots of leftover room.
Alternatively, if you don’t need the vestibule, you can un-stake it completely, and tie up the fabric of the vestibule with the 2 vestibule toggles.
Door
Behind the vestibule, there’s the single door of the tent. Marketing says that this is some ‘easy-rolling, innovative door’, but it didn’t seem extraordinary to me. Better than average, yes. Amazing, not exactly.
Here are all the important features of the door.
Like the vestibule, this door also comes with 2 door toggles near the top of the tent to tie the door fabric up (if you want to keep the door open).
When opened, this door has a longest length of about 44 inches, and a longest width of 32 inches, so I found it to be pretty big, which makes getting in and going out of the tent pretty easy.
And when the door is closed, you’ll be protected from bugs with micro mesh.
Storage
For storage, there’s 1 pocket near the door, which measures about 8 by 8 inches.
I also got 1 pre-attached gear loft at the top of the tent, which measures about 14.5 by 14.5 inches. 3 sides of the gear loft had been sewn directly onto the tent, so I couldn’t remove this gear loft. But the last side of the gear loft had an opening for me to fit a little bit of gear.
Sadly, there’s no lantern loop in this tent, so I just squished my lantern into the gear loft, and it worked OK for some lighting at night.
Rain Test
I tested this Teton Sports Mountain Ultra Tent first against 1 hour of pretty heavy rain. After that, it became more of a light to moderate rain, which continued for another 12 hours.
After 13 hours of bad weather, I checked the tent and found that there was not a single drop of water inside the tent.
I checked the corners again and again, but nothing was wet at all. The floor, mesh, and rainfly (from the inside) were completely dry.
It was really nice to be able to sleep at night, with the added comfort of knowing that my tent wouldn’t leak.
For more details on this, you can check out my YouTube video right here:
Wind Test
As for wind, I noticed that it was able to hold up pretty well against light to moderate winds, as long as it’s fully staked out and guyed out.
Ventilation
The Mountain Ultra 1-person tent’s built-in ventilation system consists of:
2 rainfly vents; and
1 bottom vent at the back.
There’s 1 rainfly vent at the back of the tent, which can be held open with a Velcro kickstand, and accessed only from the outside of the tent. Thankfully, even though I left this vent open in the heavy rain, no water got into the tent from this vent.
There’s another rainfly vent at the front of the tent, in the vestibule. All I had to do was to unzip the top of the vestibule slightly, and to use the Velcro kickstand to hold it open. I really liked that this vent can be accessed while I was inside the tent.
Also, in addition to the vestibule at the front, I could even pull the rainfly away from the tent body at the back of the tent, which gives me a vent that measures about 9 inches in width from the outside, which is really nice.
Amount of Mesh
After I removed the rainfly, I found that more than three-quarters of the Teton Sports Mountain Ultra Tent is made from mesh.
This is awesome, I absolutely love this, because it’s really well-ventilated for hot weather days and summer camping. I had some of the best sleep at night in this tent because of that.
Also, it made all the difference when it came to stargazing at night, because I literally got unblocked views. If your priority is admiring beautiful places outdoors, this tent is one of the best for that.
However, bear in mind that because of all the mesh built into this tent, this tent won’t be great for cold weather and shoulder season camping. If you’re camping in the off-season, do expect lots of cold nights.
Materials
Here are the materials that the Teton Sports Mountain Ultra Tent is made of:
Floor material: 150D Polyester Oxford
Rainfly material: 66D 3MM Ripstop
Body material: 150D Polyester Oxford
Pole material: 7001 T6 Aluminum
Mesh: B3 FR Micro Mesh
Zippers: Not branded, but very smooth
Notice how the materials (especially the floor material) are much thicker than your average tent under $100; this makes the Mountain Ultra much more durable and long-lasting. This is also a big reason as to why this tent is such a great value for money purchase.
Stitching & Taping
The stitching all around the tent is really consistent, and double stitched, with no loose threads at all. Certain seams, like the corners, were also reinforced.
As for taping, Teton Sports factory taping consists of heat-sealed seams. I double-checked all the seam taping, especially at the corners, the flooring and under the rainfly, and found it to be very thorough.
Packed Size
The 1-person Mountain Ultra has a packed size of 22 by 7 by 6 inches.
For a size comparison, here’s what it looks like beside a Coleman 2-Person Sundome Tent, as well as a 32-ounce Nalgene bottle.
Weight
The carry bag of the Mountain Ultra Tent comes with a nice shoulder strap for easy carry, and 1-person model has a total pack weight of 4.2lbs.
Backpacking Tent?
Here’s how the Mountain Ultra 1 compares to other popular lightweight backpacking tents:
Teton Sports Mountain Ultra 1: 4.2lbs
MSR NX Solo: 2.8lbs
Big Agnes Copper Spur HV UL 1: 2.4lbs
NEMO Hornet 1: 2.3lbs
As you might have noticed, it’s quite a bit heavier than the rest. Essentially, this Teton Sports is no lightweight backpacking tent.
So, if you’re looking for a lightweight tent, the likes of MSR and Nemo, this Mountain Ultra Tent isn’t the right tent for you. However, you will be able to shed 1lbs or so after changing out the compression straps, stakes, and guylines.
Solid Car Camping Tent
Of course, I still think the Mountain Ultra 1 is more of a car camping tent than a backpacking tent, though it can still be a great addition for shorter hiking trips.
Alternative Tents
To get a full picture of how the Teton Sports Mountain Ultra Tent compares to other budget tents, check out this blog post where I bought, tested and very thoroughly compared the 6 best tents under $100. Is this tent a good purchase? Which is the best in the market? You’ll find out!
Or, check out the Teton Mountain Ultra 1:
