Review: Wild Country Trisar 2d

Back in the day my go to winter tent was the Vango Hurricane Beta. Heavy as it was it was bombproof and dependable. Porch big enough to store gear and cook in, versatile door set up. Ahh, nostalgia! Since then my gear has got lighter and for the last 10 years I've come to rely upon my Terra Nova Laser. A good tent for one person in a hurry.  However realisation dawned that I was in need of more robust and spacious accommodation for winter conditions and more exposed base camping.

Nothing saps the enjoyment of camping like muddy tent doors as far as I'm concerned, especially when that's where you do your cooking too! With that in mind my search settled on two door models. I also wanted a geodesic pole system for strength and wind resistance. Not so very long ago that would have guaranteed a big bill but this year there are a couple of manufacturers offering this style of tent for around 200 pounds. One manufacturer used a plastic clip/buckle arrangement to secure the fly sheet to the feet of the poles so that was out.  Another design looked promising but the poles ran through sleeves on the outside of the flysheet which in my experience increases noise and vibration on windy nights. That left the Trisar.

Last year I got to look closely at a friend's Zephyros (the Wild Country version of my Laser). I was impressed by the materials and quality. I also have experience of the after sales and spares availability  of Wild Country and Terra Nova tents. (both of the other contenders were from reputable companies but the models seem to only be available for a year or two. I wouldn't presume that spares would be available after the model ceases production).  So I duly sent my hard earned bunce to Wild Country and a few days later my Trisar arrived.
The tent as delivered weighs around  3.5 Kg and compresses into the stuff sack quite well. Here it is flanked by a Saunders Spacepaker (right) and My loosely packed Laser (left).

The Trisar is an inner pitch first design, (the first I have owned). And this has the obvious drawback of getting the inner wet if pitching in a downpour. Having said that the inner tent looks as though it would shed rain pretty well and the Fly can be attached in minutes. What is apparent from this point on is that the stability of this tent is very good.




It's When things get tricky on the hill that you benefit from attention to detail. Two details that struck me are that the angled section of the gothic arch end poles are measured to  same length as the others so that the poles pack neatly. The pegs supplied are strong and comfortable to the hand but also are a bright red. Therefore you are less likely to lose them when leaving your camp site. Possibly the biggest indicator of the design experience behind this tent is the ease with which the poles slide into the sleeves rather than snagging and jamming.
The Mesh pole sleeves also seem to provide good airflow between the fly and inner tent.
As I said earlier, one of the alternatives to this tent had the flysheet attached by plastic
buckles, and while this can work well (see my earlier praise for the hurricane) it can also be a vulnerability, particularly as the tent ages. The Trisar fly sheet tapes wrap around the pole ends to make the connection bombproof and also further tension the flysheet which is easy to get taught on all surfaces that Ive pitched it on.

There are 10 guy points around the tent with luminous sliders. When the side ones are deployed the
tent really does feel like a big fabric limpet hugging the ground. I'm not sure about the two guys from the door hood . They appear to be held solely by the seam of the hood so I would only tension them enough to keep the hood in place in wind. I don't think they bring a great deal to the stability party.

While discussing these it's also worth considering their positioning, they are set narrower than the doorway at the top so useful as an easily reached washing line but a bit of a nuisance when getting in and out of the tent, particularly in winter gear.

The fly sheet door is an"n" shaped zip that provided some versatile door options.Both ends have clear plastic windows.Personaly these irritate me. The door is well designed and hooded, if you wanted to see out you could open the top of the door.

It's a design feature that demands further additions too, an internal flap aids privacy although predictably it sags open. And then of course you need tape and buckles to roll the flap out of the way should you want to see out! I think weight and construction processes could have been saved with a solid door.

Another feature of questionable value is the door clip that allows the door to be rolled into the side of both doors. I think these will soon be in the parts bin as they are unlikely to get much use and get in the way.

Moving past the outer doors the porches at either end allow plenty of space for access, storage and cooking. I tend to use one end as an entrance and storage for boots and waterproofs and
the other for cooking.









The inner doors are double with a full zipped mesh door and a full zipped solid door; so you have complete control over
venting. The solid half or both halves can be tucked well out of the way into one of the four internal pockets.

The pockets set either side of the doors are helpful in ordering the living space and again contribute to the versatility that makes this tent a very easy place to organise and live in.
They are placed below large mesh panels which assist the doors in keeping condensation controlled.
A plastic hook allows for a torch to be hung from the apex of the inner tent ceiling.

Inner living space is good with plenty of room for two using full length mats and bags with 4-5 inches free at the door. ( Pictured is an Alpkit Pipe Dream 200 for scale on a full length mat) The groundsheet does not feel as robust as some but is about standard for current models. These days I always put something under a groundsheet, even if that is just a light poly or foil sheet. In cold weather a closed cell mat goes under and a self inflating mat inside the tent.


My overall verdict of the tent is that it is stable, weatherproof and quiet. It's described as a cut price Quasar by some and that's probably fair but it feels as if its designed up to a capability rather than down to a price. No, the fabrics are not the smartest and no, they don't feel especially nice to the touch (how much time are going to be spending fondling your flysheet? really?). In an ideal world I'd have loops to make a gear loft not a single hook, the door and door hood would be tweaked a bit to ease their use, but, that does all rather miss the point. Here is a really sound and solid tent backed up by a company with a track record of carrying spares, even for obsolete models for around half the price of the standard 4 pole geodesic. On top of that it's really easy to live comfortably in.
I like it.

Thank you for reading please subscribe comment and share if you wish.