There is no doubt about it, MSR make great, well-thought out backcountry gear.

The Hubba Hubba NX comes in at 1720g and is one of the lightest two-person shelters around. For those wanting to just take the fly and groundsheet away, the weight can be trimmed even further. It’s a versatile set up.

With this new model, MSR has worked hard on the original Hubba Hubba and trimmed 500g off its weight. It’s still spacious though, offering 2.7m² flor area and two vestibules of 0.81m². Grams have been saved in every part of the tent, from the tiny micro zippers to lighter weight fabrics. But there are no free lunches in this game. The inner is an extremely fine mesh, though it would suffice for most seasons. For a two-person tent, MSR have also gone light on the pockets.

I suspect that the lightweight floor construction (waterhead rated 3000mm), combined with the mosquito net won’t keep all the weather out in a proper storm – but its not aimed at alpinists: it’s a tent for minimalists.

The fly is paper thin and has few guy points so that even in light winds it rattled and leads me to suspect it wouldn’t be a strong performer on the tops in a nor-wester.

However, for many people these irritants and compromises will not outweigh the attractive weight savings – at it’s lightest configuration it weighs just 970g.

I really wanted to like this tent. But I never got used to the ‘peg the footprint first’ pitching system and can’t imagine doing this in a storm. Tents are like huts; it’s the ones that protect you in filthy weather that become favourites. For me I’ve always appreciated the one I could get up and into with the minimum of fuss when the weather turned filthy. The Hubba Hubba NX doesn’t quite meet that benchmark.