MICA FL 2

Comments about TheNorthFace MICA FL 2:

I've had this ten for two seasons and it has performed well for my needs. Ultralight, easy to set up and great for light backpacking. It is quite small for two people, but it was a fair trade for the weight savings. The tent also takes no time to set up and looks great.

There are two significant flaws with this tent:
1) The fly does not extend all the way over the tent, but rather comes up about three inches too short on each corner. This means that rain will run off the fly and onto the corner of the actual tent. The times it has rained so far, the tent has stayed dry despite this, but water will get into the corners of this tent with heavy rain over time.
2) The width of the floor of the tent was designed to be too narrow. This is apparent when two people with regular size foamies lie side by side, as putting downward force on the floor of the tent pulls down the sides of the tent, and strains the mesh. After about a dozen nights in the tent, the mesh has stretched on one side as a result of this. It's just a matter of time before it rips. If they had made the floor a few inches wider, this would not be an issue. I guess they were trying to save weight by narrowing dimensions in the wrong place.

Comments about TheNorthFace MICA FL 2:

Took this tent on a last minute loner backpack trip, and must I say it performed well. Before I could even reach my campsite it started pouring on me, so my spots of setup became very limited, and it has to be fast. Thankfully because this tent sets up so fast, very little water got in the tent. Once I got the tent setup and inside, then it really started pouring down. hard. But alas, no leaks and no water build-ups on the the top, and I stayed dry. The only thing that I can directly complain about is the tent footprint it comes with. I don't know what error they made in the manufacturing process, or who came up with the wrong measurements, but that footprint does not fig snugly under the tent. It slacks, comes out from below the tent, and collects water if you have water that moves below your tent. It does the job of stopping rocks from damaging the tent, but its pain to work with. I might just need to make my own. Otherwise though its an amazing tent for the weight it comes in.

Comments about TheNorthFace MICA FL 2:

I bought the older version (single pole at base vs freestanding) of the Mica FL2 a couple years ago and just gave it a real test in RMNP in Aug 2017. The tent space is just wide enough for 2 thermarest neoairs with a couple inches to spare. There is some room at the top and bottom. The vestibule area's on each side are big enough to store pack and gear over night, door on each side is great. We camped at 11K feet and had the full range of weather including about 5 hail storms intermixed with thunder\rain for about 4 hours one afternoon. The fly held up well and no leaks from above. Tent was pitched in designated camp area that had run off running going under the tent after heavy rain/hail. Water ran under and over footprint but floor of tent held up (damp but not wet). At the head of the tent there was some splashing under the fly that went over the base where the mosquito netting starts, again a little damp. The tent footprint is exactly the size of the tent base, if it was a couple inches bigger I could have engineered the rain runoff to go under the footprint verses over. Like other review, I had the velcro on fly that is suppose to go around tent crossbar come off fly. Also had one of the door open holder bars also come off fly. Plan to contact TNF about it. Weight of tent was great, survived major storm, All things considered, I would give it a B+

Comments about TheNorthFace MICA FL 2:

Very easy to set up but as others wrote, the waterproofing is peeling off pretty much immediately and you'll end up with white flakes inside your tent for a while. I haven't tested the tent in the rain yet but I hope that the peeling layer is not too critical to keep the inside dry.

Comments about TheNorthFace MICA FL 2:

Fairly straightforward to set up - I ignore the velcro attachments from the fly to the pole, as this makes setup tricky and one other reason stated below. One erected the tent is a nice space, with the two side doors and large vestibules. It's quite a large footprint, so you'll need a larger than usual clear space. The tent is not completely free-standing, the two foot end corners need to be pegged out - it's not a deal breaker. The fly fits over the three pole ends, along with the tent, and the groundsheet - tensioning all three by the same amount using one peg could get tricky, but the guy lines have tensioning buckles which help. The fly has a few reflectors which is a nice touch, plus a few more loops for added guy lines. Each vestibule has an added zipper to allow ventilation - nice. There are three storage pockets intuitively located, although they are small. There are three loops in the ceiling of the tent, I can only assume for a loft? That would be a good extra. Room is adequate for two, but not generous. I'm 6ft and length was fine. It's easy to get in and out of, and the doors are fitted with two zips which meet in the front corner, there's a protector flap for the zip ends which sometimes gets snagged. It rained on my last trip and the tent was waterproof, light and cozy. I've never seen condensation - it's well ventilated in that respect. There were several fly to tent loops, door retainers and velcro retainers which were glued on, they fell off almost immediately after pitching - I threw them away as they are not critical items, but this bad design/workmanship does make one worry about the long term durability of the tent. The new version seems to have a different/better pole design, and hopefully the glued on tabs are gone too. So I'm going to recommend the tent based upon those assumptions.

Comments about TheNorthFace MICA FL 2:

This tent is a piece of junk. It leaked on the first night of my camping trip, right through the seams on the rain fly. Also FOUR of the rainfly tie downs FELL OFF on by the second night. The Velcro tie downs for the tent poles and the attachment points for the corner of the tent are just glued on and fell off. North Face could easily fix this by sewing them on. On day three the waterproofing on the inside of the front corners began to flake off, leaving little bits of plastic residue in the tent. I expected much better from a North Face, I will be returning this tent and will NOT be buying another North Face to replace it.

Comments about TheNorthFace MICA FL 2:

We received this tent for our 15th anniversary and both of us were super excited! We have an old North Face tent, that we absolutely love, and it has gotten us through many many adventures. If we love this tent as much as the last one, we will have it for a long long time. My husband and I really enjoy backcountry camping and canoeing, so this is the perfect tent for us. It is super light weight and really easy to set up, plus it looks great! Can't wait to start racking up adventures with our new gear.

Comments about TheNorthFace MICA FL 2:

I have been very fond of this tent. I have been using it for over two years now for both backpacking and car camping. I usually use this tent with one other person, we both use inflatable pads and mummy style sleeping bags and it all fits in there no problem, It is very easy to set up (seriously takes 2 minutes), it has kept me dry in pouring rain, it is very light and easy to carry. I am a big fan of star gazing though the mesh on clear nights. I foresee using this tent for quite sometime to come. If you are looking for a light, durable easy to use tent I suggest trying this one out.

Comments about TheNorthFace MICA FL 2:

I have used it twice so far.

- Once by myself and once with someone. I am 6'2 and the other person sharing it was the same height. It was tight for both of us with sleeping pads, sleeping bags etc...

- The space you have when your rain fly on is a big space for your bag and other equipment you might have to keep out of the weather.

- I love the head room being a bigger guy!

-Not a fan of the final zipper closing. You have to be careful it gets closed all the way and that it doesn't get stuck on the piece of fabric near the end when you are closing the tent.

-Doors are fantastic! VERY wide. Easy in and out.

-Doesn't come with the footprint (which for the price of the tent seems silly).

-Wish all rain-fly pull eyelits were color coated. Just the blue one is on the right hand side of the wide/front part of the tent.

-Quick set up with just one pull.

-All mesh. Drys fast but I am guessing easy rip.

Comments about TheNorthFace MICA FL 2:

After planning to do the grueling Long Range Traverse hike in NFLD, I decided to splurge and get a much lighter tent than any of my more paddling-friendly shelters. The only problem with going the ultra-light route is that my girlfriend (and hiking partner), has problems with claustrophobic spaces and poor ventilation.

After months of research and testing roughly a dozen different models, I decided to go with the Mica FL 2. What a great decision that turned out to be!!

With my 230lb frame, finding an ultra-light tent roomy enough to meet my girlfriends exacting standards was tough, but this tent didn't disappoint. It POURED with rain each night we were out, and not only did we stay dry, but we had plenty of extra room at our feet for any extra gear we wanted to keep dry.

This tent is light, dry, roomy, and has large vestibules for all your stuff. If my girlfriend gives it the thumbs up, you're sure to love it too!!