I live in the mountain west, weekend warrioring to the max. More often than not, I’m camping on slickrock, granite, shallow sand, hard packed dirt, or other surfaces that don’t take well to tent stakes. I need a free standing tent that takes no thought or energy to erect after long days crunching as many miles as possible into my two days off.
The Free Zip from Zpacks is the single-wall, freestanding shelter of my ultralight backpacking dreams. A single sheet of tough and waterproof Dyneema fabric creates a bomb-proof dome shape that maximizes the interior space to actually fit two people. And it weighs just 2 pounds.
To really put this tent to the test though, I asked my mom to sleep in it with me for three nights on her first ever backpacking trip. In this Zpacks Free Zip 2P tent review I’m going to tell you what makes this tent so unique and who it’s best suited for.
- 0.55 or 0.75 ounce per square yard Dyneema Composite fabric
- Interior Dimensions: 44 x 86 inches (112 x 218 centimeters)
- Exterior Dimensions: 69 x 92 inches (175 x 234 centimeters)
- Packed Size: 6 x 12 inches (15 x 30 centimeters)
- Weight: Measured 35.4 ounces in 0.75-ounce Dyneema (33.7 ounces advertised, does not include stakes)
- Price: $900
- Also available as a three-person tent
Single-Wall
The Free Zip is made of a single layer of 0.5- or 0.75 ounce per square yard Dyneema fabric. Zpacks states that the thicker fabric is unnecessary and the 0.55-ounce offers plenty of strength against tears. However the 0.75-ounce Dyneema is stronger, less transparent, and more water resistant. The weight of the fabric is determined by the color of tent you choose. Blue and olive drab tents will weigh 2 ounces less than the spruce green and burnt orange.
Dyneema is waterproof, so there are no DWR coatings that can wear off and it’s PFC- and PFAS-free. The best part is that you don’t have to fuss with a separate rain fly, which also provides weight savings. Simply attach the exposed carbon fiber poles to the hooks attached to the single-layer tent body and you’re set.
The Dyneema is tough, if a little see-through. It’s opaque enough for privacy but you can see the outline of the landscape around you, which adds to the je ne sais quoi. I don’t know about you, but the best part of camping for me is actually sleeping outdoors. I like being immersed in my surroundings, not cut off from the outside in a stifling tent. The dual entrances allow you to keep all your doors open for a nice cross breeze, with no hemming and hawing about whether you should put the rain fly on before drifting off to sleep.
Freestanding
Four carbon fiber poles create two X’s that form a clam shell design. Technically, you don’t need to stake the tent down at all if the weather is calm. Though, this works better with one person, not two, because the X’s naturally want to clam shell back together causing you to lose real estate inside.
Stake out all four corners and the doors (six stakes) for a more comfortable evening. To achieve the most storm-worthy silhouette, you can connect the included guy lines to either side of both doors and stake those out (10 stakes total). The exposed double X tent poles allow you to hang damp socks and clothes to dry on your tent.
Ultralight and Packable
At 2 pounds for a two person shelter, this tent is extremely lightweight thanks to carbon fiber poles and the single layer of Dyneema. The tent packs down to just 6 inches wide and the packed poles are only 12 inches long.
Read Next: PFAS Explained
Testing the Zpacks Free Zip 2P Tent In the Field
While on the Tour du Mont Blanc, I backtracked down a ridge to meet my mom. I had gone ahead to set up our shelter on a windy ridge on the French side of the Italian border. Dispersed camping is illegal in Italy and only allowed in France above 2,500 meters (8,200 feet), so it was my only option. As I glissaded down a snow patch a huge gust of wind caught my back, and I looked up towards the rocky saddle now blocking my view of the 2-pound shelter held down with four MSR groundhog minis. Visions of Dyneema sails spiraling into the gray sea of ominous clouds, jagged peaks, and dulling July snow swirled in my head.
Sven “Magic” Anderson
Instead of going back to use more stakes or weigh down the interior with my pack, I focused on locating my mom, still making her way up. Once we crested the pass together, I was relieved to see our Zpacks Free Zip nestled safely into the hillside. We climbed inside to escape the unrelenting winds, and I worried I had signed us up for a restless night. However, inside the Free Zip was total calm. The taut single layer of Dyneema and aerodynamic dome design created a still and silent oasis.
Vestibule
Part of what makes the Zpacks Free Zip so sturdy is the heavily tensioned concave tent door. Wind and rain are directed away from your tent and there’s no annoying flapping. The downside to this design is very minimal vestibule space. You can fit your shoes in it, and that’s about it. Though, for most ultralight backpackers and thru hikers, that’s the only thing going in the vestibule anyway.
Bugs
The Free Zip incorporates handy magnets for keeping the tent doors open. That means you can unclip the doors without opening the no-see-um mesh door by bumping the magnet open. The mesh is extremely tightly woven and incredibly effective at keeping bugs out. Rainbow doors with dual zippers allow you to carefully open and close only the portion of the door you need.
Rain
That first windy night wasn’t the only weather my mom and I encountered on our 30-mile trek along the Tour du Mont Blanc. On our last night we laid down just in time for an intense downpour and bone-rattling thunderclaps. It stormed all night, and both doors were closed. We woke up with some condensation on the inside of the tent.
Diana Helmuth
Ashley Thess
All single-wall shelters are prone to condensation, and the Free Zip is no exception. If at all possible, you should plan to leave at least one door open all night for increased airflow. Zpacks has tips to avoid excess moisture, but if you encounter monsoons there’s no way around it. The tent does dry easily and an ultralight towel is handy to wipe down the interior.
The Free Zip has a 5-inch tall bathtub floor to keep water on the ground out. It works great with one person, but with two people you should plan to take an interior perimeter check before hitting the hay. Make sure your gear and sleeping pads are allowing enough of a lip off the ground to deter water. There is an interior guy line centered at either end of the Free Zip that pulls the floor upward for added peace of mind.
Interior Space
Ashley Thess
Not all two person tents are created with enough room for two people. The Free Zip is off to a good start with two entrances. When we considered it in our test of the best ultralight tents, we put two 6-foot-2 average sized guys in the Zpacks Free Zip and asked if they would comfortably sleep next to each other. Turns out, yes. But they had no room for anything else, like gear.
If you’re used to flattening down your pack and putting your feet on it to sleep, with your food hung outside, there shouldn’t be much gear in your tent to deal with anyway. The versatility of the space is one of my favorite things about it. The Free Zip is so lightweight I don’t mind carrying it just for myself, and if someone joins me, I have room for them, too.
My mom (5-foot-4) and I (5-foot-7) shared this tent comfortably for three nights with all our gear (including food) at our feet. Though, she struggled slightly to get in and out of this tent because it’s so low to the ground. Once inside, there’s plenty of room for even taller hikers to sit up right at 43-inches tall.
The double X design does a great job at creating steep walls to maximize the interior space. Nothing about this tent feels claustrophobic despite its small footprint. The svelte exterior dimensions is one of this tent’s greatest advantages, enabling you to set up in tight camp spots, or a lone patch of dirt.
The Zpacks Free Zip 2P tent is the perfect amount of space for one person to spread out with their gear. This tent feels welcoming to crawl into after a long day, and I don’t mind spending time in it once the sun sets or to wait out some early morning rain.
What the Zpacks Free Zip 2P Tent Does Best
Sven “Magic” Anderson
This is the easiest tent I’ve ever set up. There’s no rain fly, confusing poles, or finicky guylines. When you’re racing storm clouds, the setting sun, your own drooping eyelids, or your hiking partner after you slept in longer than them, this value can’t be understated.
A less concrete, but still extremely important, attribute of this tent is how aesthetically pleasing it is. In my opinion, your tent should feel like home when you’re on trail, not a coffin to sleep in. The dual entrances make it so you can open whatever door is facing down wind for air flow, without letting in a cold breeze. There’s a simple see-through mesh pocket sewn under the door for my eyeglasses and headlamp. And I can easily reach it from outside the tent, too.
At 2 pounds, this shelter is extremely lightweight and packable. It has a small footprint but generous interior space thanks to the dome structure. The single-wall Dyneema and simple double X design makes it extremely easy to put up and take down. In my opinion, this is the ultimate ultralight shelter for anyone routinely camping on hard, packed, or loose surfaces that don’t stake well.
The silhouette is bomb-proof in heavy winds and as long as you don’t mind some condensation, it keeps heavy rains at bay without the use of chemicals or coatings that will wear off. The tent comes seam taped, and includes a 54-inch long roll of DCF repair tape for easy patching at home or on trail.
This tent is advertised to last at least one 2,500+ mile thru hike, or many years of casual use. Zpacks offers a two year limited warranty and after that you can send in your tent for a paid repair. My older version of this tent, the Duo Free, had some tearing at the corners where you would hook the tent to the double H design. I would hold my breath everytime I stretched the stiff fabric far enough to reach the horizontal bar of the H. The new X design takes a lot of the stress off these two attachment points by adding four more hooks to distribute the tension, and I imagine it will hold up a lot longer.
Where the Zpacks Free Zip 2P Tent Can Improve
Let’s start with the elephant in the room: the Free Zip is $900. That’s a lot of money for a tent that won’t last you forever. Tent stakes aren’t included in that price either. It can also condensate inside the tent if the doors are closed all night, especially with two people inside.
If you love vestibules, this tent is not for you. Zpack’s site says the vestibule is 13 inches, and while the door may stake down 13 inches from the tent floor, it’s mostly unusable space thanks to the intense concave of the doors.
Read Next: Best Tent Stakes
Final Thoughts
The Zpacks Free Zip 2P tent is a unique shelter offering the convenience of a freestanding structure in an ultralight package thanks to its single wall design. And it actually has room for two people (depending on the people and gear).
With the amount of backpacking I do, you can’t put a price on easily picking out any campsite, thoughtlessly putting up and taking down your tent, and sleeping soundly in raging conditions. If you’re sick of fruitlessly tensioning a drooping trekking pole tent with rock piles for stakes instead of making dinner and going to bed, consider this the tent of your dreams. But if you can’t sleep with your tent door open and frequently camp in humid environments, it’s not worth the chunk of change.
