Review for Nemo ALTI STORM 3P

I purchased the Nemo Alti Storm 3P for a trip to Mount Rainier. There wasn't much for reviews on Nemo gear and almost no reviews on this tent besides a youtube video of the setup, which made me pull the trigger. The tent came and it was a beast. My initial reactions from setting the tent up in my living room were that it was very spacious. But you paid for it in weight. This is a 4 season tent intended to stand up to heavy winds but is equally at home in the rainforest. With its double wall design We remained dry while camping in the Washington rainforest. But Again it is heavy!!!

The tent was purchased for a 2 man team, myself and another tester similar in size. Each well over 6 feet and around 200 lbs, it was planned as a 2 man tent but advertised as a 3. 3 guys in there would be tough (as all 3 man tents are) but I could definitely see it happening. Only 2 sleeping pads will fit side by side so make sure you test out 3 and get the pad situation correct. I have other friends that could easily fit 3 and this tent would be much lighter to carry if split between 3, but be ready to get close. This tent could definitely get stripped down by Nemo and I am sure it will in the future. The following is a brief touch on features and my thoughts on them.

I purchased the tent and included the “footprint”, the “pawprint” and the gear loft. The tent is around 12 lbs by itself. I purchased these accessories to minimize wear when weight was not a concern. Meaning local trips, training hikes, and car camping I will use these accessories. I did not intend to take them with me on Rainier. The pawprint and footprint functioned well. The tent takes some practice setting up properly so test it out a few times before you try and set it up in gale winds. One thing I really like is when you carry it in the bag you can use the bag to identify constellations. Great little addition to the bag but I would love to have it printed on the tent. Who brings the bag? But at any rate, a nice little touch.

• The Windows are nice, typically freeze over or steam up for me but I would probably do a weight to effectiveness comparison. Seems like they may add a few ounces.
• The Gear loft is key, don't buy this tent without it, it should come with it. In the future I see this built into the tent and stripped down, there are a few unnecessary ounces on there.
• Side pockets are key too. I've spent a week in there and its hard to stay organized, try a month with with a week of not leaving the tent. You need storage for expeditions. Figure out the minimum necessary and go with it.
• Pawprint and foot print – these should come with the tent too, I never understood while they didn't but no tent manufacture includes them. Get them, I only use them when I'm not cutting weight but they will extend the life of the floor significantly. Footprint goes between the floor of the tent and the ground and the Pawprint goes between you and the floor. Its a nice fabric and it snaps in place.
• The rain fly is more of a wind fly. Its way heavy but is seriously nice especially in winds. The Ranger said the winds in camp were sustained at 40mph with frequent gusts that were over 60mph. I can honestly say wasn't sure the tent would be there when we got down from the summit, but the tent appeared unscathed. The a well guyed fly saved all of our gear.
• Bathtub bottom was great at keeping snow out. Tent appeared waterproof for now with no additional treatments. I don't see myself using it in Rainy conditions but it did very well when in the rain forest of WA.
• I still the the constellations map would be great printed somewhere in the tent visible. Id love to sleep in this thing with no fly on a clear night.
• There are what they call light pockets you can put your headlamps in and they light up the tent. A great Idea, I don't know how well it works thought, maybe if you stick a glowstick or something in there it would be better. I did use them I just don't know if they are worth the extra fabric. A great Idea though that should be further investigated.
• The door setup is superior to any tent I have used with 2 doors (extra weight) so both testers could go in and out of their own door. They are made so that you can set them in any number of ways so that they are affected the least amount by wind. I do recommend for the Doors you purchase those snow stakes that are 8” or so long and 1.5 inches wide and have the holes down them. I tied them off in the middle and buried them as deadmen and they are far superior to the stakes provided with the tent. I do this for the same reason you put gate posts on a fence in concrete and not all of the posts. The other Points on the tent can be staked off by the provided stakes and they actually work surprisingly well.
• Nemo provided 4 guy lines with the tent which need to be used if you have any wind. When used properly they really tighten the tent up to a reliable, quiet shelter most other campers are jealous of. We thought they were perfect until we got back down to our tent and realized the doors would not zip all the way. We didn't understand why, we just thought something shifted until we took the tent down and all 4 poles had taken a set (plastic deformation). I was super bummed but was glad we didn't need to spend anymore time on this trip in the tent, I would haggle it out with Nemos Warranty Department. I have come up with a way to guy it out with 6 guy lines which I believe will be far superior to the 4 guy lines. (note in photo on tent in snow guy lines are not yet setup) A trekking pole can be broken down into 3 pieces and used, 2 poles will do the whole tent, bury them as deadmen and they will never move. This left us each with a single pole which we used on summit day.

After getting back to Golden, I sent an Email to Nemo explaining what happened. They had not run into this, I explained how it was guyed out and they were fine with how I had set it up. They asked me to send in the poles and they would evaluate them and replace them if they feel it is an issue in the manufacturing. The customer service girl was super nice and apologetic but she did say the engineers thought it was more likely a blunt force and not wind like someone falling on the tent. While I was not at the tent for 12 hours on summit day, I highly doubt someone fell on it, but it could have happened. Anyway I sent the poles in and got a call 2 weeks later. It was Nemo telling me they got the package but the poles were not in it! Just my luck. They were bummed because they wanted to see them but she instantly said they would send me new poles at no charge to me which was nice. I did try and track the lost poles down to finally be told “we can file a report but honestly, their gone” I had my new poles and I was happy.

My overall impression of the tent is good. I would give it an A. It really is a great tent for mountaineering particularly an expedition style. Alpinists, there's no way you wanna haul this thing. I am glad we had this and with a Pack mule for a partner, our 60lbs packs to base camp really wasn't bad. I would recommend this tent to be used for expeditions or any alpinist who wants to sent a bast camp up where they can do multiple pushes or try and learn the weather patterns of the mountains. One thing with this tent is cost. Cost is the last thing on my mind when I purchase gear, I want the best and what works for me. This is a pricey tent so If anyone has any questions on this tent please shoot me a message, and ill help you figure out if this is the tent for you.

Thanks to Nemo for working with me on the broken poles.