Big Agnes Copper Spur UL2 Review

The Copper Spur UL2 is among the lightest tents we've yet tested in the backpacking tent category here at GearLab. While some of its featherweight competition lacks livability, the UL2 offers enough interior space for either one camper on extended trips or two people on shorter missions. Despite a few setbacks, this tent was well-loved by our entire review panel, even after extensive testing across several climates and mountain ranges.

Comfort

If you want a tent you can hang out in for extended adventures, the Copper Spur UL2 isn't necessarily our top recommendation depending on your group size. If you're planning a longer backpacking trip, we'd recommend keeping the UL2 to one person, but for weekend adventures, squeezing two people in was no problem. Outside of space, the UL2 has some nice design elements that improve its overall score in this metric.

The Copper Spur UL2 offers 29 square feet of interior space and has steeper walls, allowing two people to use every square inch for sleeping bags, pads, or gear. Some of the lightest tents we've tested have a lower maximum height and more angled side walls, which made our sleeping bags more easily get wet since we were pushing them against the walls.

Weather Resistance

The Copper Spur performed decently well during adverse weather, especially considering the lightweight nature of the fabric. However, this is not a tent we'd recommend taking out in a big storm, as its tent body is still largely mesh. It also isn't as ideal for particularly strong winds, though the included guy lines can offer some reinforcement.

As is often the case with lighter-weight tents, this model does protect you from the elements, but it isn't exactly our first choice if you're marching out into a big storm on a longer quest. Big Agnes has started using a proprietary fabric in its Copper Spur line called HyperBead™, which is designed to outperform its weight in waterproofing. In our field testing, this has largely been verified, but during storms measured in days rather than hours, we found some moisture finally making its way through.

As this is not a 4-season tent, the inner body offers little in the ways of weather reinforcement, so any moisture that does sneak its way past the fly can quite easily also get past the mesh.

The thinner-diameter poles also required slightly more guy line tension than some of the heavier competition in stronger winds. However, the tent clips and classic semi-dome design of the UL2 held up well against those gusty trips, given the weight.

Space to Weight Ratio

This tent is among the lighter models we've tested in the backpacking tent category, weighing 3 pounds. If you really want to go light, you can leave behind things like the stuff sack and stakes to get the tent down to around 2.5 pounds. When considering the interior space, the Copper Spur UL2 ranked at the top of this metric. However, it is crucial that you keep in mind the length of your backpacking trip- this is a great two-person tent for short trips, and you're much better off only putting one person inside this tent during longer outings.

The Copper Spur UL2 comes in at 29 square feet of interior space, bringing it to 9.67square feet per pound, making it one of the highest scoring options. The UL2 also boasts two 9-square-foot vestibules that allow our team to keep shoes and packs in the shade and shelter of the tent. The packed size of this tent was also among the best we've yet seen, with a stuff sack that even has compression straps.

Ease of Use

The Copper Spur UL2 is intuitive to set up and tension/re-tension, despite its more minimalist design. Some of the lightest-weight models skimp on pockets and door retainers, but the UL2 boasts excellent scores in this metric, especially given its low weight.

One of our favorite aspects of the UL2 is its vent in the fly, which has a user-friendly prop bar when wanting max ventilation. This, paired with the heavy use of mesh in the tent body, made for a great camping experience across a variety of climates. The doors of the UL2 are also very easy to roll up with tooth-and-loop combo retainers when the weather is pleasant. Stake bags, in our experience, often get lost in the shuffle of packing/unpacking, which can be a big nuisance, since stakes can cause significant tears in tent fabric. Fortunately, the Copper Spur UL2 has a stake pouch built into the main stuff sack for the entire tent. While this might seem like a minor addition, all of our review team noticed and appreciated this feature from Big Agnes.

Construction Quality

As a 3-pound tent, the Big Agnes Copper Spur UL2 uses lighter-weight materials to make it more packable. Relative to other featherweight tents available on the market today, the UL2 is fairly durable, but across our review's lineup, it's not quite as robust of a shelter.

Big Agnes was faced with a classic challenge all tent manufacturers must face: keeping weight down while making a tent that'll still last. We found the Copper Spur UL2 to strike a nice balance between packability and construction quality, though it's crucial that you pay attention to exactly where you set up the UL2. The HyperBead™ fabric Big Agnes uses in the rainfly and floor is 15-denier nylon and 20-denier ripstop, which is relatively thin compared to heavier tents in the lineup that use as much as 75-denier materials in the same areas. With proper care, including washing the tent after trips and not putting the tent away when it's wet

Should You Buy the Big Agnes Copper Spur UL2?

If you need to keep your backpacking kit as small and light as possible, we'd put the Big Agnes Copper Spur UL2 on your final list. While it lacks the interior square footage some might want for longer adventures, this is an incredible thru-hiking and long-distance backpacking companion. If you're someone who might deliberately head out in poor weather, the UL2 will handle some rain, but you might want to look elsewhere if you'll be logging trips in sustained winds and intense precipitation.

What Other Backpacking Tents Should You Consider?

If you're needing a bit more space, consider the Big Agnes Copper Spur UL3, which only weighs slightly more than the UL2 and offers much more interior room for two or it can squeeze in parties of three for shorter adventures. If the price tag of the UL2 is out of your budget, consider either The North Face Stormbreak 2 or The North Face Stormbreak 3, which are comfy but are much heavier tents.