Naturehike Cloud Up Base 2 Person Tent: Weight, Price and Alternatives

The Naturehike Cloud Up Base 2 Person Tent is our beginner tier pick in shelters, with a published weight of 4 lb 4 oz and a listed price of $101.15. A double wall freestanding two person tent with a footprint included, at a sixth of the price of the flagship. Listed at 4.25 lb without the footprint, which is heavy by ultralight standards and light by any other.

What is the Naturehike Cloud Up Base 2 Person Tent actually good at?

A double wall freestanding two person tent with a footprint included, at a sixth of the price of the flagship. Listed at 4.25 lb without the footprint, which is heavy by ultralight standards and light by any other.

Best for: Learning what you actually want in a shelter before spending $600 finding out.

Shelter is usually the largest single line on a gear list and the easiest place to save a pound. The saving comes from deleting poles rather than from thinner fabric, which is why trekking pole shelters dominate light gear lists and freestanding tents dominate everyone else's.

What does it do to your base weight?

At 4 lb 4 oz this item accounts for roughly 43 percent of a 10 lb ultralight base weight and about 21 percent of a 20 lb traditional one. That framing matters more than the raw number: an ounce saved on a headlamp is noise, and a pound saved on a shelter is a category of its own. Put your real figures into the gear list builder and the same item will show you what it costs against your list rather than against an average one.

Published weights are taken in the manufacturer's favour: usually the smallest size, usually without the stuff sack, stakes or guylines that come in the box. Expect a real-world figure an ounce or two heavier and weigh it once when it arrives. A $9 kitchen scale is the cheapest useful upgrade to any gear list, because it stops the spreadsheet lying to you.

How does it compare with the rest of the shelters?

Every item below has been verified against the retailer listing, and every weight is the manufacturer's published figure for the configuration named. Sorted lightest first, so the trade between weight and everything else is visible in one pass.

Lighter alternatives: Durston X-Mid 2 Pro at 1 lb 4 oz, NEMO Hornet OSMO 2P at 2 lb 6 oz, Big Agnes Copper Spur HV UL2 at 3 lb 2 oz. Weight alone never decides this. The lightest option in a category is usually the one with the narrowest window of conditions it works in, which is exactly the trade the roundup spells out tier by tier.

Which tent weight is this?

Tent makers publish three different numbers for the same shelter and rarely say which is which. Minimum weight counts the canopy, the fly and the poles. Trail weight is roughly that plus what most people actually carry. Packaged weight is everything in the box, including stakes, guyline, stuff sacks, a repair sleeve and the instructions, and the gap between minimum and packaged is routinely half a pound. Compare like with like or the comparison is meaningless, and add your own stakes and guyline to whatever figure you use, because a shelter without stakes is a tarp on the ground.

Which complete kits use it?

This item appears in one of the complete gear lists on this site, which is the most useful context a single product page can give you: not what it weighs in isolation, but what share of a finished kit it accounts for and what the rest of that kit looks like around it.

Every one of those kits lists every item you need to actually go, with a per item weight and price, a running total down both columns, a section on what you can skip, and an upgrade ladder priced in grams saved per dollar. Each also loads straight into the gear list builder so you can swap this item for something you already own and watch the total move. That is usually a faster way to decide whether a purchase is worth it than reading another review of it.

Who should skip it?

Anyone who already knows they will keep doing this. Beginner tier gear works correctly and costs a fraction of the alternatives, and that is exactly the right trade for a first season. It is the wrong trade if you already know your base weight target and this item is the thing standing between you and it.

Going lighter must not mean going unprepared. Shelter adequate to the actual conditions, insulation, rain protection, water treatment and a way to call for help are fixed costs on any list. If a lighter version of this item means cutting into one of those, it is the wrong purchase however good the spec sheet looks. You are responsible for what you walk into, and the forecast is not the conditions.

Related reading

• Our full shelters roundup, split into beginner, intermediate and expert tiers
• Tent weight comparison chart
• Trekking pole shelter versus freestanding tent
• Gear list builder: see what this item does to your own base weight
• Base weight calculator
• Six complete example gear lists, every item priced and linked
• All verified gear specs, A to Z