I bought my Nemo Hornet one-person tent back in 2021. Since then, I’ve spent three to four weeks each year living out of it, everywhere from the Sonoran cactus fields of Arizona to high alpine basins in Nevada’s deer country to the dense black bear forests of the Rockies. It’s been with me through storms, snow, heat, and everything in between. Thick and thin.
I’m not much of a brand loyalist (my favorite manufacturer generally being “On Sale”), but I keep coming back to Nemo Equipment whenever I have a gear opening I need to fill. Every single piece of kit I’ve picked up from them — which at this point is quite a few — is incredibly well-engineered, durable, and appears to be built by people who actually use their own products.
The Hornet is a semi-freestanding tent, which is really the only way to roll for a serious backpacking tent. There is no wasted space or material. Every detail feels intentional, useful, and well-executed.
I like the interior guy-outs — clips that connect the inner tent walls to the rain fly and pull the fabric outward to increase interior space. For a one-person tent, it never feels cramped, even when wearing all of my layers and stuffed into the complementary Kayu 15 bag. Of course, this is all predicated on the usage of the rain fly, which I do try to forgo at every opportunity.
Nemo also added mesh pockets for organization and a headlamp diffuser panel, which I sometimes make use of when I fill my trusty Rite in the Rain with the day’s events.
The vestibule does fit a stuffed pack and a rifle, and you can play around with the size of the vestibule based on the angle of the rain fly, and how much inclement weather you need to seal out.
The DAC poles that come standard with all Nemo tents should be mandatory on every single tent sold through the world. They are buttery smooth, lightweight, and strong. If there is a better tent pole on the market, nobody has told me about it.
Thoughts from the Field
Setting up the Hornet takes minimal time and effort. I take my sweet time, and it probably takes me five minutes of minimal exertion. The quick and easy setup is one reason why these tents are worth the money; no juggling too many poles or searching for weird clips.
Because of this, it also makes it great for truck camping, too. I’ve used it on base camp hunts when I could’ve taken a larger two-person or wall tent and never felt like I gave anything up, although some people like to hang out in their tents and do random things in there. If I’m in the tent, I’m going to sleep, sleeping, or waking up.
This tent has held up flawlessly. After years of heavy use (and abuse avoided as much as possible), it still performs like new. I’ve found a couple of small holes in the “No See ‘Um” mesh — probably from uninvited dirt and debris while breaking down camp — and patched one pea-sized area on the bathtub floor. That’s it. No broken zippers, no torn seams, no pole damage.
I’ve washed the fly once or twice, and re-DWR’d it. A few stakes got bent when I pounded them into the onmnipresent, subsurface desert boulders, but the tent itself has weathered freak snowstorms in Arizona and sustained downpours in Idaho without a single failure. It’s one of the most reliable pieces of gear I own, right after my Model 70.
The Last Word on the Nemo Hornet
The Hornet packs small — and if you’re backpacking, every cubic inch counts. Everything fits into the included stuff sack without a fight, and I store the footprint in its own mesh bag, clipped to the main stuff sack with a small Sea to Summit carabiner.
At six feet tall, I still have (relatively) plenty of room to stretch out and roll over. I’ve never had a problem with condensation or unexpected moisture — as long as I set the tent up properly (read: taut)
While doing a bit of web browsing for this article, I saw that Nemo has updated their line of tents with their new OSMO fabric, which is made without forever chemicals. This is a great evolutionary step for their lineup and I’d be interested to see how it compares in extreme conditions, but I have a feeling my OG Hornet will be around for at least the next decade at this rate.
They say “buy once, cry once,” but I don’t think anyone has ever cried after living with the Nemo Hornet… quite possibly the greatest tent ever made.
Ed. Note: we have no relationship with Nemo at the time of publication, but if you choose to purchase a tent through our affiliate link, we’ll earn a small amount from qualifying purchases.
