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| The Akto on Stob Coire Easain on the Munros & Tops walk, 1996 |
Thirty years ago I was planning my next long-distance walk,
a round of all the Munros and Tops (3000 foot+ mountains in the Scottish
Highlands). On previous multi-month walks I hadn’t been too concerned about the
weight of my load, though it was always a consideration. They had all been end-to-end
linear walks though where the route between those points could be varied. The
Munros and Tops walk wasn’t like that. It meant linking 617 summits. There were
hills to climb every day and no easy alternatives. So I was taking the weight I
would carry more seriously than in the past.
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| The Akto on the Munros & Tops walk, 1996 |
One of the most important items of gear would be my tent. It
needed to be strong enough to cope with Scottish mountain weather, roomy enough
to live in night after night with a porch big enough for cooking when it was
stormy, and also as light as possible. Fortuitously, the
Hilleberg Akto, the first solo tent from the company, was launched that year. I’d used the Hilleberg Nallo 2 on a walk
the length of Norway and Sweden in 1992 and knew that Hilleberg quality was superb. I wanted a lighter tent for the Munros and Tops though. The Akto looked ideal.
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| A dusty Akto in the Grand Canyon |
I tested the Akto on a few overnight trips then took it on a
two-week autumn walk in the Grand Canyon, where it handled thunderstorms, hailstorms, heavy
rain, dust storms, and strong winds without difficulty. Impressed, I wrote a
review for The Great Outdoors magazine, saying that “for the solo backpacker
the Akto is the best tent I’ve yet come across”. I've reviewed it quite a few times since!
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| My first Akto review |
I took it on the Munros and Tops walk and it performed
superbly for four months of Scottish ‘summer’ weather. At the end of the trip
it was still in excellent condition. It still is, as I confirmed on a trip this
year.
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| The Akto on Ben Nevis, TGO Challenge 2008 |
After a few years Hilleberg brought out a new version of the
Akto with a few modifications – the main one being a hood over the top of the
outer door so the top could be left open for ventilation. I used this version
for many trips, including several TGO Challenge coast-to-coast walks across the
Scottish Highlands, on one of which I camped on snow on the summit of Ben
Nevis, one of the finest camps I’ve ever had.
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| The Akto in the White Mountains, New Hampshire, 2003 |
I also took this Akto
to the White Mountains in the Eastern USA for the only walk I’ve ever done in
the Appalachians. It was autumn and the weather was quite wintry with frequent
snow. I needed to extend the guylines to pitch the Akto on the wooden platforms
found on many of the campsites on the steep-sided heavily wooded hills. It
performed well even though I couldn't peg down the corners.
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| The Akto I used on the Munros & Tops walk in the Lairig Ghru this year |
The Akto is now a classic, an iconic tent that has been much
imitated. Thirty years after its launch it’s still a great solo tent that will
last and last. I've used it on hundreds and hundreds of nights. I hope to do so on many more.
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| The current version of the Akto in the Cairngorms, April 2025 |
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| The Akto in the White Mountains, New Hampshire, 2003 |
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| The Akto in Glen Feshie, TGO Challenge, 2007 |
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| The Akto in the NW Highlands, 2006 |
The last photo is truly magnificent, Chris. Which body of water is that ?
ReplyDeleteCheers
Thanks Andy. The loch is Loch Bealach a' Bhuirich.
DeleteThanks Chris
DeleteThis is why I bought my first Hilleberge Akto.
ReplyDeleteEverybody talks about superb performance from their Hilleberg tents but my two Aktos failed in fairly short order from UV damage. As a result, I've moved away from Hilleberg. BTW, my first Akto, bought at a display in Reading, was sold to me by a member of the Hilleberg family. He said that he had been warned that it always rained in England and it was raining at the time.
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of UV damage to an Akto. Sounds like faulty fabric. Did you send them to Hilleberg for checking. Both my Aktos have have many hundreds of nights each without any problems.
ReplyDeleteNo, sending the tents to Hilleberg did not occur to me. The second failure was spectacular as the end of the tent came right off when the fabric tightened after a wet start to the day turned hot. Although the tents did not last many years, I got a lot of nights out of them so probably don’t have that much to complain about. The first Akto came without a hood over the door and I preferred that design. The weight of the hood on the second one was just enough to distort the fly, allowing condensation to fall into the inner. In the rain at Reading, the Hilleberg family member I spoke to was keen to point out that that could not happen on the original design. The other problem no body talks about with Hilleberg fabric is the way that it flops after a damp night. I saw a Nallo at Sault on which the fly fabric had extended so much that it was in contact with the inner over a wide area as I cycled away early to beat the heat at the foot of Mt Ventoux. Hilleberg tents are good but not quite the gold standard, given what I have experienced and seen.
ReplyDeleteI had no problems with the first Akto without a hood over the door or the second one with a hood. I don't think it's necessary though. The stretching when wet is common to all silhylon tents. I've had it with many I've tested. Last year I tested a silpoly tent (MLD Solomid XL) and compared it with several silnylon tents (not the Akto). I wrote in my review "By morning all the silnylon tents had sagged noticeably. The SoloMid XL was exactly as pitched". Hilleberg don't use silpoly. Maybe they will. Hilleberg tents are still the best quality tents I've tested - and I've tested hundreds over the years - but that's not to say there aren't plenty of other good tents.
Delete