Big Agnes VST tents are the lightest and most expensive ever

Big Agnes’ Copper Spur tents have been a hit since their debut in 2008, and with good reason: They’re one of the lightest freestanding double-wall tents on the market. With BA’s most recent shelter slate, called the VST Line, the Colorado-based brand is taking another step toward the world of ultralight gear. The lineup includes three single-wall tents: Freestanding serviceSemi-freestanding pitchpine, and tracking pole-assisted string ridge.

Of the three, we were immediately attracted to him pitchpine 1.5A spacious one-person tent that spans the divide between ultralight and traditional shelter. Compared to other non-freestanding single-wall tents, it comes with an attractive price tag of $650. We’re testing a sample this spring to see if the unconventional design is worth the expense.

design

If you’re attracted to PitchPine, it’s probably because of the design. This tent has a unique blend of features that many tents in its weight class do not have. Like most ultralight tents, it is non-freestanding and single-walled. But unlike most of its competitors, it doesn’t require trekking poles. Instead, there is a single tent pole that curves diagonally from the head to the foot of the tent, and a small spreader bar at the top. It’s like a traditional tent with two crossing poles, but in place of one pole, only the corners extend out. That single pole, as well as four parts, offers surprisingly simple set-up and spacious interior at a fairly low weight.

Our sample weighed 31 ounces out of the box. The tent and poles alone weighed 27.2 ounces, only 0.1 ounce more than Big Agne’s reported weight. It comes with eight lightweight stakes, but if you add four carbon stakes (the minimum required for a fair-weather pitch), you can hit the mark at less than 28 ounces. In the included stuff sack, it measures approximately 18 inches long, 4 inches wide and tall. If you pack the poles separately, the tent itself can pack down to approximately the size of a melon.

The pitchpine tent has a maximum of 40 inches of headroom in the center, and its interior is 88 inches long. It’s 28 inches wide at both ends (can easily accommodate a 25-inch-wide pad), and because it only has one side entry, that turns the second vestibule in the center of the tent into an additional 16 inches of interior space. This is enough room for your pooch or even a medium-sized dog.

The 16-inch kickout makes it feel perfectly spacious for a one-person shelter. The single vestibule is also quite spacious, and can easily fit a 65-liter pack, your hiking shoes or boots, and a few other pieces of gear. 40 inches of headroom is pretty average: many trekking-pole tents are a bit taller, while most lightweight freestanding tents are an inch or two lower.

It’s a smart and quite unusual design, although it has some rivals turpentine rainbowFor example). Overall, it offers a lot of interior space for its 27.2-ounce weight.

Construction

Aside from design, PitchPine’s biggest advantage is the fabric: Big Agnes switched to polyester and added a proprietary new waterproof coating (released in 2025) called Hyperbead. Because Big Agnes is being fairly tight-lipped about the specifics (such as whether the coating is silicone or polyurethane-based), it’s hard to articulate what sets the HyperBead coating apart from other ultralight fabrics. Hyperbead is PFAS-free, but most modern silicone-impregnated fabrics are also PFAS-free. The most obvious upgrade is waterproofing. The Rainfly gets a 4,000-millimeter hydrostatic head rating, which is on par with the best silnylon and Silpoly fabrics we tested, and a serious upgrade over other Big Agnes fabrics with 1,500-millimeter ratings.

The switch to a 20-denier polyester rainfly is also a welcome change. Polyester is naturally more hydrophobic than nylon, and pitchpine is very sag-resistant, even when blasted with water from a garden hose. With nylon tents, you need to tighten the guyline after a few hours to maintain a tight pitch, especially in humid conditions – no need with this tent.

Unfortunately, Big Agnes uses 15-denier nylon for the floor fabric. Making the tent floor thinner and less waterproof (1500mm rating) than the rainfly is an odd choice. Ultralighters often remove footprint or groundcloth when possible, but you may want to use one with pitchpine to keep the floor in good condition.

Other details are nice, if not exactly revolutionary. It features an aluminum DAC Featherlite NFL poleset and eight aluminum stakes. At the price point, it would be nice to see carbon poles and stakes, although there is something to be said for the durability and simple repairability of aluminum. The magnetic closures that keep the rainfly open work well, as well as the plastic inserts found in each corner of the floor, which maintain the “bathtub” shape even when your pitch isn’t perfect.

performance in the field

The first thing we noticed about the PitchPine in use was its easy setup. It’s possible to set up this tent in less than two minutes. Unlike trekking-pole tents, which get the best pitch when they are set up with a loose guyline and then tightened down, the PitchPine is largely set and forget. The only thing that slows down setup and breaks are the metal tabs that the ends of the poles fit into. The fit is very comfortable, and the poles take little trouble to insert and remove.

The PitchPine performs quite well in winds below 30 mph, especially if you manage to set it up in such a way that the wind is blowing across the tent poles rather than across them. Ultimately, getting good wind performance from such a lightweight tent usually comes down to adding extra guylines, and this is where the PitchPine falls short. There are two guyline tieouts, but in windy conditions, the option to add 4, 6, or even 8 additional lines is appreciated.

What is pitchpine for?

Thanks to the odd feature-set, the PitchPine ultralight trekking pole sits in a kind of middle ground between tents and lightweight freestanding models.

The biggest hurdle is definitely the price. While PitchPine is a good tent, ultralighters can cost the same amount and make something much lighter than Dyneema. And although the design is not common, it is not unique either. Priced at under $300, the Tarpant Rainbow is pretty much the same: single-wall, arched pole, and non-freestanding. The PitchPine is more spacious, easier to set up, requires fewer stakes, and is slightly lighter – in other words, it’s a better tent. But Rainbow works just fine, and it’s a much better deal. If you don’t want to spare the cash, Tarpant’s Dyneema models are a worthy upgrade. The Rainbow Lee is $624 and 22.5 ounces, or you can opt for the Moment DW Lee at $584, which offers a full double-wall design at 26.3 ounces. That said, PitchPine is by far the largest of the three.

If you’re okay with the single-wall design, the PitchPine has some perks compared to the lightest double-wall freestanding tents like the Big Agnes Copper Spur or the NEMO Hornet. It’s a few ounces lighter than those tents, and also more spacious in almost every measurement. It has a little more headroom, is wider at the foot ends, and has an extra 16 inches of interior kickout where the second vestibule would be. It feels the roomier of the two, especially compared to the Copper Spur’s head-entry design.

Overall, PitchPine is best suited for extremely light-curious people. It is most useful for people who do not use trekking poles or on trips where they are not needed, such as bikepacking or river trips. It’s far easier to set up than your average trekking-pole shelter, and it can be a nice upgrade to the quality of life for trekking pole users too – if you can understand the price.