Outdoor gear startup Thecatal has some unique ideas about camping. Last year, those ideas drove the design of an absolute built to shelter both man and machine. Now the company has slimmed its camping conceptualizations way, way (way) down into an ultralight backpacking tent that pitches in as little as 10 seconds, stands strong against any level of wind that gusts its way, and doubles as a hammock-supported tree tent.
The 10-second tent? Not quite as impressive as the , but it still has a nice ring to it. However, unlike the fully integrated framing in Decathlon's fast-pitching , the 10-second setup promise behind Thecatal's new Wind Anchor tent series comes with a few bold asterisks. In fact, if the ultralight tent is used as designed – for backpacking – that 10-second time seems destined to remain an unfilled marketing promise.
Thecatal lists both 60-second and 10-second setup times on different areas of its marketing materials, and the latter seems to rely either on the Wind Anchor's collapsible shock-corded tent pole being preinstalled. With the single pole preinstalled, the tent simply unfolds into shape after laying flat, requiring little more than two end stakes to complete a minimalist setup. There's no fly to worry about, so you're done, and assuming you hustled and didn't get held up by rough, rocky ground, maybe you got it pitched and ready in 10 seconds flat.
Storing the Wind Anchor with the pole preinstalled might work for car camping, but you're not going t.