Nemo Chogori Mountaineering Tent Review

Pros / Reasons to Buy

• Exceptional weather resistance
• Sturdy build
• Relatively light and compact for what it is

Cons / Reasons to Avoid

• Very expensive
• Specialised to the point it’s unsuitable for certain types of camping
• Heavy and complex to setup relative to most lightweight three season tents

Verdict

We’ll be absolutely clear from the outset: the Nemo Chogori is intended for use on high mountains in extreme weather. If you tend to do your camping on balmy summer evenings, it’s ruggedised design will be complete overkill. However, if your hiking regularly takes you to very cold places, or you’re interested in pushing further into the alpine or arctic wilderness, then the Chogori could be just the tool to help you achieve this.

Compare to Similar Products

Full review: 25 Best Small 2 Person Backpacking Tents

• Nemo Hornet Elite OSMO Backpacking Tent
• Big Agnes Tiger Wall UL Tent
• MSR Hubba Hubba Backpacking Tent

Analysis and Test Results 

With its sturdy build and ruggedised, enhanced weather protection, the Nemo Chogori sticks out in our round up. This is a specialised mountaineering tent and this is apparent in its features and build – not to mention relatively high weight and very high price. If your adventures take you to very cold places – and not just cold places that are high up – then the Chogori starts to make more sense. It’s a niche product for sure, but if you have the need for it, it could be exactly what you need to keep you in the outdoors as the weather changes and the mercury drops.

Performance Comparison

Comfort

The Nemo Chogori offers generous internal space on a broadly symmetric footprint. It has a single entry and vestibule which we’d normally count as a negative point, but in terms of the Chogori’s design brief – to keep you sheltered in very extreme conditions – this is a plus point. Beyond this, the vestibule serves not just as a storage areas but also as a porch to help you conserve warmth in the main tent and also keep you sheltered as you suit and boot up to face the elements outside. Aside for the usual compliment of internal pockets, there’s also vents at the top and the vestibule features a clear ‘window’ panel.

Of interest, it’s possible to join two Chogori tents together to form a much larger space – this could be of interest if you’re planning equipment for a larger group expedition.

Weather Resistance

The Nemo Chogori really wins out here: it’s a true four season tent intended for use on high mountains were extreme wind, cold and snow are all common. The Chogori is designed to deal with all of this and this shows in its feature set: the pole assembly is much more substantial than every other tent in this round up, with multiple points where poles intersect. The fly sheet is permanently attached and also has a substantial snow skirt intended to trail onto the ground. The fabrics used are silicone treated to enhance weather protection and durability. The vestibule acts not just as a storage area but also a porch to help preserve warmth in the tent when entering and exiting. This is all very impressive and show that the Chogori is designed specifically to meet the brief of providing shelter in the harshest of conditions. But, this also means it may well be too much for camping in milder conditions: This tent would be completely inappropriate for hiking in the desert and complete overkill for a trip out on a balmy Summer evening.

Weight

The Nemo Chogori Mountaineering Tent weighs in at 3.47kg (7lb 11oz) complete, and Nemo claim a trail weight of 3.2kg (7lb 1oz) which can be achieved by omitting a few non-essential components. This is by far the heaviest tent in our round up, but this weight makes a lot more sense once you view the Chogori for what it is: a true, high altitude mountaineering tent. For most general camping and hiking purposes the Chogori is complete overkill, but it makes a lot more sense when you consider the extreme weather you’re likely to encounter a thigh altitudes on the mountains. Similarly, the Chogori could make a lot of sense if you hike in extremely cold conditions.

Packed Size

The Nemo Chogori packs down to 46x22cm (18×8.5in). we think that’s actually pretty impressive considering just how substantial the tent is and it’s not a substantially larger packed size than some of the much lighter tents we’ve assessed. Packed volume is important to consider when choosing a tent as it can dictate the size of the bag you need to pack everything in. If you’re the intended user for the Chogori, chances are you’ll be prioritising weather proofing over absolute lightness and compactness, but none the less, we think the Chogori’s packed size is quite respectable.

Durability

The Nemo Chogori makes use of 20 and 70 Denier ripstop nylon. This is silicone treated to improve weather resistance. Beyond this, the tent has a substantial frame, making use of five poles in total. Compared to the other tents in our round up, the Chogori certainly looks ruggedised or over engineered if you want to be less charitable. But that’s it’s who purpose! It is intended for use in very harsh conditions and the kind of weather situations most hikers and campers will simply never find themselves in. With this in mind, assessing its durability becomes tricky: it is more durable than the other tents we’ve assessed, but it’s also meant to take more punishment from the elements too.

Ease of Setup

As mentioned elsewhere, the Nemo Chogori is a mountaineering tent that’s designed to withstand very harsh weather conditions, and this is apparent in the way it’s set up. For starters, the Chogori has a much more substantial poll assembly that makes use of five poles in total. Two poles criss-cross to form the main structure. Two additional poles provide extra bracing and finally a fifth pole forms the join between the entry and the vestibule. The inner tent and fly sheet are combined into a single piece which hangs from the poles – this is common in mountaineering specific tents.

In the two person Chorogi – which this review focusses on – the four main poles are two different lengths. However, they are all the same length in the three person variant which we think would help streamline the pitching process.

The Chogori also features fully external pitching. This means that the inside of the tend does not need to be exposed to the elements whilst it’s being pitched (you can achieve this to an extent with other tents when pitching them in the rain by fitting the fly sheet over the poles first to help shield the inner body).

Pitching the Chogori isn’t conceptually too much different to the other tents in the this round up, but the fact is there’s more to do to get it upright. As with all tents we’d strongly advise familiarising yourself with both pitching and breaking it down before using it on a hike. We’d say this is especially important with the Chogori.

Price

This is the most expensive tent we’ve looked at – coming in at a massive £851.60 in the UK and $749.95 in the US at the time of writing. There’s no denying it’s pricey, but we should take the price in context of this tent’s specialist nature. This is not a regular hiking tent by and means and if you need the features the Chogori offers, then the price actually isn’t too bad when compared to the alternatives.

Conclusion

In some ways, this tent is a bit of an oddball in our round up. This tent is squarely aimed at mountaineers and all of the manufacturer’s images show the tent in the context of high altitude basecamps. So, why have we included it in a round up of lightweight backpacking tents when that clearly isn’t what this is? Well, we think there’s room for the Chogori beyond high altitude mountaineering. If you hike in places that experience very harsh winter conditions – the Scottish Highlands, Scandinavia, Canada or the norther States of the US for instance – then having access to a tent like the Chogori could mean you could continue camping further into the year and could even open up the prospect of new activities like multi day ski tours. If you keep your hiking and camping to more temperate or warmed places and are looking for one do it all tent, then the Nemo Chogori probably isn’t the best choice, but for those looking to push further into the harsh winter landscape, we think it could fit the bill nicely.