Hilleberg Akto Review

In-depth 4+ year review! The best tent I’ve ever owned. Lightweight, all-season, and insanely durable solo tent I plan to use for the rest of my life.

The short version: If you are looking to invest in a all-season, lightweight, solo shelter that you can love for decades, look no further than that Hilleberg Akto. After FOUR years of use, I love this tent even more than I did when I first got it.

Original review written September 2020, updated with long-term notes in subsequent years.

As ridgelines disappeared into an encroaching cloud my red tent stood out like a beacon. I hurriedly wrapped up my almost dry painting, hoped the last layer of white pigment wouldn’t smear, and strapped it to my pack with a macgyvered tangle of thin line. Within minutes I was hurrying down the ridge with my eyes half closed against the wind and locked on the little red dot. Home.

I have always loved tents. As a child my favorite activity every summer was a family backpack to the Washington coast. As I got older, tents evolved into more than a fun hideout for a child. They became essential safety equipment for adventures in the mountains. Working in the outdoor industry I had unrivaled access to gear, and after four years of learning about and selling shelters I believe the gold standard in tentmaking is Hilleberg.

I watched my dad use his old superbly made Noall tent for nearly 30 years and I wanted to invest in gear that I could use for decades, too. This led me to buy the three-person Hilleberg Nammatj a few years ago to push the seasons I could comfortably backpack. That tent was quite heavy, however, so I got the Anjan to share with my Dad when we went hiking. This summer, since I was doing a lot more trips with friends and wanted a solo shelter, I finally added the missing link in my tent quiver: a four season and lightweight solo shelter, the Hilleberg Akto. I now have a new favorite tent (a label previously held by my Dad’s Noall).

The first thing you will notice about the Hilleberg Akto is the shape. It is a tunnel, supported by one central pole with guy lines that stabilize it. This tent is not freestanding (it needs the lines to stay upright) which leads to a lightweight design that is ideal for withstanding high wind. The Akto also has an incredibly clever feature of two fiberglass poles integrated into each end of the tent, increasing the usable area of the shelter and making it easy to setup.

Note: I bought my first two tents from Hilleberg. The Akto was given to me to test and in an art exchange, which does not impact my review or opinions of the tent. After using it for three years, I would happily pay full price for it.

Two photos here show the large vesitbule area and how the footprint covers the space so nicely. 

Worth every ounce

Clocking in at 3 lbs 12 oz (plus 9 oz extra if you add the fitted groundsheet) means this tent will make a dent in the base weight of my pack. It is not an ultralight shelter, but for me, I would rather carry an extra pound and have a totally bombproof shelter than have to worry about my tent when a storm rolls in. As an all season shelter that provides incredible warmth and weather protection, the Akto is comparatively lightweight and a few pounds I will happily carry for peace of mind and being dry and warm every night.

On a trip this August I got to experience these benefits during a very wet and windy storm that rolled through the North Cascades. The other free-standing lightweight shelters of my fellow hikers were bowed by the wind and pulled their stakes from the ground. The Akto was rock solid and shed the windy gusts with a faint tremor of fabric and that was it. Inside, I was amazed at how warm the shelter stayed with the vents closed; unlike most tents I have there was no cold wind blowing through my shelter thanks to the nylon interior layer (the little bit of mesh in the door can be covered with a flap) and the fly goes all the way to the ground. I didn’t expect this to be as awesome as it is, but I am still shocked every time I go from tent to vestibule to outside - there is a notable temperature difference between all three.

Materials

That second thing I notice about Hilleberg tents is the fabric. It feels silky smooth and slides through your hands like water distilled into fabric. The texture is due to the siliconized nylon, the most waterproof and durable way to treat fabric. It is also the most sustainable method with the least environmental impact. The material is incredibly strong and much more tear resistant than normal ripstop nylon. This was proven when I believe a curious raven landed on the edge of my tent, leaving a little abrasion but no other damage or tears - incredible considering how sharp their feet are.

This fabric, and the quality of all the materials used throughout the tent (including DAC aluminum poles), does increase the cost of the Akto compared to other solo tents. When I think about longevity I want a tent that will last me decades, and materials and craftsmanship are the only way to achieve that kind of lifespan.

Most tents use a polyurethane coated fabric that degrades over time making the tent is useless in bad weather or requiring you to spend hours (many, many hours – I know from experience) removing coatings and adding the new one. Hilleberg also uses a time intensive seam sewing technique that requires no seam tape, a huge deal for me when I have had seam tape fail on my other tents after 3-7 years of use. For example, the seam tape on my MSR Hubba NX 1 tent (bought in 2015) failed by 2020 and after being used less than 10 times. When I asked MSR about this issue, the person I talked to said this was expected to happen, which is unacceptable to me, and thankfully a problem I will never face with Hilleberg.

If I take care of it properly, the Akto is a shelter I can use for the rest of my hiking years.

Tent Setup + Inside Space

Setting up the tent is easy after watching the instruction video (pay special attention to how the pole is inserted into the sleeve and make sure there aren’t any gaps in the pole sections). The first few times I set up the tent I was a little slower (the tent uses 10 stakes if you address every line and guy point), but every setup thereafter you get faster. After a six day trip in the North Cascades I can set it up in the same time as my freestanding MSR NX one tent. It’s important to pound the stakes all the way into the ground and at an angle so they stay put in bad weather. The tent shape, lines, and stakes make for the most wind-stable tent I’ve ever used. It barely ruffled in some gusty wind at an exposed campsite.

Inside, the Akto has more than enough space for me. I am 5’7 with a 21 inch torso, and I am able to sit in the center of the tent on top of a Thermarest air pad (the pad adds a few inches to my height. 2024 update- if I add a thermarest zlite under the air pad, my head with a hat will just brush the top of the tent). I love being able to sit up on cold evenings when I can journal or sketch in the tent without stooping.

Over four years of using the tent I now have a preferred gear storage system: My mostly empty pack goes inside the tent at my feet, by the door (I started bringing it inside after a snowshoe hare nibbled it in the Olympics). I used to put it at the far end of the tent, but by the door is easier for me. In the large triangular space beside my pad I keep my camera, water filter, clothing bag, and my puffy jacket(s) loose. I love this triangular space so much and can’t imagine a tent without it.

Warmth & Condensation 

One of the best things about the Akto is how warm it is for its weight. The inner walls of the tent (a 30 denier ripstop nylon) don’t accumulate much moisture and create a nice bubble of warm air inside. There is a small triangular mesh panel in the door that adds extra ventilation on a warmer night. The main ventilation of the tent comes from the fly: the fully waterproof outer shell (made from Kerlon 1200 fabric) extends all the way to the ground, keeping wind and rain completely out of the shelter.

To ventilate this waterproof shell you open the two main vents at either end of the fly that work really well: on warmer nights I could feel the temperature difference with these open. There is also a vent in the fly door above the mesh panel. This combination of materials means that condensation almost always collects on the outer fly and the inner layer of the tent stays dry, even in very dewy meadows.  On nights when it was warm enough to have both end vents cracked open there was almost no condensation on the fly.

So far, the only times I’ve gotten condensation on the inside layer of the tent was when I camped in really cold weather and had no vents open - I got a tiny layer of moisture right above my face, which honestly wasn’t a problem. The other time was when it rained very hard for two days and I was effectively tent bound for 48 hours. It was simply too humid between the rain and the water literally filling the meadow under the tent and the moisture from my clothes that the inside layer did collect water droplets. So, every once in a while I would take my tiny camp towel and wipe it off so it wouldn’t drip.

2024 warmth update: I did some late season trips where it got below freezing each night. On these chilly evenings, I was so grateful to curl up in my tent, and I was definitely warmer than friends in ultralight tents with lots of mesh. On one evening the slight bit of condensation in the tent actually formed at my feet, and froze! It made such pretty sparkle patterns on the fabric. I was glad I’d brought my little water filter into my bag with me! (Don’t let filters freeze- you will have to replace it).

The large vestibule of the tent, with a 18x24 inch painting inside.

Vestibule & Groundcloth

Among my favorite features is the large vestibule. Unlike other tents I own the Akto’s fly goes all the way to the ground which makes the vestibule warmer than the outside air even when it is windy. The space is ideal for a pack to go or for eating a cold breakfast in on a stormy morning or packing up in the rain (I personally don’t use my stove near my tents to minimize any food odors and chance of rodents damaging the tent).

The large vestibule was also the perfect place to store my paintings while they dried, especially because I got the fitted groundsheet that extends all the way under the vestibule. For some people this extra fabric is worth its weight (9 oz); it keeps the tent so much cleaner and gives me extra dry and non-dirt space to organize my equipment. (A ground cloth might also keep more moisture from the ground out of the tent fly so it seemed like there is less condensation).

I love that the footprint attaches directly to the tent bottom via little loops. This allows me to setup the whole thing in one unit - no more laying the footprint out and trying to keep it from blowing away. The footprint also extends across the entire vestibule area, which was unexpectedly wonderful, especially in bad weather. It gave me a place to kneel/ sit while removing layers and kept my pack and everything else off the dirt.

2023 Update: After using the Hilleberg-made ground cloth for two summers, this year I switched to a piece of lightweight tyvek with the goal of reducing my pack weight a bit. The tyvek piece weighs just a few ounces, and covers the entire bottom of the tent but does not extend into the vestibule. I often slide it a bit toward the tent door so I have 4-5 inches of tyvek out, and then I put my foam sit pad in front of the door as a place to rest my feet as I get in and out of the tent. One reason that I prefer this method now is that I no longer leave my backpack in the vestibule at night after it got chewed on in the Olympic Mountains last year. At 5’7”, I can easily fit pack at the end of the tent and still have plenty of extra space for my sleeping pad and myself.

Now, I think the only time I would bring the fancy ground cloth is if I was expecting a LOT of rain, because in that situation it was really nice to have the little bit of extra dry space to live in. Or, I would also bring it if I knew I’d be camping on lots of poky rocks.

Durability

I’ve now used the Akto for FOUR hiking seasons - and the durability has proven amazing. The fabric looks brand new still, the zippers are buttery smooth, and all the lines still work perfectly. Nothing has broken on the tent, either!

There are also a few really clever design elements that help improve the longevity of the tent. For one, the zippers are way stronger than what was used in all the more current tents I’ve used. Now, I do clean the zippers regularly (more on that below) but they have never malfunctioned or gotten stuck like so many other tents do.

Second, Hilleberg very smartly gave a little extra length to lines that might get wear and tear, especially the bottom tension line that runs between the two poles. This line is thin, and in a more exposed spot because of the location under the tent, which could make it vulnerable to abrasion on a rock. Mine was mostly chewed through by an adorable white bunnny in the Olympics. I braced it with some spare cord and tension knots in the field, and then once I was home and had a tape measure, the the extra length included in the line made it easy to tie the frayed section and then still maintain the proper length.

I also love the fabric used on the bottom of the tent. The floor of the Akto is so durable that you probably don’t need a ground cloth. For the first two seasons, however, I wanted to try out the footprint made by Hilleberg. Made from the same material as the tent bottom, it added some extra piece of mind when I had to camp on some sharp rocks, and there was absolutely no damage to the footprint which I was surprised to see.

After a lot of use the tent still looks brand new.

The Akto tucked into a TINY tent site in the Olympics. I placed my camp towel on top of a rock that sat along one edge to protect the fabric from abrasion when it was windier and the panel was moving around a bit.  

Packing up the tent

Taking down this tent is so easy and enjoyable. Because everything is linked together (the fly and the main tent, and the groundcloth if using one), take down is speedy. Remove the stakes from the red guy lines, remove stakes on one end of the tent, then the pole, then rest of the stakes, and then fold and roll up. Voila!

You can take the inner layer of the tent down separately if you want to using clever attachment points between the fly and the tent. I’ve only done this once, when the outside of the tent was super duper wet. It was a little tedious, so most of the time if the tent is wet I just shake off the fly while it is pitched, and then take the whole thing down in a wet unit, wiping out the inside with my tiny pack towel if needed due to condensation getting the inside a wee bit wet. Most of the time the inside dries out real quick on its own if it's no longer raining when pitched again!

Tent Cleaning

I want to be able to use this tent for a very long time, so I take really good care of it. On normal trips when there is no excessive dust I do the following when packing up in camp:

• Wipe any grit or forest duff out of the inside of the tent, and remove it, being careful to avoid swiping grit into the zippers.

• When taking down the pole, dust off the end and keep the whole thing out of the dirt.

• when I roll up the tent, I fold it carefully so the dirty bits mostly only contact other dirty bits, and wipe off the bottom if it is crazy dusty. Using the tyvek base sheet or groundcloth helps a lot here.

  
  

Once home, the tent immediately gets unrolled and draped over a line indoors and dries for at least a day. I make sure it is perfectly dry before loosely folding it up into a pillowcase for storage.

It is worth noting that like most tents, especially silnylon tents, the fabric does attract some of the more fine particles of dirt and dust. And, sometimes a campsite is just terribly dusty. On a few trips I used my small camp towel to remove the worst of the dust in the field, so it wasn’t on the fabric the rest of the trip. The dust-attraction properties have lessened with time.

Then, as needed mid-season or at the end of the season I do a more thorough cleaning: 

• Setup the tent and spray down with a hose. The water beads up so much that the hose alone is often not enough to remove the tiny dust particles. To remove this stuff, I take a damp rag and run it over the fabric, moving to a new section of cloth when needed. I only have to do this after staying in the worst dusty/ windy sites, or when I can feel dirt on the fabric.

• If I don’t wash down the whole tent, I will take a damp cloth and run it along all the bottom edges of the fly to remove any dirt accumulated or blown here.

• check for any dirt on the inside of the tent fly - yes, this has happened after a windy night camped in fluffy dirt - and was a total pain to clean. But, I just put the tent over a line after it dried and then ran a new damp cloth around the inside the fly and collected all the grit. The fabric is so smooth that it is easy to feel any dirt. The inside of the fly is easiest to clean when the tent is hanging, not setup, as my arms can't reach everything when it is staked out.

• Scrub out the zippers with a toothbrush. Slow and tedious but really worth it, and you’ll feel a difference afterward. This is also recommended by Hilleberg because it helps with tent longevity. NEVER add any lubricants or substances to your zippers, this just attracts more dirt.

• Let the tent dry fully indoors for at least a day - more if it is really wet!

• check all lines for any damage and the poles, too!

• Clean all the tent stakes and their storage baggie

• fold everything up loosely and carefully for winter storage. I NEVER store the tent in it’s smaller stuff bag, as I want it to be able to breathe a bit in the winter.

  
  

Thoughts After 4 Summers

As mentioned above, I received the Akto from Hilleberg in a content trade. And now, after four summers of use with the tent, I can confidently say that I would pay every single penny of the tent’s cost if I needed to, because I love it that much. There are two pieces of gear that I see as the most critical - my boots, and my tent. And while some of my friends are switching to ultralight tents, I am sticking with the Akto. These same ultralight tents are always having durability, longevity, and wind-pitching issues. And I’m next door, happy as can be in a tent that I plan to use the rest of my life. I smile every time I pitch the Akto, knowing that I have my little home in the wilderness.

If you have any other questions or thoughts drop me a note in the comments below!