Nemo Gogo LE Tent

Nemo Gogo LE Tent


Price: £235
Weight: 1179g
Sizes: One Man
Colours: Green



You'd be forgiven for not having heard of the name Nemo if you've kept to this side of the Atlantic, but this American brand has started making a real name for itself since entering the UK market at the start of the year. Using a revolutionary system of inflatable poles Nemo are providing a real alternative to traditional designs, whilst attracting the lightweight following with models like the Gogo.

The Gogo LE, a longer version of the Nemo Gogo, is a one-man single-skin bivvy with a difference. The extra overall length compared to Gogo™ means you've got 9.5 feet of interior length to share with your pack. If you store your pack in the nose of the shelter, blocking the main doorway, the second door provides a quick escape without having to move your pack.

Main Features:

• Frame: 5.1 cm dia Airbeam
• Shell Fabric: 40D OSMO W/B
• Vestibule Fabric: 20D Sil0PU Nylon
• Interior Height: 69cm
• Floor Area: 1.9sq m
• Vestibule Area: 0.4sq m
• AST: Air Supported Technology

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Real World Test:

You know there's something different about the Nemo Gogo LE the moment you open the bag.....you don't usually get a pump with a tent or bivvy. At the same time you also get that reassuring feeling of attention to detail when you notice the bag is actually watertight. It's a bit like seeing an Apple product or a Satmap Active 10, you just know that if a company's going to go the extra yard on the little things then the basics are going to be spot-on.



The AST seems somehow un-natural after decades of sliding poles down channels, but is surprisingly quick and amazingly stable. The beam that acts a main support is made of some very substantial material like to the outer skin of a basketball and you get the impression it would take some serious work to actually puncture it. Inside this kevlar-like layer there's a replaceable "inner -tube", which is what actually inflates once you start using the pump. Using the pump the whole bivvy goes up in less than a minute and can be inflated from inside in emergency.

Once up the Gogo LE is amazingly stable, and in reality you wouldn't know it used compressed air rather than poles without a close-up look. The fact that there aren't any poles means the tent can also be quickly packed away and stuffed into any available space. The profile is quite similar to the Terra Nova Jupiter with a long footprint thanks to the extended vestibule and this bivvy also uses a waterproof/breathable fabric that doesn't sag when wet. It's hard to do a comparison between Nemo and Terra Nova's fabrics for breathability, however, because the Gogo LE has a second entrance down the side. The combination of front vestibule and side entries gives more control over ventilation than similar shaped bivvys, with the standard anti-midge mesh on the vestibule giving even greater flexibility.



Even without the ventilation benefits the extra door on the side makes a real difference. With the Jupiter you either have to leave your pack outside or fill the vestibule with it, blocking the only exit, but with the gogo LE you can pack the vestibule and use the side door as an exit/entry. The vestibule, an addition to the basic Gogo, is just about big enough to cook in if necessary although at only 69cm the height makes sitting up pretty much out of the question.

At just over a kilo the Gogo LE is in a very competitive market, and will have to do battle with some pretty well established competition from the big names. Even if you discount the one-man, ultralight, tents available from Terra Nova, Big Agnes and others Nemo are still up against trusted names like Terra Nova and Rab and £235 is a pretty high entry price. On the plus side, though, the Gogo LE IS totally different. Once you've got your head around the idea of compressed air beams instead of poles you see the advantages when it comes to simply rolling the whole thing up to pack. It goes up very quickly and can be put up from inside if the weather demans, and gives a new level of ventilation. The LE also benefits from an extra 6 ft of length, making it an option for taller people looking for a small-footprint, lightweight, shelter.