Big Agnes Copper Spur UL1 tent | Tested and reviewed

I’ll admit it – I love a good tent test. There’s something deeply satisfying about unrolling a new shelter, piecing it together, and pitching it against the elements. So, when I got my hands on the Big Agnes Copper Spur UL1, I was eager to see if this ultralight, feature-packed, yet undeniably pricey one-person tent lived up to the hype.

From the get-go, it impressed me with its roomy, high-walled design and intuitive setup. But does it truly deliver in terms of waterproofing, wind resistance, and liveability? And is it worth the £450 ($450) price tag?

After putting it through its paces in various conditions, I’ve got some thoughts – both good and bad. Let’s dive into what this tent gets right, where it falls short, and whether it should be your next ultralight adventure companion.

Shape, structure, pitching, and internal liveability

The Big Agnes Copper Spur UL1 is a high-walled, dome-style shape created by a hub-connected, skeletal pole structure. This hubbed pole has a wishbone, Y-shape at both ends and a cross pole in the middle.

The Ys create arched walls at the head and foot end of the tent; the cross pole widens, extends and raises the roof of the inner. It all works very well.

It’s super easy to pitch, too, with an intuitive (but inner-first) approach that only takes a few minutes.

The pitching works as follows: lay out the inner and peg out the four corners, assemble the hubbed pole, insert the four pole tips into eyelets on the inner. and clip the inner to the erected pole structure in a “suspended” style (including securing the cross pole in the well-designed “cross pole socket”).

Then, throw over the flysheet, clip its four corners in place using buckles; adjust the tensioner straps to fine-tune the tautness of the structure; and finally peg out the door and all remaining toggles and guylines. Job done.

The shape of this tent delivers superb levels of internal space and comfort. The skeletal pole ensures the inner 'bedroom' has a very taut structure, with near-vertical walls, steep architecture and excellent head and elbow room.

The walls don’t hem you in or close in on you, like in more cramped tunnel-style tents, and internally you get a nice sense of spaciousness compared to most other tents. Of course, this is still a small and ultralight one-person tent, so don’t expect palatial levels of roominess, but certainly the space-to-weight ratio is top-tier.

The only niggle is that the interior feels a tad narrow, particularly because the floor is not rectangular. Instead it is 97cm wide at the head end, but it tapers quite significantly by 26cm to 71cm wide at the foot end.

The overall official dimensions of the tent are as follows: 224cm long, 97cm wide and 97cm high.

Waterproofing

The hydrostatic head (HH) waterproofing stats of the three-season Big Agnes Copper Spur UL1 are as follows: both the flysheet and bathtub-style groundsheet are made from Big Agnes’ 15-denier HyperBead nylon fabric (with 20-denier, solution-dyed ripstop), which has a 1,500mm hydrostatic head rating.

For the UK’s wet and rainy climate, 1,500mm is, in truth, quite a disappointing stat – for £450 you’d expect a lot higher. However, this always happens with non-English brands and dome-style, hub-connected tents – MSR and Sea to Summit are the same.

For some campers these worrying question marks over the HH rating will be a deal-breaker; others might not get too caught up on them. The good news is that there are several mitigating factors that help, at least in theory, to enhance this tent’s waterproofing, despite the low HH ratings.

Big Agnes would argue, for example, that the high-walled tent shape sheds rain excellently, and that the tent fabrics are taut, high-tenacity and high-tech with top levels of performance.

Certainly, during initial basic tests, the Big Agnes Copper Spur UL1 coped fine in light rain – but I need more time to truly test its waterproofing qualities in the long term.

The HH rating is a slight cause for concern, but other tents with similar approaches – such as the MSR FreeLite 2 and Sea to Summit Alto TR1 – have performed far better for me in wet conditions, over long-term tests, than their raw HH statistics would suggest.

In fact, the new-for-2025 version of the Copper Spur UL1 features Big Agnes’ new HyperBead fabric – something the brand is making a big song and dance about. It's labelling HyperBead as “revolutionary”, eco-friendly and “the next step in outdoor gear innovation”, with several breakthrough achievements.

According to the brand, HyperBead is 25% more waterproof, “exceeding traditional ultralight fabric performance without relying on harmful chemicals – offering permanent water repellency that doesn't degrade over time”. Or, in other words, you’ll never need to reproof this tent fabric – apparently the waterproofing coatings will last forever.

HyperBead is also 6% lighter, thus “reducing weight with enhanced durability, so adventurers can focus on their journey, not their load”. And, finally, HyperBead is environmentally-conscious, with no intentionally added PFAS chemical and no DWR treatments.

I’ve not really been able to test or verfiy these claims independently, but I can say – at least anecdotally – that the fabrics feel very high-tech and premium, and have worked positively in my limited field tests so far.

I would add, however, that the fabrics are super thin and very light. They feel very strong too, which almost feels counter-intuitive, but it might be wise to treat them with care – perhaps this isn’t a tent to camp atop sharp, spiky rocks or get up close and personal with a jungle of brambles.

Condensation

This tent performs solidly in terms of ventilation – it's probably one of the most breathable options available on the market. To begin with, the upper half of the inner tent is entirely constructed from mesh, ensuring that warm air can escape with ease.

You also get a vent in the flysheet, above the head end of the tent. This vent is secured with Velcro and features a little kick-stand tab to keep it open, when required.

Additionally, when the flysheet is pegged out, a gap remains at the bottom between the ground and the lip of the fly – or, to put it differently, it doesn’t peg out completely flush with the ground. This encourages airflow and breathability, and helps to prevent condensation.

Of course, such a set-up is excellent for keeping things well-ventilated, but it does come at the cost of wind and waterproof protection. The mesh inner can feel cold and draughty, and the structure does feel a little vulnerable to sideways rain.

It’s always worth remembering, as I’ve said in almost every tent review I write, that there is no magic wand to prevent condensation. In certain humid, still conditions in the UK, it’s very difficult to avoid condensation entirely, no matter what tent you’re using.

Wind protection

There’s very little to choose between the Big Agnes Copper Spur UL1, MSR FreeLite 1 or Sea to Summit Alto TR1 tents in terms of wind protection. It’s the same story with all of them.

These types of tent – which have a dome-style shape created by a hub-connected, skeletal pole – always have steep walls and a tall overall profile. The benefit of this approach is unrivalled internal space and comfort.

The downside? The high walls can catch the wind like a sail, and are particularly vulnerable to side gusts. They will cope fine with medium strength winds and, if pitched parallel to the wind direction, they work fine enough, particularly when stabilised with grippy peg placements and all of the guylines securely battened down.

But, alas, if the wind changes direction, they aren’t the best, and in heftier, speedier gusts they will struggle.

If you’ll be camping high up in the mountains, on summits, in gusty conditions, other tent shapes will serve you far better. A low-profile, aerodynamic, tunnel-shaped tent such as the Wild Country Halny Elite 1 or Vango F10 Helium UL1 will be more wind-resistant, for sure.

Weight and packed size

This tent delivers a superb space-to-weight ratio. You get loads of internal comfort and liveability, as well as lots of top-tier features, yet it still clocks in at an ultralight weight of just 1,117g (2lb 7oz). It’s impressive stuff and a great balancing act.

In terms of raw weight statistics, the Copper Spur UL1 can’t quite compete with the MSR FreeLite 1 (909g), which is 208g lighter. This is, perhaps, a little disappointing for the £450 price-tag – we’d have loved to see Big Agnes go toe-to-toe with MSR for the ultralight crown.

Instead the Copper Spur UL1 is a tad heavier because it has more features, offers a tiny bit of extra internal space and includes a full flysheet without any cut-outs in the fabric – or, to put it another way, it’s willing to add a bit of extra weight in return for a small boost in terms of protection, space and features.

Conversely the MSR is more single-mindedly focused on weight-savings, with a super-minimalist approach and a flysheet with large fabric cut-outs.

Which is best for you? They are both great – it all depends on how ultralight of an ultralighter you really want to be.

On my scales, the tent clocks in as follows: hub-connected pole system (297g), pole bag (7g), pole repair splint (12g), 11 pegs with pull tabs (101g), two guylines (8g), inner (314g), flysheet (342g) and main storage bag with compression straps (36g).

The Copper Spur UL1 packs down, as you’d expect, very compactly into the well-designed storage sack. If packed away correctly, it is sized about 46x12cm by my measurements.

Features

I’d describe this tent as fully-featured and it has some really nice, well-executed design touches. I particularly love the “over-sized 3D bin pocket” – a wedge-shaped storage "shelf" at the roof of the mesh inner, which is great for storing clothes and other items off the floor.

It’s also far more spacious than almost any other pocket I’ve seen from other tent brands. Internally you also get loads of loops at the ceiling, which are useful for hanging a head torch or simply organising your gear.

The other feature I love is the vestibule and door set-up. The triangular porch itself is spacious (224cm long and 71cm at its widest), offering enough space for a backpack, walking boots and stove. You can also use a trekking pole to peg out the door in an awning style, with a more open structure to the vestibule.

Then the door set-up itself is superb too. The internal mesh door has a roomy D-shape with smooth zippers, while the flysheet door can be rolled up and toggled away really nicely.

Often when you do this on a tent, the furled-up door sags and flops about annoyingly – not so with the Copper Spur UL1. The design is spot on.

Verdict

The Big Agnes Copper Spur UL1 is a first-rate ultralight tent for solo backpacking with a superb space-to-weight ratio – but it’s very expensive and better suited to the warm, dry conditions of US thru-hikes.

About the author

James Forrest is one of our key freelance writers and gear testers. He has undertaken many long-distance hiking trips around the UK and Europe, and is one of the most knowledgeable experts around on backpacking tents.

James regularly conducts many of our tent and camping gear tests.