Nemo Equipment Dagger Osmo 2 Review

In this Nemo Equipment Dagger Osmo 2 Review, we take a look at the Dagger OSMO,a two-person tent primarily aimed at backpackers that aren’t looking for the absolute pinnacle of lightweight performance, nor an opulent palace of a tent, but somewhere in the middle. Don’t get me wrong, this thing is impressively lightweight and packable, but it also has a decent amount of indoor space and pitches in less time than it takes your mate to make a cup of tea.

Field test on Wales coastline

We were lucky enough to be sent this tent as a sample, so I keenly nabbed it on the first weekend of availability and headed off to Wales’ coastline (near New Quay) to give it a quick outing. Whilst packing, I removed the poles from the stuffsack and squished the inner and flysheet into a waterproof drybag—this pretty much halved the total volume of the tent to roughly the size of a 1L water bottle. The poles simply slot upright into my pack whilst the drybag with the rest of the tent goes wherever I can feasibly cram it. While we’re talking about poles, it’s a nice little touch that they come in their own sleeve made from recycled bottles.

Pitching a Tent Has Never Been Easier: A Review of the NEMO Dagger

After a day of wandering around the rolling teletubby hills of Elan Valley and the equally relaxing beaches near Aberystwyth, we ventured to our campsite and began to unload our kit. NEMO have colour-coded almost everything, but in reality there is only one way the tent can pitch—the flysheet simply won’t fit if it’s the wrong way round and there’s just one singular pole. In fact, pitching the Dagger is simpler than just about any other tent I’ve ever had the pleasure of using.

Features and Accessories: The NEMO Dagger Tent

On the theme of making stuff easy, the unified pole simply features a ball and socket joint at each end to connect to the inner (the ball on the end of the pole and the socket attached to the inner). This is a nice touch and far easier to operate with cold hands than metallic loops that most tents tend to use. High-quality aluminium v-pegs are supplied which will take far more of a beating than traditional steel pegs and weigh substantially less, too. You also get a few guylines if you’d like a bit more security.

Exploring the NEMO Dagger Tent’s Living Are

Once pitched, you’re greeted with two reasonably large vestibules that’ll store multi-day rucksacks and general hiking detritus with ease. The weather was on our side, so I pinned the door back to open the living space up a little. If you really wanted to, you could even pin the entire vestibule back to open up the entire side(s) of the tent. If the conditions are right and you fancy an open sleeping experience, you could even whip the flysheet off entirely and have what is essentially a giant bug net.

Nemo Equipment Dagger Osmo 2 Review – Tent’s Sleeping Area

The main sleeping area is large enough for two rectangular mats and there are plenty of pockets to pop things in. Two of the pockets are designed to act as light diffusers once you pop your phone, headtorch or lantern into, which is pretty cool. There’s also a loop dead centre on the ceiling if you’d rather attach a lantern there instead. While we’re talking about storage, let’s address the ‘landing zone storage tub’. I had no idea what this was when reading about the tent and, to be honest, had no idea when I pitched the tent before the trip either. Luckily, Ben (our store manager) knew what to do with the thing. Essentially, it’s a tarp-like creature that attaches inside the vestibule to keep your kit off the floor. Like a fabric shelf, basically.

A Look at Ventilation and Airflow

After an evening of burning stew into my once-pristine pot (whoops) and discussing the origins of Penguins and how they ended up in the arctic without functioning wings (answers on a postcard?), we decided to call it a night. I left the door wide open as it wasn’t a particularly hostile night weather-wise. This allowed a constant flow of air to circulate with the two vents at either end of the tent. These vents are permanently covered by the clever design of the flysheet, so even in horrendous conditions you’ll have a good source of fresh air without letting the wind and rain in. So, the tent was almost entirely free of condensation when I ventured out at catch the sunrise. You know when you’re trying to escape from the tent and brush your back against the condensation on the inner of the flysheet? Didn’t get that.

Effortless Performance: A Review of the NEMO Dagger OSMO Tent

Occasionally you use kit that you just don’t think twice about—these are almost always the best pieces of equipment as they just do their job and do it well. The Dagger OSMO was absolutely one of those; it just works. It doesn’t weigh a huge amount, it’s got loads of space, it’s easy to pitch, looks pretty good and has every feature a backpacker/hiker could possibly wish for.

Nemo Equipment Dagger Osmo 2 Review – Final word

We hope you enjoyed our Nemo Equipment Dagger Osmo 2 Review. Our team of outdoor enthusiasts worked hard to provide you with an honest and informative review of this tent. We also recommend checking out our Scarpa Rush TRK LT GTX review. Thanks for reading and happy exploring!