By: Blonde Two

Sleeping in a hammock is my favourite type of camping. There’s nothing to beat that connection with the trees, and gentle swing in the breeze. But there are lots of hammocks out there. It can be difficult to choose the right one for you.

Have a think about it. Apart from trees, what would your priority be if you were choosing your perfect camping hammock?

  • Strong?
  • Easy to hang?
  • Compact and lightweight?

As a veteran hammocker I would suggest all the above but after spending time hanging around in Scotland and hammocking in New Zealand, I would add one more essential to the mix.

All the best hammocks have a bug net.

Which is why I was especially pleased to be asked to review the Ticket to the Moon Lightest Pro Hammock. I love my current hammock. It has a bug net, somewhere to stash my gear, a pocket for a camping mat, and a bespoke tarp. It’s at the luxury end of the camping hammock market but it has one main issue.

It takes up all the space in my rucksack.

It also weighs a lot. Which means I can only really hammock camp when we are travelling with a vehicle, which with my new eagerness for train adventures, is becoming less often.

The Ticket to the Moon Lightest Pro Hammock

Hammocks with mosquito nets

Let’s start with the bug net. It’s tricky to hammock without trees so bugs are usually hovering nearby, waiting to nibble your nose as you sleep. Not many camping hammocks come with a built-in bug net but to my mind, they’re all definitely worth the extra money.

The TTTM Lightest Pro Hammock has a great, narrow mesh net with a zip on each side that makes entry and exit much easier. You can buy separate mosquito nets for hammocks but the big advantage of an attached net is that you cut down on unnecessary fiddling (something to which hammocking can be a tad prone).

Hanging on in there

The last thing you need is a hammock that you don’t trust to hold your weight. It’s always worth checking hammock strength before you buy, the Lightest Pro has a maximum load capacity of 100kg (15 stone 10).

As well as being strong, this hammock is capacious with a generous 310cm sleeping length and a 140 cm width that allows you to sleep comfortably on a long diagonal (trust me, the head up, feet up, ‘banana’ position is something you want to avoid).

Small and light enough for any camping adventure

Perhaps the most exciting thing about the TTTM Lightest Pro Hammock is that at last someone’s made a hammock you can live in but also carry to the place where you want to do that living.

Weighing in at just 550g and packing down really well into its bag, this hang would fit into my 55 litre rucksack with plenty of room to spare for my stove, sleeping bag and book (did I mention that the Lightest Pro has a book pocket?)

Easy to hang – the second time!

No hammock is simple to set up the first time round but the team at Ticket to the Moon have done a good job with both design and instructions. You’ll need to buy a separate set of straps before you start. In the interests of weight, I opted for the Lightest Strap but both that and the Moon Strap include integral tree huggers to protect your trees.

The strap system is easy to master. Simply fasten the tree hugger by slipping it back through its own loop, then attach your hammock carabiners to the section that gives you the hang height you’re looking for.

Tightening the integral ridgeline takes a bit more getting used to because it uses a clever spliced rope system. Ticket to the Moon have anticipated this however and have added permanently attached ‘shorten’ and ‘extend’ labels. Pull the right one while hanging onto the splice, and you’ll achieve the effect you want.

Trust me, this is easier than it sounds.

At least it is the second time.

Additional hammock extras

With any kind of camping, there are tempting additional extras, and hammock camping is no exception. I already have a few tarps, and can recommend them on rainy nights. On a dry hammock night however, I by far prefer being able to look up through the trees. TTTM offer three different tarps including a lightest one with a maximum weight of 412g.

One Ticket to the Moon accessory I did enjoy trying was their Moonquilt. Hanging around makes your underside chilly, even a top-notch down sleeping bag gets compressed by your weight. A hammock underquilt hangs underneath the hammock where it doesn’t get squashed and can trap a layer of warm air to keep your back warm.

We tested this theory. I lay in the Lightest Pro for five minutes then got out. We each inserted a hand in the space between the hammock and the underquilt, it was easy to detect the warm air in there, even after just that short time.

The Moonquilt is a summer weight underquilt but it’s a very clever one that can, with a bit of zip trickery, also be a blanket or a sleeping bag. I first used it in early May, and slept for almost a whole night!

A great lightweight hammock

A big thanks to Mr B2 here for helping me test the Lightest Pro. We both agreed that having a lighter weight hammock that also includes a bug net was a bit of a game changer. He loves lightweight camping but hates biting, flying creatures so I suspect he’ll be spending just as many nights in this one as I will.

 

From time to time we Blondes are sent free outdoor products to field test and promote. We will always be honest about our findings, and many products we don’t keep for ourselves find their way into our expedition stores.

‘ll definitely by HANGING ON to this hammock though!