Alpkit Mora single sleeper hammock review: a budget-friendly hammock for beginners

First impressions

Simple is good, and the single-skinned Alpkit Mora single sleeper hammock does all that’s needed for comfortable nights out in wooded country. The easy-to-adjust ladder loop and carabiner suspension system is an improvement on traditional ropes and knots, making it easy to set up correctly, and the kelp green colour won’t draw attention to your camp.

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You’ll need Alpkit’s own brand tarp or another rainfly to sleep under in all but the driest of weather, but this is still one of the lightest and most practical hammock set-ups we’ve seen. Though lightweight, the stitching, fabric and suspension straps are all good quality and robust; critical when you’re going to be trusting your weight to them.

Develop your hammock camping skills, learn how to set up a tarp for maximum shelter and have the right sleeping kit and the Mora could be used across three seasons making it an ideal bushcraft option.

In the field

I had the Alpkit Mora Single Sleeper Hammock set up and adjusted for optimum comfort in under four minutes. This was helped by the ladder loop strap and clip-in carabiners suspension system taking the fiddle and guess-work out of centering the skin between trees and making it easy to get the correct hang for comfort, (loose enough to allow you to sleep at an angle across the axis, and at a height where you can sit in the hammock with feet on the ground).

Each strap goes around a tree or other hanging point and then back through a loop before the skin is clipped into one of the loops. Straps are long enough to cope with most trunk diameters and distances between suspension points and provide a good grip to prevent slippage.

Nylon skins are slippery and so it needs a bit of practice to place and keep an insulating mat under your body as you arrange your sleeping kit and the Mora is no exception. I used a full-sized foam mat that fitted well into the generous dimensions of the hammock and once in place the mat stayed in position even as I moved around between different sleeping positions.