A newbie on this year's trip is enthused about bringing his "4-person" Kelty Pavilion Tent. I did a quick search and am not coming up with much info about this tent. Would like to know more to advise on suitability of this for a BWCA trip. Anyone that has used one or is familiar with Kelty Pavilion?

An old Amazon listing says it's 20lbs and has a 9x9ft footprint. To me, 5lbs+ per/person (assuming it will indeed sleep 4) is a *lot* of tent to carry and you may be somewhat restricted on usable tent pads. But I've seen folks do similar.

Considerations:
How many people plan on sleeping in it? What's your party size? Are you base camping or covering ground?

Here's a link that corroborates those dimensions and the weight. Scroll to the bottom for the specs.
Kelly Pavilion 4 listing

Thanks for the input--

There are four in our group and if this truly could sleep four people comfortably then probably would work OK despite it's weight. However, I've found that most tents called a "four" will be quite tight when actually sleeping that many and fewer than the rating in the tent works much better.

The challenge, particularly with newbies, is that people are excited to use their own gear. They want a chance to "play with their fun toys" and it's disheartening to hear that their favorite gear is not well suited for what they intend. It's a good way to dampen enthusiasm for the adventure.

That being said, one feels some responsibility when you invite someone on a trip to do your best for them to have the most enjoyable experience possible--including advising on the best gear for what may be ahead. We've got a number of portages that gear will be hauled over so I'm going to advocate for two smaller tents instead of this one big one.

It's a tough balance to strike, but that's a particularly heavy piece of kit. Sometimes I find it helpful to frame the weight savings as giving us more room to haul other fun things or luxuries–like camp chairs, hammocks or extra fishing gear.

I'd go with 2 - three "man" tents.
Less weight, easier to find pads. Can fit the tent mates a bit better based on compatibility.
No way four people are fitting comfortable in a four "man" tent, especially if they are men.

There are four men in our group and yeah, I have done 4 in a 9' x 9' tent but two were children.

My 7' x 8' REI tent even claims to be a four person! It works very comfortably well as a two person and could even do 3 OK but I can't imagine four with any comfort.