DuoMid pitching tips

[Brad Abrahams]

Greetings everyone, I just returned from spending a month and a half in Ecuador, most of which was spent trekking in the Central Andes. I camped in a DuoMid I recently purchased through the gear swap here. While I loved it for the most part, I was never able to get a really great pitch. I always had some unevenness and sag. I followed the pitching instructions on MLD's site: Stake out the rear corners fairly taught, stake out the front two a bit looser, make sure the shape is rectangular, insert pole (at around 140cm + pole extender), tighten 4 corners, stake out front/back/side tie outs.

What is your basic order of operations? Any general or specific tips and tricks?

Thanks kindly!
Brad

[Ike Jutkowitz]

Hi Brad,
For me, the key has been to get the corners staked out in a perfect taut rectangle before attempting to erect the center pole. This has fixed most of the pitching problems I had early on.

Keira demonstrates the perfect pitch

[Jon Holthaus]

I will agree with Ike, getting a taut rectangle first makes pitching much easier. I don't even know what height I pitch the trekking pole, by the time I make camp I could care less if it matches a specified height. I staked the four corners with 4-5 inches of guyline from tension lock in a nice rectangle, with zipper open but bottom buckle still buckled, I open trekking pole flip lock and raise it until duomid nice and taut. Afterwards zip closed, and tension guy lines to nice and snug. I was doing it wrong if I spend more than 2.5 minutes setting camp. I must admit I do also cheat by keeping nettent attached 95% of the time. Good luck with it.

[Jerry Adams]

If you're on a non level surface it can be worse – like one corner is higher than eveyrthing else.

[David Ure]

Hi Brad, for me the easiest was to simply peg each corner to the ground in a perfect rectangle. Then unzip, enter, and set up the pole. Close to a perfect pitch every time.

[Anonymous]

At home I staked out my DuoMid and used a tape measure to make sure the distance to each diagonal corner was the same.
I then cut a length of braided fishing line to be the length of the diagonal and attached it to one corner.
In the field I use this line to make sure my DuoMid is a perfect rectangle.
As a side benefit I can use the line for emergency repairs.

[David Lutz]

The DuoMid doesn't follow the contours of the ground very well.

I pin the rear corners directly to the ground and then guy out the front corners a few inches off the ground.

Nice pitch every time and quick.

[Brad Abrahams]

Thanks so much everyone. Nice and simple. Eager to try this out tomorrow.

[Brad Abrahams]

btw David, how do you guy the front corners higher off the ground?

[Jerry Adams]

When you're testing, intentionally guy one front corner one foot higher above the ground to see what it does to the tent pitch, to see what it look like

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