Tom, I was wondering the same thing about the air-perm GTX, and I have heard the same thing about Activent/Windstopper. A funny thing is that you don’t see any air-permeable GoreTex available in product lines in North America, do you?
Paul: a code word? Not a bad idea! Maybe the manufacturer could use this trick, too?! Portions of my posts above have been deleted to protect the innocent against unforeseen eVENTs (wink, wink) of damaGE (wink, wink)!
If Outdoor Designs isn’t planning to use eVENT in tents, that suggests to me that Exped’s Polaris could face some unexpected difficulties…
Like Kevin says, better grab one now if that’s the sort of thing you might want. I have to confess, that’s exactly why I have one, but I haven’t used it enough to write anything reasonable about its field performance. The one time I used it on snow, on a very cold night in Central New York, there was absolutely zero condensation in the tent, except on the silnylon vestibule, from cooking. By contrast, my BD Lighthouse in EPIC would have had some interior condensation, especially around the internal poles. The Polaris poles (except that fourth one) are in neat flat pole sleeves, so they are not inside the tent. Just one of the neat features of the Polaris (along with the vestibule and vents). The tent body itself isn’t all that bulky actually, but it sure uses a lot of metal to support it. It does make it easier to split the weight between two people. Like I mentioned earlier, that fourth pole is pretty much required for snow use (to keep the large fabric side panels from collapsin inward), so I would advise anybody purchasing the Polaris to get that, too.
