Help pitching MLD duomid.

I’ve been using the X-Mid the past couple of years, but I generally pitch my Duomid with more than 2 inches on the corner guys (unless it’s bad weather).  The key is to get it square, then you put your trekking pole in and extend it to the desired length.  I would generally use a 6″ extension for my trekking pole and offset the pole slightly so I had more room in the back to sleep in.

I sold my Duomid a couple years ago but looking back at photos, I had a couple inches of cord between the lineloc and the beginning of the bowline that went on my stakes. I’m guessing I was pitching with ~4” between lineloc and stake.

Here’s a trick or technique to getting the duomid square or more precisely avoid ending up with a rhomboid parallelogram. It may read like trouble or bother but can be arranged or set-up to go pretty easily and in my experience ends up being a time saver.

First off as anyone who has laid out a foundation or done some framing knows the easy way to check to make sure all 4 corners are 90 degrees or ‘square’ is to measure the 2 diagonals from opposite corner to corner of the X. If both lengths match then all 4 corners will be 90 degrees and the rectangle will be ‘square’.

To get my corners square I measured the correct length, width and diagonal and marked these on my long guyline and tied loops at the 3 lengths on the longest guyline that’s  also dedicated as a guyline fore and aft from the top peak of the duomid if expecting really inclement weather/wind.

Using this looped line I lay out my corners and check my diagonals by attaching the end loop to a stake and laying out a short side and staking with the correctly placed loop , then a long side, another short, then close the rectangle, then check diagonals and adjust until the corners are pretty much square.

Then I attach the tarp to the stakes and place the center pole.

Sounds a twee tedious but I find it goes really quickly and actually saves time from trying to adjust after the tarp/tent is already pitched and getting into a tail-chasing – stake moving roundabout.

Depending on how tight I pitch which as Brad notes depends on what the weather looks like I may have the pole anywhere from @145 to @154.

BTW I used to use the older G-3? Gossamer gear poles but managed finally to break those (hiking) and the newer G-4? poles don’t have the length.

I do NOT like any extender I’ve tried including MLD’s, Z-Packs and a couple of homemade versions. I have gotten a pair of the CNoc poles that are long enough, and really sturdy and they work great!

I have an xmid as well, is there a reason you prefer the xmid over the duomid?  Just curious.

I like them both actually.  The X-Mid has more internal volume and it allows more ventilation and views with both doors open, but the Duomid is bombproof.   I’ve not yet faced any major storms in the X-Mid, but I’ve weathered some serious storms in the Duomid and know it can handle weather well.

Hmm. A picture would be worth 300 or 400 words here. Do you have any photos?

Do you have the silnylon or DCF duomid?  The technique is the same but the silnylon version is a bit fiddly over time and DCF a bit unforgiving if you erect it wrong at the beginning.

I just follow Ron Bell’s directions which assumes a couple of inches of ventilation around the bottom edges of the mid.  If you want the mid edges flat on the ground, for example, when snow camping or when experiencing  very high winds, the pole is shorter . Square out the corners, peg the four corners, insert pole and erect, then, if necessary, resquare the corners.  Then attach the other pegs and guylines.

The pole extender is for when you have a pole shorter than MLD recommends or you want to place your pole at an angle to allow more un-obstructed floor space.  I have used them but when I want more space just use two poles in an inverted V configuration.

Christopher, one reason that a mid might pitch too low is having the corners stretched too far apart. Do the caternary curves of the ridges look exagerated? If so, then that is your problem. Stretching out the perimeter rectangle (footprint) to far will limit pole height and result in exagerated cat curves.

Here’s an (extreme) example of this: https://sectionhiker.com/mountain-laurel-designs-doumid-cuben-fiber/

It’s interesting to me that a DCF mid, like in the pic at the top of the linked page above, can get itself into this distorted shape.

@ Stumphges.

The second photo in the Sectionhiker review looks more like what I would call a normal pitch.

Maybe a dumb question, but what is the best way to pitch high? 1) stake corners further out, or 2) stake the same, and just add slack to guylines.

1,  definitely.

Pitching a mid well can be tricky, although some find I intuitive. Not me.

Dan Durston wrote some nice posts on the geometry of mid pithing, but I don’t know where they are.

Bruce, yeah the second is better, but has the same problem to a lesser extent.

My experience has always been #1. My intuition has always been to think about guylines as an extension of the seam. That means that you need to stake farther out when lengthening the guylines or stake closer in when pitching closer to the ground. If you don’t do that you get a distortion because the force is being applied in the wrong direction. The first Section Hiker Duomid photo looks like it’s been staked too far out and then over-tightened.

“My intuition has always been to think about guylines as an extension of the seam”

Well phrased. Especially with DCF; follow the line and angle of the  seam to distribute the force along as much of the seam as possible.

Ryan Jordan gave some simple but very helpful tips for pitching mids in his video review of the HMG Dirigo.

pitching mids is simple; pitching them perfectly is not so easy.

Below is my Duomid pitched with a single pole that is 62″ (158 CM).  I found that length was perfect as it allowed me to get a taught pitch even while slightly offsetting the pole to give more room.  FYI, that is the DCF innernet from MLD inside.  If pitched properly the edges of the Duomid should be off the ground a couple of inches as shown in the second picture.

How long are your corner guylines in this pitch?  Thanks.

@ Christopher. If you have some photos of your pitches that look wrong, that would help us give opinions some of which might be helpful. :-))

Hey and there’s the old adage: Practice makes perfect. Try to be comfortable within a certain time frame; Like 5 minutes from pulling it out of the pack. You might make it to 3!  Use the timer on your phone. When you’re somewhere exposed and the need arises you’ll be glad for the time spent in practice. This is partly how I came up with using a long guyline to measure the 3 lengths: side/wide and diagonal. No more fiddling to get it square. You’ll develop a routine.

It’s a great shelter!

@bruce

Here is a picture at 130cm height.  There is no way I could get another 10 or 20cm out of this.  One of the guylines pulled out at  52 inches (approx 132 cm.

Looks trim to me. Is the pole right in the middle?

Glad to read your back is OK. Just coming off a back injury myself. No fun!

Pole is straight up and down in the middle.  Should it be at an angle? Maybe that is where the extra 10 cm comes from?

I always thought these mld pyramids had the pole offset toward the front…maybe the duomid is not like that?

@obx What do you mean by trim?

Are you pitching it with the door zipped up? The front looks very tight.

Also I think your guylines are too long which is spreading the base too wide. I’d try something more like this: