Durston X-Dome 1+

[Joey G]

https://durstongear.com/products/x-dome-1-plus-ultralight-backpacking-tent

 

[Joey G]

This is like the exact tent I have always wanted. Thanks Dan! I hope it’s still available Friday when I’ll have the money to buy it.

[Joey G]

To expand:

I really like the outer pole connection of the Big Sky tents but they were just a little heavy for me. I have always thought the 3/4 inners of some of the locus gear inners were innovative and practical but don’t really like the wall angle of pyramids. I don’t want to sacrifice needing a larger footprint in order to have space inside of an UL tent. This tent hits on all those. Also, I love the Durston brand rather than buying from competitors.  Sorry, fan boying a little.

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

Thanks Joey. Glad the first impressions are looking good.

[dirtbag]

Definitely looks legit! I like it a lot!

[Jeff McWilliams]

The “StormWorthy” demo when augmented by trekking poles was truly impressive.  We’re going to Iceland next year to hike the Laugavegeur Trail and do some other sight seeing and this is now solidly at the top of my list.

When’s the 2P coming out?

 

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

Thanks Jeff. The 2P will launch in early 2025 and should ship by spring.

[Monte Masterson]

Love the stealthy green color and small footprint. Also the low 45″ high profile makes it less visible and less of wind catcher in big weather. I can’t think of any other tent or tarp on the market that’s made with 15D silpoly (at least not a ripstop silpoly) Probably around 1.05 oz per square yard.

Looks like a real winner. 

[Robert Spencer]

Very well thought out on the details as usual. I will be curious to see how the pole hubs do in serious weather.

Any plans to offer a DCF option?

[jscott]

Actually, I like an inner net tent that hangs down from inner poles, while the latter support the fly. When it rains and the fly stretches, that keeps the fly from collapsing down onto the net inner.

perhaps the ‘new’ materials make this a non-issue. Dan is from the PNW and knows about rain!

[Paul S]

Yep, that looks like a nice tent. :-)

Any chance of a “solid” inner being made available?

[Jack B]

Very impressive – bravo, Dan! In the last few months I kept reading Dan’s comments that the tent has gone through many iterations and refinements… That is clearly evident!

Lots to love about this design — the “expanded” interior footprint with just one vestibule, the exterior poles, the extra trekking pole support option, etc.

On my wish list would be a solid interior, which would make this a great 4-season tent option I think.

And a DCF 2p version would be a dream. (Maybe even a single wall ultralight DCF version?)

[Todd T]

It’s backwards.  Left-zip sleeping bags (i.e., most bags) need not apply.  :-(  Please tell me I’m wrong.

[Stephen Seeber]

I ordered one. As is, it will make a good four-season tent. The option to use trekking poles will take a lot of wind and the snow load will force off the tent fabric and, I expect, make for a quieter night in the wind. We don’t know the tenacity properties of the high-tenacity fibers used in this new tent, but they could have twice the strength of the prior Durston polyester tents. I don’t know if other tent manufacturers use standard or high-tenacity fibers. Perhaps Dan can comment on this.  I suspect that the raised bathtub and horizontal strip of fabric at the bottom of the mesh inner should provide adequate control of wind and spindrift.

My experience with solid inners last winter in various tents was that the fly and inner usually both got frosted because vapor cannot pass readily through a really cold solid inner. I suspect it will get through the mesh, and then the frost on the fly will not readily fall down through the mesh.   We don’t know the tenacity properties of the high-tenacity fibers used in this new tent, but they could have twice the strength of the prior Durston polyester tents. I don’t know if other tent manufacturers use standard or high-tenacity fibers.  Perhaps Dan can comment on this.

Last winter, I concluded that a one-person tent is too claustrophobic for me.  However, I think this 1+ layout should be comfortable and have enough room inside for my pack.  The steep end walls may provide enough clearance so that the exterior of my quilt toe box does not get frosted from touching the end wall fabric.

The tent is a little heavy for my taste, and I look forward to a single-wall Dyneema version, but I suspect it is far lighter than other tents that will stand up to high winds and heavy snow loads. Time will tell.  I will report back when we start getting some winter weather.

 

[Øyvind H]

This looks great Dan. Just a very well thought out design which strikes a great balance between weight and function for ultralight all-season use. For skiing trips I would leave the inner at home as I value more vestibule space for digging a snow pit, cooking and storing wet gear. I’ve used a Hilleberg Unna in this manner, but the x-dome will effectively cut the weight in half (600-700g). That said, I’m curious to see how it handles windy conditions compared to the likes of Unna and similar tents.

 

 

[bradmacmt]

Any chance of a “solid” inner being made available?

That’s what I’d want for sure.

This tent is a improved/modified Big Agnes Copper Spur, which is a great place to be design wise!

[bradmacmt]

It’s backwards. Left-zip sleeping bags (i.e., most bags) need not apply. :-( Please tell me I’m wrong.

I use LH zip bags but have tents that open both ways ~ I’ve never found it mattered. It’s sort of something to obsess over in front of a computer screen but one that doesn’t mean anything in field use.

[bradmacmt]

Any plans to offer a DCF option?

My question as well.

[Jeff McWilliams]

@bradmacmt – Actually, I think Left-Zip sleeping bags is mostly a convention for men’s bags.  If you look at women’s bags (ex Nemo Riff, Nemo Disco, Big Agnes Daisy Mae 15) they are RH zippers.  And this has been the convention for a long time because it allows a couple to zip together a men’s and women’s bag.

REI’s genderless Magma 15 bags, and Nemo’s “genderless” Coda both use LH zippers.   I guess they tossed out the “sharing warmth” idea when they made the move to a genderless product lineup.

With most top quilts (very popular among lightweight hikers) there is no zipper and so the orientation of the door really doesn’t matter.

[Todd T]

I said,

It’s backwards. Left-zip sleeping bags (i.e., most bags) need not apply. :-( Please tell me I’m wrong.

bradmacmt said,

I use LH zip bags but have tents that open both ways ~ I’ve never found it mattered. It’s sort of something to obsess over in front of a computer screen but one that doesn’t mean anything in field use.

To each his own, I guess, but I’ve found it matters a lot. Enough that I will not buy a backwards tent. And I came to that conclusion in the field BTW, not in front of the computer! :-)

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

Thanks for all the kind words.

“Any plans to offer a DCF option?”
I hope to do this but don’t have a timeline at this point. It would be about a year at the soonest (fall 2025).

“Any chance of a “solid” inner being made available?”
This is in the plan, but also don’t have a clear timeline right now. It would be sometime in 2025. Right now the partial solid interior should be a nice balance where it also blocks drafts.

“It’s backwards.  Left-zip sleeping bags (i.e., most bags) need not apply.  :-(  Please tell me I’m wrong.”
With a one door tent there will be lots of things that are better for one hand or another, but overall it’s not intended for left handed. Opening the fly door from outside is easier right handed. Closing the fly door from inside is easier left handed. Some might feel the vestibule location is left handed, but then it makes working in the area in front of the door more right handed. Etc.  So yeah if you have a left zip sleeping bag there could be some sub-optimality there, but it still should be quite easy to do and overall it works out about even. If we flipped things around then the bag might open easier but then the door might be less intuitive.

” We don’t know the tenacity properties of the high-tenacity fibers used in this new tent…perhaps Dan can comment on this.”
There are a wide range of different strength tests that can be done (both the test method and warp/weft). Of course the results vary some in each test. We’ve tested a variety of 15D options over the past few years but previously not used them because the strength was down at 50-70%. Whereas this new higher tenacity 15D fabric varies from being 90-100% as strong as our 20D, with an overall average result of about 96% as strong as our 20D. It does that while being about 20% lighter, so you get a 20% reduction in weight for a 4% reduction in strength, giving an overall higher strength:weight. It’s not a radical difference but it is a nice step to be able to get almost the same strength at a lower weight.

[Jeff McWilliams]

Here’s the MyLifeOutdoors preview video

It might be nice to have a spare pole segment, and/or offer an aluminum pole set option despite the weight penalty.

Will Durston Gear have spare pole segments available for purchase so that people can repair broken poles, or have a spare on-hand?  Nothing currently listed in the “spare parts” of the website, and even spare parts for the Iceline Trekking Poles appear to be limited at the moment.

And to be fair, I would now feel similarly about the TarpTent ArcDome Ultra’s “Syclone” poles.  (Steven’s video showed that he snapped a Syclone pole on an MSR Hubba Hubba)  I don’t see anywhere on their website where one can order spare Syclone pole segments.

TentPole Technologies and Qwest Outfitters carry both Easton Syclone and Easton Carbon 3.9 & 6.3 pole segments.   I don’t know whether any of these are compatible with what Dan is using on the X-Dome 1+.  Dan?

 

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

This incident is not representative of the tent. What happened was a gluing issue on a pre-production poleset, combined with further breaks from an ad-hoc repair using an unfortunately oversized sleeve that created high stress points.

There was a metal ferrule/insert coming unglued, but this is a pre-production poleset that does not undergo the normal QC checks. During actual production there is a push/pull test on every ferrule so we’ll have these fully glued in place on the production tents.

After the ferrule did slide out of position and was replaced by a sleeve, the sleeve creates stress points at the ends (as mentioned) because the sleeve transfers all the force that is normally distributed onto a small focus point at the end. This is especially the case when the sleeve is oversized like the first one here. So that leverage/stress focus caused the other breaks (as mentioned). If the sleeve was sized for the poles (like the orange tubing at the end) it would be better distributed.

So it was a pre-production glue issue combined with an improper repair. The actual poles we use are the same poles used by quite a few other brands (e.g. Samaya, Tarptent, Big Agnes, MSR) and here we are using dual archs of the smaller size (on the ends) or a single arch of the large size (on top) so it is quite a bit stronger than many other CF tents that use a single arch of the smaller size. Without the stress point of the sleeve, the poleset is normally several times stronger than the aluminum polesets in comparable tents, and I expect it to do very well in windy conditions without that issue and when pitched for the conditions (e.g. guylines when appropriate, optional trekking pole supports if really windy).

For repair though, we will certainly have replacement sections available.

[Monte Masterson]

“this new higher tenacity 15D fabric varies from being 90% – 100% as strong as our 20D, with an overall average result of being 96% as strong as our 20D. It does that while being 20% lighter…”

That’s what I’d call a leap forward. Would love to get my hands on some of that material. We’ll see what’s revealed through winter field testing. I hope long term field reports reveal that the 15D silpoly does in fact hold up well to 4 season use.

[Brad W]

Any length measurements at 12″ above the floor? This is more important that at the floor as the wall angle will decide how useable the length is at that height.

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