Mt Rainier Wonderland Trail — X-Dome 2 Review

[H W]

Did a slow 9 night trek with son on the Wonderland Trail Sept 5-14. Spectacular and epic are the best words I can muster up for this 95 miles/29K elevation up-and-down backpacking adventure. The environmental diversity never leaves you bored. Deers that seem habituated to humans, nearly running into a large back bear just off the trail who took us no mind busy foraging for berries, raging rivers, and gorgeous alpine views await you on this trail. Weather was typical PNW — rain, humidity that leaves everything dewy, bright sunshine when it really counted between Summerland and Indian Bar campsites. And if you do it, go clockwise.

But, I want to talk about Durston’s X-Dome 2 shelter and how it stood up to a rainstorm of biblical proportions on the night of Sept 6 while camping at Devils Dream campsite. No deities involved. Per the Rangers 1.5 inches of rain fell in just over an hour with 1400 lightening strikes, a few which surrounded us at our site. We pulled our quilts above our heads and tried to ignore the fury around us. The sound of the pounding rain on the tent you’d think we had a metal roof, which I believe is a good thing. Tent remained taut and erect. We did however, and not unexpectedly, had splash back. My quilt sustained wetness at the footbox and our packs in the vestibules were dewey wet, but only on the surface. As an afterthought I wondered if I should have pegged the end panels closer to the inner tent reducing the gap. The outer tent 4 corner pull-tabs were down as far as they would stretch.

Our neighbors did not fair so well in their single wall 2 person and 1 person dynema tents. They were bailing water from inside the tents. Zbags totally soaked. I won’t mention the brand; it’s a great company we’ve all bought from and love. One might say their pitch was wrong or improper ground position. That might be true, and we agree they’re great light weight shelters but not capable to weather the kind of extraordinary event we experienced. The following three days of PNW drizzle, fog, high humidity they struggled, as we all did, to dry out. As a consequence the storm contaminated the water supply at Paradise leading to a shutdown of drinking water, toilet usage, and food service.

In conclusion I’d say the X-Dome met this test and it’s a shelter I foresee using for a long time. Not on gear swap anytime soon. Featured pic is the morning after the storm. Keen eyes may tell me what to correct. 2nd pic is from the #1 ranked campsite on the Wonderland Trail – Indian Bar campsite #2. Must get there early. We arrived on a short day about 3:30PM. You reserve by permit the area but not the individual site. A group who were lottery winners were not happy with us having a walkup permit. C’est la vie.

[Author]

Posts