New Dome tents Tarptent & Durston

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

With regard to the X-Dome, please don’t read too much into the specifics because that picture I shared is only an early prototype to show the general concept. Many aspects can and have changed, but for obvious reasons I’d rather not show the latest version. I shared that picture only to demonstrate I have been working on a tent of this general design so that if someone else does release a tent on the X-Mid floor plan before we do, people won’t think the idea of a freestanding tent off of this floor plan was unknown to us.

With regard to the floor plan and debate on who invented what, this is the type of thing I am trying to stay out of it it ends up being a lot of arguing on the Internet that isn’t good for anyone, and because the vast majority of people don’t really care about who invented something, so I will briefly explain my floorplan idea and then stay out of further debate:

The X-Mid floorplan provides a better way to have a floor and dual vestibules inside of a simpler rectangular fly shape (compared to the classic hexagon). Sometimes this floorplan is oversimplified as ‘a diagonal floor’ to argue other tents had similar, but this floorplan is much more than that. It has a diagonal floor in specifically a rectangular fly (unprecedented), a floor with a tilted parallelogram shape instead of a traditional rectangle (also unprecedented), and this creates wedge shaped vestibules that are deepest at the ends (again unprecedented). This is all towards the of goal of providing a functional floorplan inside of a simpler rectangular fly shape. These is sometimes confusion about this invention because previous tents had diagonal ridgelines but those tents did not have a diagonal floor (e.g. the floor was still square to the fly) and they lacked the other aforementioned elements. We could debate whether some of these elements in the X-Mid floorplan may have pre-existed but ultimately no previous tent had this floorplan:

I mention this not to say someone else can’t use this floorplan (I don’t have a patent on specifically this floor plan), nor to wish ill towards others who may choose to adopt this idea, but because some people like myself care about the history of ideas. I myself have used ideas in other tents, while also trying to add new elements and acknowledging pre-existing ones.

Ultimately what matter is the pace of innovation, so I have been working hard on new designs. We might not be the first to release a freestanding tent on this floorplan but we have prototyped and tested many versions of this type of tent, so I am confident that when we do release a freestanding tent on this floorplan it will be very carefully thought out and optimized.

[Terran Terran]

Multiple discovery.

What I really want to know is how they’ll handle wind and snow. Where’s the rain going to run off? It looks rather exposed. I’m not sure of the point of it all.

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

The gear geek in me would love to engage on the functionality of this design as there is a lot to unpack as well as ways to modify the design to improve various things, but it would be premature of me to get too into this before I unveil the final form of what I’ve been working on.

[David D]

Ditto on the vestibules, they’re the main attraction to me.  While deep, a heavy rain still causes splash back to the inner, its unavoidable.   I still rest my pack in a light garbage bag if expecting serious rain.

The tradeoff is it makes site selection more complicated, so I extended all the guylines to let the vestibules run over roots and rocks.

[JCH]

On that subject, and this is just my opinion, short little guylines and tiny little tensioners are a great example of  stupid light. Upgrading those two things is the very first thing I do to any shelter I purchase.

[Daryl and Daryl]

Another problem with leaving a pack undeer the veatibule is that animals can chew on it for the salt.

I had the zippers on an MSR pack ruined many years ago by a chewing animal of some sort.  My pack is always salty from sweat.

[Jeff McWilliams]

This was on Mt Baker during an Alpinism 1 course earlier this summer.  Climbers had to store their food in Ursaks inside their tents, and generally it was thought the critters would leave it alone.  Clearly the guys in this tent were not so lucky.

Sometimes a critter is gonna do what a critter is gonna do.

[David D]

That’s discouraging.  I was thinking of keeping my Ursack in my tent when there’s overnight rain.  The Ursack Almighty is a sponge, 9.6 oz dry, 15.5 oz wet.  But maybe not so great an idea. Jeff, do you know if they were using an Opsak?

D&D, my son woke at 2 am on the GDT last month face to face with a porcupine eating his Kakwa’s chest strap for the salt.  Luckily he was near Golden and Dan and T set him up with a replacement.

[Bill in Roswell]

Dan, thanks for chiming in. I read your comments on Trek-lite UK, which were insightful and respectful. I look forward to further details and specs as your new X-dome design evolves. As backpackers/bikepackers, we all benefit from forward thinkers willing to put dev time into the details!

[SIMULACRA]

If you must store an _Ursack inside. Just put it under the vestibules out of weather. If critters are gonna have a go at it, at least they won’t have to chew through your tent to get to it. Or better yet, put food inside of odor resistant bags, tightly twisted closed with bungee and inside the _Ursack. Then they won’t go at it.

Why on earth would an alpinism course require a “food inside of tent” segment? Are you supposed to learn the possibility of patching large holes in a $400-$800+ tent. No thanks! Money back sirs.

[Max O]

Nice to see some developement for (lets stay with the term here) dome tents. I prefeer to use these and wonder if they will come with high quality poles, strong SilPoly and good ventilation. The tarptent seem to have openings up in the roof which is best IMO, but I’d prefeer full double wall. Ideally with outer first pitching. Lets see which boxes the X-Dome ticks for me :)

Liked the X-Mid already, but really want self-standing designs and I also dont use trekking poles…

[Paul S]

Jeff..was that photo from the Mt Baker highcamp on the railroad grade/Easton Glacier route (where I have heard that there is a rat problem) , or, the Ridge accessed via the Scott Paul trail?

[Jeff McWilliams]

Paul,

That was just below the Squak glacier.  So probably what you’re calling the ridge accessed via the Scott Paul Trail?    I was signed up for that class with two of my friends.  I got food poisoning after day 1 (the rock climbing day) and had to bail and recover at a hotel while my friends completed the course.  :-(

From what I’ve heard, there are rodent problems at all three of the beginner level base camps (Coleman-Deming, Easton, and Squak).  AAI hands out Ursaks to each participant.  From what I’ve heard, the advice they give out is conflicting about where/how to store one’s Ursak at basecamp.  Our group was told to store the food bag inside the tent, possibly hang it from a clothes line if we had one.

[SIMULACRA]

My response still stands :)

[Sam Farrington]

My only experience with a bear attracted to a tent was when decided to use a blueberry flavored slurp in the water bottle in the vestibule.  Never again.  A bear kept me awake all night.  The water bottle in the tent now contains only water, and the pack and ursack stay hung high on a tree branch.

Finding the right nearby tree can limit choices where to pitch the tent, though.  But wouldn’t have it any other way.  See now why in some areas where trees are very sparce, bear canisters are required.

[Ross Bleakney]

I don’t use trekking poles, and never will. And if I did, I wouldn’t want them tied to a shelter when I’d be peak-bagging out of a base camp. Soooo, long way to say I’m thrilled to see non-trekking pole options!

I hike with trekking poles, but rarely use them to hold up my “trekking pole” tent. There are a number of other options. Such poles tend to be fairly light but fairly strong because of the nature of the forces involved (and overall length). I tend to use a pair of light (2 ounce) poles most of the time, since I am more of a “base camper” (like you). If things get really stormy, it is nice to know that trekking poles are an option (seeing as they are stronger than most tent poles).

[Terran Terran]

Drop the tent. Use the trekking poles. Put them back when you’re done.

[Todd T]

Drop the tent. Use the trekking poles. Put them back when you’re done.

That’s what I do, although I wouldn’t trust that approach in heavy rain.  If the forecast calls for that possibility–or I know I’ll be base camping for several days–I carry auxiliary poles for the tent.

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