I recently purchased BOTH the Slingfin Crossbow AND the Arcdome 2 Ultra. We just got back from a trip to Iceland where we used them to hike the Laugavegur Trail. My wife and I used the CrossBow and I loaned out the ArcDome 2 to two young female friends of ours. Additional friends came along and used a Nemo Kunai 2 4-season tent.
I like the bomber features of the CrossBow. It has 2 decent sized vestibules, inner pockets, lots of additional guyline points, the “web truss” system, ability to use your trekking poles to add additional support and rigidity to the brow pole, and the additional internal guylines for more load transfer. I do not like the weight, but this tent is bomber enough that I would feel comfortable taking it summer mountaineering as well (Baker, Rainier, etc), which I dabble in occasionally.
ArcDome 2 Ultra: I do not like the low doors on the tent inner. It appears they have addressed that with the new ArcDome 1, so I’m hopeful that at some point in the future, they’ll release an updated ArcDome 2 inner with better doors. The vestibules are small. It does not have a crossing brow pole, so internal volume / shoulder room is not generous like it is with the CrossBow 2. The TNTUltra fabric is unproven and people have expressed concern over it getting pinhole leaks. I don’t see how it’s any different than a heavier DCF in terms of susceptibility to pinholes.  I’m also cautious about the Syclone 9.3mm carbon fiber poles. Easton’s recent history of quality issues with their carbon fiber poles, particularly on Durston tents, has been well documented, and I really don’t know how they hold up to serious weather.  The same Easton Syclone poles are used on MSR’s Access 2 4-season tents.
Friends using the Nemo Kunai 2:Â liked the lighter weight, disliked the single door entry which also made for a cramped vestibule to place packs and wet gear for 2 people.
We spent 5 days on the L trail. (Technically 4: the first day was us arriving at Landmannalaugar by bus and camping for the night before starting to hike the next day). We had relatively decent weather. It was low-mid 50’s and wet 3 of the 5 days but not significantly windy. I never got in a situation where I was trying to set up the CrossBow tent in the rain, so I never attempted to erect just the poles and web truss with the fly and then attempt to clip in the inner from underneath. For wet set-ups, the ArcDome Ultra2 has a clear advantage.
After completing the trail, we rented a van and we did a ring road tour for 5 days, tent camping at Hellisandur and Skogar. We stayed in lodging in Husavik, near Jokulsarlon, and in Reykjavik. The winds were a bit heavier at Skogar the morning we took down our tents, but nothing that truly tested the designs of any of these tents.
If you get on Youtube, “Tom Heaney Adventures” is an Irish guy who’s taken multiple tents into windy conditions in the UK highlands. His videos helped assure me that the ArcDome 2 Ultra would perform reasonably well in windy conditions that we could potentially face in Iceland.
Finally, I just saw the Iceland weather forecast for August 1 – 3 and they’re not getting heavy winds, with warnings about vehicles getting damaged and tents potentially getting blown away. I’m glad we went when we did!
