A quick followup. I’ve now used the tent in some wind and rain, so perhaps these additional observations will be useful. Or, better, someone can tell me how to adapt to the problems I’ve been having!
I find the fly closure even worse than I’d thought.
- Gods help you if the hook side of the velcro gets caught in the bug mesh inner. Careful handling seems adequate to prevent this, but a prominent warning would have been appreciated.
- It is difficult to close, especially from inside, and even from the outside if there’s much wind.
- The gaps between velcro panels blow open enough to let some rain blow in in around ~20 knots of wind.
- The velcro itself can be torn open in gusts around ~30 knots, which lets in a whole lot of water.
- The gaps between velcro patches only seal when the tent is up, and are wide open during pitching, so despite the single-step pitch, this is actually NOT a “European-style” tent that I can dry-pitch in the rain.
The magnetic closures are an interesting idea. I like them a great deal in calm weather (and agree with the First Look that the tab should be longer). However, the snaps don’t reliably stay snapped in much wind (~20 knots). Magnet clips that can withstand lateral loads have been developed—the effective ones I’ve seen have a surface that isn’t flat but rather has a pin-and-hole design so the magnet holds it closed while the pin takes lateral loads. Those are designed for purposes like this, but presumably they’re a little heavier, and the hole could get packed with snow…?
Despite Henry’s assurances, I didn’t find that the tent ventilates well enough in dead-calm conditions. As the data I posted above show, when there’s no wind, the peak vents are too small for much convective throughflow. If you want to see what an effective peak vent looks like, check out the Hilleberg Kaitum. Such vents could be on the steep non-door faces to preserve entry/exit clearance headroom.
In wind, any tent ventilates plenty. Ventilation can be increased by opening the fly IF it’s not raining or just raining vertically, but zippers would allow partial opening/closing (that could stress the zipper, so it is risky!). Other adjustments require getting up, possibly getting dressed (a pain in winter or even rain), and going outside in order to raise or lower the pitch height (if you have adjustable-length poles) or even to open/close the end panels. Typical and fair ultralight compromise: you definitely lose something in functionality over a non-SUL tent, although big adjustable peak vents would add far more livability than weight.
Ridgeline guys are crucial. Indeed, even the pitching process is difficult without them, since the tent blows around a bit when you have just one pole in, and the ridgeline guys are far easier to stake out to approximately usable positions during pitching. I’m disappointed that I immediately had to go shopping for extras at this price point, and I regard the decision to cut important equipment to reduce apparent weight as halfway between over-optimistic and deceptive.
A couple more tie-out points on the ends would make me more comfortable: the windward end of the tent takes an awful lot of load in a breeze. I’ve had no failures so far, but the pitch is sensitive to any shifting of that peg, and the single-peg design requires placing that peg in just the right spot. Meanwhile I hope that the single tie-out there is as strong as Henry’s usual superb workmanship would suggest, since a failure there would turn the tent into an especially poor bivy sack.
The fabric continues to be magic. This is my first DCF tent, and the construction quality seems superb so far. No leaks, no tears, no weakening that I can detect after a few days in slightly windy conditions. The layout would be lovely, but is <i>again</i> hampered by the difficulty opening/closing the fly.
I’m 187 cm tall. I sleep on a NeoAir, and use a thick pillow when I sleep on my side. It takes me a little fidgeting to find a position in which no part of me is less than one mosquito-length from the mesh, but it can be done. And maintained all night if I hiked hard enough ;) At my height, sitting headroom is <i>great!</i>
In summary: I continue to believe that this tent would be SPECTACULAR for a certain set of conditions:
- Enough wind to ventilate adequately given the humidity and temperature at the time.
- Not enough wind to cause the various of trouble described above (< ~20 knots).
- Consistent enough conditions that you don’t need to adjust ventilation between pitch and strike.
- It should <i>only</i> rain while you’re away/asleep! Because:
- It’s hard to dry-pitch since the fly only sheds rain when pitched taut, not when flapping around during pitch.
- Closing the fly is just too fiddly.
Evidently I camp in conditions that Henry does not?
So my own requirements would be:
- FLY ZIPPERS!!!!!!
- 2 more pegs and guys.
- A bigger stuff sack. The provided one is pretty but is too fiddly to actually use.
- Bigger, adjustable, held-open-with-a-stick peak vents.
Without those little details, I still think that the tent is the most brilliant prototype I’ve seen in ages, but it’s not quite ready yet.
Not a comment on the tent, but another thought on hiking-pole shelters in general: After one of my 110-g hiking poles randomly snapped in cold-but-mild conditions (I wasn’t even less-than-surefooted when it snapped!), I don’t think that hiking-pole shelters are as good an idea as I used to. Something exposed to strong forces during slips and falls is reasonably likely to break if it’s built too light. If a failure of the hiking pole would leave you without shelter, you need to put enough extra weight into your hiking pole that it’s really not going to break (or carry enough materials that you can guarantee a strong repair). So it seems to me that you can carry 3 ~100-g poles, a good repair tube, or some really strong hiking poles. Thoughts?
