X-Mid 2

Sale price$280.00 USD

Pinnacle of Lightweight Tent Design

The X-Mid 2 has been developed from the first principles of geometry to be the most weight efficient and functional design for a trekking pole shelter. Its innovative and patented geometry makes the X-Mid 2 exceptionally stormworthy, spacious, and simple at the lowest weight. No other tent offers this level of space and protection for just 35 oz (1005 g), which is why the X-Mid 2 has become one of the most popular tents on demanding trails and one of the most highly awarded tents in recent years including top awards from BackpackingLight, The Trek, and Section Hiker.

STORMWORTHY

Most ultralight tents achieve their low weights by shrinking the size and trading durability and stormworthiness for weight savings. In contrast, the X-Mid 2 saves weight through efficient design including a trekking pole structure that eliminates tent poles while being stronger, and a geometry that maximizes the volume possible from the fabric area. In doing so, the X-Mid 2 achieves its low weight while also being a robust shelter for tough conditions.

X-Mid 2's long list of protections include a doublewall design, full coverage fly (extends low to the ground to blocks drafts and splatter), fly first pitch (keeps the inner dry during setup in the rain), polyester fabric (doesn't sag and loosen like nylon), large adjustable vents, robust waterproof coatings, durable 20D fabrics, factory waterproofed seams, and protected doorways that keep rain out even when open. No other tent offers this full list.

In addition to this set of protections, the X-Mid shape is well suited for windy and snowy conditions because every panel is at a consistently moderate slope. Other tents have flatter roof panels that catch snow and flatter sidewalls that catch wind, while the X-Mid 2 puts every panel at a balanced 50-55 degrees to deliver strong all around performance.

USER FRIENDLY

In tough conditions you want a tent that just works, which is why obsessive attention to detail has gone into making the X-Mid 2 simple and intuitive.

That starts with the simple pitch that goes up quickly with only 4 required stakes. There are no mandatory guylines, odd angles, measurements, and complicated struts, which is a stark contrast to most trekking pole tents.

The ease of use continues when the tent is pitched with large doorways that are not blocked by trekking poles, roomy vestibules that are located beside the doors instead of blocking them, magnetic door toggles, handy pockets, and one handed operated zippers. Even the packed size of the tent has been carefully considered where it's short stuff sack can store horizontally in any pack.

Notably, the X-Mid 2 uses polyester fabric for the fly which doesn't sag and absorb water like nylon so your pitch stays tight and the tent stays light and dries quicker, with less time spent adjusting your pitch and drying your tent. Polyester was controversial when we launched the X-Mid with it in 2018 but our passionate advocacy for polyester has led to an industry wide switch with many other companies now following our lead.

The Trek

Best Thru-Hiking Tent

A laundry list of well-thought-out details makes these tents exceptional in rough weather...one version of the X-Mid or another should be near the top of your list.

Backpacking Light

Highly Recommended

"Exceptionally high quality. Field performance was outstanding. Overall, it has simply been a joy to use.”

Section Hiker

10 Best Backpacking Tents

"It's shape makes it extremely weather and storm-worthy. The all-mesh interior tent has offset peaks to maximize headroom"

iRunFar

Surpasses the Hype

"The Durston X-Mid 2 is one of the most hyped products in the ultralight backpacking world, and it lives up to, and maybe even surpasses, that hype.”

Adventure Alan

Top Pick

"A winning combination of low weight, a ton of livable area and great condensation control.”

SPACIOUS

The patented X-Mid geometry is the most space and weight efficient architecture possible for a trekking pole tent. It accomplishes this with an innovative double diagonal design that puts the floor on one diagonal while the ridgeline is on the opposite diagonal. In doing so, the two poles are set further apart to increase volume without requiring struts, yet remain setback from the edges to avoid a boxy shape that would be less stormworthy and require more fabric.

The result is a 'real' 2P tent that provides comfortable space for two occupants. That includes a generous 52" wide floor and a long 92" length that accommodates hikers up to 6'4". The diagonal ridgeline increases headroom and allows the two occupants to move further apart for greater personal space.

Additionally, the dual vestibules are generously sized and easily accommodate packs and other items without blocking the doorway or creating a long reach to close the fly doors.

QUALITY

A quality tent is one you can trust in tough weather. A high quality tent will hold up, and quality is important at Durston Gear. The X-Mid 2 is built at the most experienced premium tent factory in the world who have been building nothing but tents for nearly 70 years.

Here, we go beyond normal standards to specify premium components and robust construction methods including full double stitching, double folded edges, and generous bartacking. We know of no other tent that uses double stitching as extensively as we do.

This focus on quality gives the X-Mid 2 a higher cost of production than competing tents, yet the X-Mid 2 is priced affordably. This is possible because we sell directly to you with no retailer markup and only a slim markup ourselves.

Magnetic Toggles

Magnetic door toggles with pull tabs provide easy one handed-operation.

Large Doorways

Unlike most trekking pole tents, the doorways are large and not blocked by trekking poles. They also have a protected design to keep rain out even when open, and can be propped open with a stick or pole to create a 'porch'.

Full Coverage Fly

The fly extends low to the ground to block drafts and rain splatter, yet can be raised higher for more ventilation. Other tents cut away the bottom of the fly to save weight but it leaves you more exposed.

Stormworthy Shape

The X-Mid provides the ideal shape with consistent and moderate panel slopes. All the panels are an ideal 50 - 55 degrees which balance wind and snow shedding to provide excellent all around performance. Most tents are less consistent with a mix of shallower panels (worse for snow shedding) and steeper panels (worse for wind performance).

Ample Headroom

The X-Mid's offset poles provides a longer diagonal ridgeline that extends the headroom over more of the tent. There is ample clearance to transition from laying down to sitting up without hitting the tent, and room to sit up anywhere in the tent.

PATENTED GEOMETRY

The X-Mid shape has been developed from the first principles of geometry to be as weight efficient, simple, and functional as possible.

Our unique design has been successful in avoiding all the common pitfalls of trekking pole shelters such as a complicated pitch, mandatory guylines, poles blocking the doorways, and a lack of interior volume.

Read the story about how the X-Mid geometry was developed:

The X-Mid 2 is a well rounded ultralight tent that is spacious, simple, and stormworthy. It's the ideal tent for a wide range of conditions including a long thruhike on the Continental Divide Trail (where it is one of the most popular tents) to remote adventures in Alaska's Brooks Range or a circuit of Europe's Tour de Mont Blanc.

Customer Reviews

Based on 38 reviews
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B
B.B.
Fantastic Tent

I bought this tent last summer to hike across Isle Royale National Park with my fiance. We carried it 40+ miles on that trip and used it for three nights, including in some moderate rain. We also took it on a paddleboard to an island at Voyaguers, on a winter trip in the Shenandoahs, and to a few other places (including at least one heavier rain storm and two pretty windy nights). After about 15 nights in it, most with her and some with my brother, I can say that it is very comfortable and spacious. It easily fits two people with sleeping bags and pads. I'm 5'8" and, with my 5'3" fiance, we could also fit both of our packs inside the inner tent in the rain (with my 6'2" brother we only fit one pack and left the other in the vestibule, which was fine). We always stayed plenty dry and had good protection from the wind. The stuff in the vestibules stayed mostly dry so long as it was not right on the edge. The tent is easy and quick to pitch once you get the hang of it. It really is a fantastic tent and I can't say enough good things about it.

A
Alex Root
Storm worthy in 40 mph / 64 kmh gusts

I bought the v2 in January 2024 and have been on 8 two-day coastal backpacking trips. I use snow/sand stakes from REI for the corners. Last night the tent handled 40 mph wind gusts and rain with no issues. I really appreciate the light weight and small pack size as I am also carrying scientific gear.

PROS
- vents work great for reducing condensation.
- easy to pitch
- fly first pitch really helps in strong rain
- large vestibules
- fly can be pitched right to the ground in storms or cold drafty conditions
- gray green color blends in with nature
- the tent's design with offset triangles is beautiful to look at
- short and wide stuff sack is easy to wedge in around other items in the pack
- included mini v stakes work fine for good terrain
- excellent value

CONS
- hard at first to visualize the sleeping space where the tent inner goes -- it's a parallelogram. Dan explains it in the pitching video but he's also great at geometry!

C
Chris Mills
writing titles is the hardest part of a review

Everyone is comparing Durston tents, the new hot tent company, to $600+ tents. I’m going to compare the Durston X-Mid 2 to cheap tents, specifically the Lanshan 2 and the dark-green Bisinna.

TYPE:
Durston uses trekking poles, Lanshan uses trekking poles, and Bisinna is freestanding.

COST:
Durston $280, Lanshan $116, Bisinna $78.
Bisinna doesn’t use specific model names, which is irritating. I’m talking about their dark green tent.

WEIGHT:
Durston 39.8 oz, Lanshan 42.3 oz, Bisinna 65.1 oz
1) My two trekking poles weigh 21 ounces total (the two Bisinna poles weigh 16.5 oz total), so when I use trekking poles, I’m basically transporting the same weight as a freestanding tent. Durston also sells tent poles for $35 each that weigh 3.3 ounces each.

INTERIOR DIMENSIONS:
Durston 43”H, 50”W, 83”L
Lanshan 44”H, 44”W, 84”L
Bisinna 41”H, 52”W, 80”L
1) Durston lists their interior length as 92” long, but it’s a parallelogram, not a rectangle, so you aren’t fitting a 92” pad in there.
2) The Lanshan is only 44” wide, which is a dealbreaker, as there’s no way that’s enough room for two people.
3) Freestanding tents have more headroom because the walls of the tent curve outward with the poles instead of in a straight line (and are typically sagging inward with a trekking pole tent). This is a notable issue with the Durston, which has offsetting poles, so you have a steep wall and a low-sloping wall on each opposite corner, which means someone will have the tent wall much closer to their face. But I found that if I use the support guylines to be staked parallel to the vestibule side of the tent (rather than in a straight line with the trekking poles, as Durston suggests), then it helps to pull the low walls higher.

EXTERIOR DIMENSIONS:
Durston 110”x93” with no guylines, 152”x93” with guylines
Lanshan 140”x114” with no guylines, 140”x133” with guylines
Bisinna 57” x 85” with no vestibules, 105”x85” with vestibules

STAKES:
Durston's are good,
Lanshan's are bad, because the notch isnt big enough for the tent strap, Bisinna's are bad, becuase they bend easily.
1) Durston's replacement stakes are advertised as 6” & 8” long, at 7 grams and 16 grams, which is impossible for a stake to be identical except 25% shorter and yet be over 50% lighter.

FLY MATERIAL:
Durston is silpoly, Lanshan is silnylon, Bisinna is silnylon.
1) Silnylon is supposed to sag more when wet. I would agree, as I have to retighten the Lanshan periodically, which can also make it more susceptible to collapsing.
The Durston does need adjusting occasionally because one of the tent strings can come loose. This was a problem with the earlier model of the tent, and I guess I got an old clasp. Once I’ve adjusted it, it seems to stay in place. This has nothing to do with the material, but the clasp.
2) Durston’s FAQ webpage says that silnylon will absorb more weight when wet than silpoly:
“Nylon absorbs water in rainy conditions. That results in 3 big problems: First, it expands (or “sags”) about 4% which makes for a saggy tent. Second, nylon’s water absorption makes the tent slow to dry and heavy with up to a pound of water in the fabric, and third, nylon weakens by about 10% when wet. Polyester doesn’t sag, dries faster, remains strong when wet, and doesn't gain as much water weight.”
I erected all three tents before a windy, rainy night, and 0.85 inches of rain fell on the tents, and I weighed them the next morning after putting them back in their sacks. I didn’t wipe anything down beforehand; I just acted like I was anxious to get back on the trail.
The Durston weighed 20.15 ounces more.
The Lanshan weighed 22.8 ounces more. One of the poles fell in the middle of the night, so there were a few puddles on the floor.
The Bisinna weighed 12.1 ounces more.
So not only does silpoly gain water weight, but it’s well over a pound, and doesn’t have any significant water-weight advantage over silnylon.

WATERPROOFNESS:
All three tents have been dry as a bone after major rainfall.

SETUP:
1) Durston doesn’t ship the fly attached to the tent, and it needs to be attached to go up. Durston has a great video on YouTube on how to set it up, although they leave out attaching the fly. If you ever make a how-to tutorial, then include every. single. step.
2) Since Durston’s poles are held up with the corner stakes, rather than with the vestibule stakes, it is more stable, as you aren’t jerking on the corners like you are the vestibule zipper to get in and out, not to mention your body possibly rubbing against the vestibule walls, loosening the vestibule stake.

Overall, this Durston is very nice, even for a cheapo like myself.

Thanks for putting this comparison together. Here's a few comments:

1) Our replacement stakes (that we also ship with the Pro tents) come in two sizes where the shorter size is both shorter and less wide. That is how it manages to be half the weight even though the length is only about 25% different.

2) For water weight, after it has been raining a tent can have water in two ways. There can be water ON the tent fabric and water IN the tent fabric. Water on the fabric can be shaken off, while water IN the fabric can not and makes it slower to try. For these polyester only helps with the water IN the fabric because nylon is hydrophilic (water absorbing) and poly isn't to nearly that extent. The X-Mid 2 is a fairly large/spacious tent so it can have a fair bit of water on the tent and only inside if there is condensation but that is water weight that can be mostly shaken off the tent and then it should dry fairly quick. A nylon tent may have similar water weight gain at first (especially if it is a smaller tent) but a larger portion of that won't be able to be shaken off so it'll still usually take longer to dry.

3) For the walls, I think you are pulling the seam tighter above the low corner (using the peak guyline) to increase headroom. That can help, but you should also be able to get this seam tighter by extending the pole a bit more firmly, so I think you could realize this added headroom on the lower side with a tighter pitch.

Glad you are liking the tent!
- Dan

B
Brent S
My favorite tent

I live on the Gulf Islands in BC, and we get a lot of rain in the winter. A couple of weeks ago, we were forecasted to get an atmospheric river lasting for a few days. I figured no better time to test out my gear for heavy rains. I camped for two nights - it rained for almost 48 hours straight, and the ground was completely saturated. By Saturday afternoon, there was a literal stream flowing under my X-mid tent. Normally I would have relocated, but I was close enough to home should everything go wrong, so I left it in place. The tent floor looked like a water bed. When I woke up Sunday morning, I was warm and dry. No water got in my tent. I expected some leakage but there was none other than some condensation from the cold direct contact with the stream under my tent. I don't normally write reviews, but after that experience, I figured I have to. I absolutely love this tent. I have a number to choose from, yet I always seem to grab the X-mid 2 when I'm packing my gear. I've had it in all sorts of weather now and it is bomber. I can't wait to check out the upcoming X-dome. 🤙

Awesome. Glad you had a good experience with the tent. I lived nearby on Vancouver Island for several years so I know how wet things can be and making a tent that works well in tough conditions like this is really important to me.

Y
Ybok
Pole setup on the X-Mid 2P

Love this tent Dan!
One little gripe - I just don't like putting the handles of my trekking poles on the ground side (instead of the tip). Was out camping and had a little critter eat away at me handles. Any thought about changing this part of the design in the future - where the tips go in the ground (with handle on top)? You have incorporated that design aspect on other versions of your tent. And any suggestions about preventing the critter issue with the existing tent? I apologize if you have already addressed this issue. Thank you so much.

Glad you're liking the tent! Our Pro tents have a pocket at the top for the pole handle because the inner wall already connects there, so it creates a natural pocket. Whereas our doublewall tents don't have that natural pocket so we use a grommet for the tip since it's a simpler/lighter solution. But if you want to pitch handles up you can do that. The tent will be okay just doing this normally. In high winds the poles may slide around though, so you can tie a loop of cord inside the peaks to anchor them or there are pole handle adapters from tarptent that do a better job of anchoring the handles:
https://www.tarptent.com/product/trekking-pole-handle-adapter/

PITCHING GUIDE

Get started with our comprehensive X-Mid pitching guide.