X-Mids - “The” Tent Is Out There
Since returning to hiking a few years ago and learning about lightweight/ultralight, I kept on researching for the ultimate tent, “The Tent”, if you will, hoping it would be out there. Having hiked the Te Paki trail lugging a round 3.5kg Marmot Limelight, I knew I needed a lighter tent (or two). My requirement were as light as possible, and wide enough for two wide mats, as I’m a big bloke and a side/stomach sleeper, so that led me to look at Zpacks, Big Agnes, Tarptent & Trekkertent.
Zpacks Duplex wasn’t wide enough and the Triplex looked fiddly. What put me off was the rainbow inner doors because it gets trampled and dirty and overlapping outer doors rather than a zipper. Duplex is probably one of the most popular UL tents in the USA, where it probably works well in the southern parts. The UK requires more wind and rain resistant tent, with great ventilation to minimise condensation.
Big Agnes Copper Spur and Tiger Walls are also popular with US hikers. 2 person Copper Spur is too narrow for my requirements, so the choice would be 3 person version, at a weight of 1.8kg. It’s half the weight of my old Marmot, and it’s a freestanding tent, which makes the relocation of the tent easy if the site is a bit bumpy. The drawbacks are the extra weight of the poles (compared to trekking pole tents) and inner first set up (which would get the inner wet in the rain). There are lighter versions of Copper Spur, but the materials used get a bit fragile for my liking, especially since the price goes up.
Tarptent Stratospire is a stormworthy tent and comes with the optional solid inner, so it’s a proper contender for UK use. Strat 2 is just wide enough for 2 wide mats (at 132cm), and I probably would’ve gone for that had not the Durston gear X-mid come along at a much lower price.
Trekkertent allowed a lots of customisation options, but also required the customer to know exactly what they want. The delivery times are also very long, we’re talking months at the time of the writing.
One day I happened to be browsing Massdrop.com (now renamed as Drop), a popular crowdsourcing platform for hiking gear as well as knives, electronics and other things. I came across Durston x Drop X-mid 1p in 2019 and at $205 I felt it was a bargain. I got my original Drop X-mid 1p on November 12th, 2019. If you want to know about the Dan and how X-mid came to be, check out this podcast.
Four months later the X-mid 2p was announced. I looked at the specs. While X-mid 1p was just about big enough for my, the 2p would offer twice the space for a minor weight penalty of 200g, so I put in an order for the 2p at $290. I sold my X-mid 1p for £200 which almost covered my 2p purchase (better exchange rates back then), so I was able to upgrade with minor cost. X-mid 2p arrived in March 2020. Unfortunately it was the time of the lockdowns, so the tent got very little use. We had moved to Cornwall a month earlier and were doing lots of walks on the SWCP, but overnighters were out of the question at the time.
Pandemic continued and lockdowns came and went. In the meanwhile Dan Durston had improved the X-mids and brought out the generation two, called V2. A bit later, he also designed the first DCF X-mid, X-mid 2p Pro and X-mid 1p & 2p Solids, more robust version of the V2 with darker colour (Alpine Sage) and solid inners. The 2p Pro was narrower than the regular 2p at 122cm (vs 140cm), which would make it an ultralight and super comfy 1p tent. The 2p Solid was also a better option for UK, so I put in orders for both a few months apart, but they ended up arriving quite close to each other.
The 2p Solid arrived, I sold of my original Drop (V1) 2p and made some upgrades which are presented on this video.
Since then I’ve taken the 2p Solid out and will do some changes to the upgrades. I’ll make another video or post about it.
Since the initial video, I’ve also taken the Pro out and will make some changes to the upgrades. I’ll make a video or post about it too.
I’m considering ordering the Durston Groundsheets for both. I have the original groundsheet for 2p and while it works for the 2p Solid, it has a bit different geometry, so it’ll fit a bit better and the new groundsheet is also lighter. 2p Pro has a thinner floor than the 2p Solid, and while it should be fine, I think a groundsheet will add another layer of insulation / protection, as wet grass feels very cold through the thin floor material. 2p Pro groundsheet is only 140g and clips on the corners nicely.
Recommended upgrades
Replace the guylines from the standard to Durston Ironwire or the like. I had the corner line snap on my original just as the tent was setup in the garden. Adding extra length on the corners will allow more flexibility for staking options, including big rock, little rock method.
Add Apex guylines. This is the best thing you can do after replacing the corner lines. It will improve the storm / wind-worthiness.
Upgrade the door guylines from shock cord. The shock cord is more flexible (pun intended) in use, but non-stretch guy line will keep the tent’s geometry better in high winds. I believe the next batch onwards the door guylines have a non-stretch guys, or as addition to the shock cord.
I use Tarptent handle adapters on my 2p Solid to avoid having to pitch pole tip up. It’s couple of minutes extra work, has couple of benefits:
No dirty pole handles
The tip end will anchor to the ground
Less risk of puncturing the fly