My first Durston tent arrived in 2023, but how did I get here?

None of my other tents I had, were really usable any more. They were either too big or the material has gone bad or in the case of my Nemo Hornet, just disillusioned. I was looking for a new tent and I was reading up a lot about tent materials and designs.

One day somehow I stumbled on this YT video and it was an interview with q certain Dan Durston 🙂 talking about materials and I was fascinated.
When I looked at the tents themselves - only X-mid at the time - I was struck by the design and how optimal the floorspace was. That combined with the use of either dyneema or sil-polyester, and the weight; for me it was a done deal. I did compare to a lot of other competitors in the field and nothing had that wow factor.

Today we own two Durston tents - an X-Mid and an X-Dome. IN both cases we have the solid inner and the fly is sil-polyester. Really glad to have chosen sil-polyester over dyneema, although heavier, just seems to be better in many other aspects than dyneema.

The short of this story is not that we bought Dan's tents because of hype, but because they are innovative and well engineered.

I like the X-Mid for its simplicity in pitching and it is the goto for tougher mountain trails. I like the X-Dome for its space.

#whatsinyourpack #tents #hiking #durston #durstongear #wanderlust

I currently have a rather narrow single-person tent (Nordisk Svalbard 1 SI, original version). It weighs 1.8 kg which is far from ideal. But it does not take a lot of space when pitched. Also the fact that you have to pitch the inner tent first, unlike the current 2.0 version, is not ideal, in case of rain.

Mainly because of the weight, I have been pondering getting a clearly lighter tent. I have been looking at the #Durston X-Mid 2, which is 0.88 kg, or even the Durston X-Mid Pro 2, which is just 0.56 kg (but much more expensive). These are two-person tents so there would be ample room inside for me and my stuff (I usually hike and camp solo).

But. When I consider what kinds of places I have pitched my current tent, many of them have been rather tight fits. (Not the one in the pic below, true.) The Durston X-Mid naturally requires much more space, 2.5 m wide compared to less than 1.5 m for my current tent.

Also, even though the X-Mid Pro is gloriously light-weight because it is made of #Dyneema, that fabric is a rather ugly grey non-colour. (It is also fairly translucent, which as such shouldn't matter much when wild camping, but might be awkward if using a camping site with other people close by.) There are no colour alternatives.

Or should I just stick to my current tent... One kg more or less...

Tips and thoughts welcome...

#camping #backpacking #hiking

First pitch of my #Durston x-dome.

As always, feel free to scroll on by, but likes and subs are always appreciated!

#backpacking
#hiking
#pnw
#ultralight

https://youtu.be/t3wHUZ3gbCw

The Durston X-Dome 1+ has finally available as from today. As a 1p tent it seems to have ample enough space for one person & a dog.

The poles on the outside makes a lot of sense to me.

As a happy owner of a X-Mid 2P., I'll hang though to see what the X-Dome 2P will look like when it is released.

https://durstongear.com/products/x-dome-1-plus-ultralight-backpacking-tent

#durston #tents #hiking

Day 3 of our Mnweni trip and after our previous long day, we started off at 09:30.

We made a point of visiting the tops of a number of passes, summit caves and taking in the magnificent views. The tops of Fangs & Madonna passes were spectacular. We had a lovely lunch next to a small river in Lesotho.

After lunch the clouds rolled in as we were walking, the wind picked up and then we were pelted with hail. The leader made call that we should make camp. We descended next to stream bed, but the cloud caught us. We pitched the fly of the Durston X-Mid in 2min and then all 4 of us hid inside with our backpacks until the rain passed.

We found a nice spot to camp a bit further down the stream. The 2nd bout of rain came past after we setup and we hung out in one tent eating biscuits and drinking Merlot from Namaqualand.

#Drakensberg #southafrica #mnweni #hiking #durston