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Turbotortoise2
1
Sep 18, 2018
Hi Dan. That's a very impressive looking tent! I think it addresses all the issues I have with other solo tents, except... (and I may have missed it in this discussion)... With arthritis in one hand, I can only use one trekking pole now. And over the years, I have had several poles fail in various ways. As I regularly do multi-day walks above the tree line, I don't want to rely on even one of them for my shelter, so would rather carry designated tent poles, despite the extra weight. Any chance you might make them an option sometime? Also, in your reply to Matty1 you said, "The X-Mid also doesn't really well in high winds because it's a stable design and then you have peak guyouts if the wind is really blowing so you can really secure it down." In the context, I'm sure you meant "does" not "doesn't" really well in high winds. Yep? What kind of wind speed would you expect might be ok? Thanks.
Turbotortoise2Hi TT2,
Quite a few other companies offer poles that are designed to be used in place of trekking poles in a shelter. The most popular option seems to be the 450 poles from Ruta Locura: http://www.rutalocura.com/tent_pole_450.html
Depending the evenness of the ground and how you pitch it, the X-Mid normally needs 46-47" long poles. So you can get adjustable poles from Ruta Locura that have 8" of adjustability. You can order the 42" pole plus the 8" adjuster and it will adjust from 42" to 50". Or you can get a non-adjustable pole. In that case, I'd get a 47" or 48" long pole and then just use it at a slight angle if the tent is taut at 46". Or just pick up some cheap Costco carbon hiking poles and carry those as tent poles for a bit more weight but $30 cost.
Regarding wind resistance - yeah that was supposed to be "does", not "doesn't". I just edited that post. Compared to a single pole mid (e.g. MLD DuoMid) the X-Mid has slightly steeper walls but then the panels are also smaller and there are two peaks to spread the load, plus you have peak guylines to support the tent, which a single pole mid doesn't have. So I would say that it would do quite well in high winds - at least as well as a single pole mid which are highly regarded for this. For ideal performance, it would be best to position one of the small sides into the wind rather the long side. Also using the extra guyouts around the base will help because if you just have 4 stakes around the base then you might rip a stake out since it could be a lot of force on one stake.
A nice thing with the X-Mid is that it is easy to pitch in high winds because there isn't a vulnerable step to the process where the wind can blow it down (see my video if you haven't already). Many of the more complex trekking pole shelters are hard to pitch in high winds because there are vulnerable steps to the process.
As for actual wind speed, this is hard to say because I've never measured wind speeds in the field and I think folks are often inflate things a bit. Folks might think they survived 60 mph (100km/hr) winds but it was actually closer to half that speed. Even 40 mph winds feel pretty crazy in the backcountry, let alone 50 or 60mph. By 74 mph you're offficially at hurricane/cyclone wind speeds: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saffir–Simpson_scale
So it's hard to say. I wouldn't want to be out in 70 mph winds. 40 mph should be no problem. I'd probably start to get worried above 50 mph but I'd feel that way in any shelter. I've seen some videos of TarpTent's failing in 70 mph winds but surviving 60 mph. My guess is that it would probably be similar to that.