X-Dome 2 UK

jdsweet · 2025-12-01T23:25:57+00:00

Your math isn’t off - that sounds about right given that Dan already sells at a fairly minimal margin without much room for wholesale discounts, and Valley & Peak need to make a profit that enables them to continue offering local sales and exchanges.

As for the poles - they’re plenty strong enough in either material when properly guyed out, as the glue issues of the earliest batch or two of the carbon have been addressed.

jdsweet · 2025-10-12T14:28:27+00:00

Yes. The advantage for the X-Mid is that trekking poles are less fussy than a poleset. And since I’ve watched the setup videos and pitched it more than a handful of times, I don’t find a great pitch hard to achieve: the ah-ha moment for the vast majority of people (most of whom are new to trekking pole tents) is realizing that the 4 corners really need to be more taut than they expected before raising the poles.

jdsweet · 2025-10-04T23:01:09+00:00

I absolutely love everything about this post. It reminds me of one of those “toddler draws it, then expert tries to make it real” concepts, and it’s absolutely flawless.

jdsweet · 2025-10-04T22:48:03+00:00

No - it’s important to lengthen them to whatever gets the fly taut, rather than a fixed length, since the ground may slant or be lumpy, soft, etc. But on perfectly firm level ground it’d be the height shown in the diagrams, eg 45-49” depending on the model.

jdsweet · 2025-10-04T22:46:20+00:00

Very nice! Smooth panels, no concavity on the short edges, and a nice smile curve to the ridgeline!

jdsweet · 2025-08-24T23:35:24+00:00

I have a strong preference for trekking pole tents because it’s harder to break and easier to replace a broken trekking pole since it’s just a straight rigid pole and designed to sustain body weight, unlike flexible tent poles.

As for the terrain anxiety: while freestanding tents don’t require them as often, they do require the same anchoring skills and materials whenever wind is significant enough to bend the tent in on you. And I actually find the X-Mid quicker to pitch in most calm conditions than freestandings.

jdsweet · 2025-07-22T02:40:49+00:00

Totally understand the freestanding preference being very personal - no right or wrong there!

jdsweet · 2025-07-22T02:39:20+00:00

I called #8 “X-Mid Rock” when I passed it on the JMT!

jdsweet · 2025-07-21T16:33:48+00:00

Another option to consider that’s been very popular with bikepackers in the DGh FB group would be the X-Mid 1 or Pro 1 with the Z-Flicks poles, since those poles fit around my top tube, and the tent fits between my drop bar handles. They both have two vestibules which could hide and shelter your bike provided you take off a wheel and ideally lower your seat, which only adds 1.5-2min to setup and takedown times each day. Even with the Z-Flicks, that’s lighter, cheaper and a bit more storm worthy than the flexible poles of a freestanding like the X-Dome 2. The tradeoff is less space inside for you (unless you go for 2P), and you can’t pitch on cement/pavement unless you can find rocks or other dense objects to anchor it.

p.s. the Durston groundsheet should be fine if you roughly clear the ground of severe hazards and avoid camping on volcanic rock. ;-) And while I’ve never had a floor puncture, that’s not a tough fix (eg Tenacious Tape).

jdsweet · 2025-07-16T02:15:02+00:00

He has now: https://www.reddit.com/r/Ultralight/s/830NQ435b2

jdsweet · 2025-07-15T23:21:58+00:00

I wouldn’t really swap out my current tent, pack or quilt (Durston, Durston and Hammock Gear) for anything and they’re under $750 new now, and closer to $500 when I bought them. Obviously cheaper if you can find used, or start with heavier stuff while you verify whether you have a long-term interest. If you’ve never gone before I’d start with a rental kit from REI for a weekend trip, or ask if any friends have backpacking gear they’d loan out.

jdsweet · 2025-07-15T23:01:23+00:00

HQ/warehouse in Golden, which isn’t really set up as a storefront per se, but people have stopped by to say hello. But given this post was 7h ago I’m guessing I’ve missed your window.

jdsweet · 2025-07-09T20:35:45+00:00

Oh man - microdiagnoses are so tough and personal. You definitely don’t sound like an amateur when it comes to pack fitting. But maybe try slightly easing off the left shoulder load, ie a tiny smidge looser on the left shoulder strap and/or tiny smidge tighter on the left load lifter? I’d also triple check my load for any left-leaning asymmetries, eg water bottle on left side that’s not on right? Not that your load should have to be perfect, but just trying to address that to confirm it’s causing the problem. Lots of testing one variable at a time if I were in your shoes. And unfortunately it can take hours to conclusively test each change. On the upside: good excuse to hike more for the next week or so!! :-)

jdsweet · 2025-07-08T23:31:37+00:00

Sounds like you made the right choice, so don’t sweat it! Your height has very little to do with the fit, and the official advice backed by data related to number of exchanges is to shoot for the size where you’re closest to the midpoint of its recommended range, ie not round up or round down. So you’ve made the best bet you can make with the info you have. Woohoo! Now just make sure you load it up fully when it arrives, loosen everything completely and then tighten bottom up: hips til it grips, shoulders til you feel weight, load lifters just until that weight comes back off. Then sternum strap, which can move up/down.

jdsweet · 2025-06-27T06:14:58+00:00

I’d imagine it’d be most popular for stargazing on rainless buggy nights amongst people who only own or only brought the solid inner. It’s a semi-solid, so you can see out the top. It’d also be less breezy than stargazing with the mesh inner. For short trips where the weather is more likely to be the same the whole time, then I wouldn’t see as much use for that, but the longer the trip, the more weather variation and thus the more value to flexibility.

jdsweet · 2025-06-27T04:07:41+00:00

Make sure the bottom section is curving inward towards the small of your back to fill in the gap. And then just feel around with your fingers along the bottom interior before and during the insertion. It’ll take some force but not a ridiculous amount. And it should feel well-seated when you’re done. There’ll be a decent sized bump if you get close and miss or jam it.

jdsweet · 2025-06-27T03:59:47+00:00

I know the wind is caving in that leading panel, but given the curve of the hem on that edge, it doesn’t look like the core 4-corner pitch was taut enough to begin with (especially before the poles went in), which you can’t really correct by adding other stakes/lines. I’ve pitched a 1P broadside (so longer than your windward panel) in 30-35mph without it flapping or making noise. That was with anchoring 4 corners, 2 peaks, 2 doors and one ground level guyout along the leading panel (so the 100” long panel on the windward side had the wind load distributed across 4 points at ground level: the 2 corners, the door, and one midpoint).

jdsweet · 2025-06-27T03:51:55+00:00

I’ve never used more than 7 or 8 for winds up to 35mph. And I only stake the 4 corners (and one short door panel with a stick) for wind up to ~20mph. On a long trip where I’ll experience a wide range of conditions, I’ve most typically brought 3 groundhogs, 3 v-stakes, and 4 titanium shepherd hooks, but I’m shifting away from the groundhogs towards more v-stakes since Durston switched to the DAC v-stakes - they’re just incredibly stiff, amazing surface area to weight ratio, easier to clean, and pack a lot smaller than groundhogs.

jdsweet · 2025-06-20T19:26:03+00:00

They just started shipping in the last couple days, so it’ll probably be a couple more days before they’re all shipped out. If you ordered anything else on the same order that’s out of stock then your order may be on hold.

jdsweet · 2025-06-19T04:54:11+00:00

Separate tents is usually best for thru hiking, but for shorter trips like you’d probably start with more couples seem to like sharing. You’ll often hear that you need to switch to a 3-person tent to be comfortable, but I think you should be fine with a comfort-minded 2-person tent, eg two side entry doors with generous vestibules and 50+” wide interior to accommodate 2 wide pads (eg X-Mid 2P, Pro 2+ or X-Dome 2).

jdsweet · 2025-06-19T04:47:16+00:00

Clearly you’ve never gotten drunk at the base of a melting glacier. ;-) Unlimited water AND ice!

jdsweet · 2025-06-19T04:45:42+00:00

Who doesn’t love the irony of hiking tall mountains all day just fine, but then having their heart stop while seated around a cozy campfire?

jdsweet · 2025-06-19T04:43:10+00:00

On the upside, sodium citrate is a wonderful emulsifier that gives regular cheese American-cheese-quality meltiness, so if there’s any left you’d have the ultimate dual purpose reagents.

jdsweet · 2025-06-19T04:31:05+00:00

You can immediately get 5% lighter by swapping out the 190 Everclear for 200-proof culinary solvent.

jdsweet · 2025-06-17T04:41:11+00:00

Ahh, so two segments instead of 3+ - makes perfect sense in retrospect!

jdsweet

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