Group Backpacking in Philmont Review of Xmid and Xdome
Hi all,
I just got back from a multi-day backpacking trek in New Mexico at the Scout camp known as Philmont. It's a 10-night backpacking trip for scouts (and adults), and for this trek I got myself a Durston X-Mid 2 and my daughter an X-Dome 2. Philmont is not a "lightweight" backpacking experience since we went with a group of 11. My base weight was 26 lbs, 6 of it being "required clothing," and that includes a 6 lb backpack. I would classify my style as lightweight so I can bring more stuff and be comfortable. Team stool.
Being on a multi-person trek put me in a place where I could evaluate how different tents of similar cost fared in the same conditions. Other people had Nemo tents and REI Half Dome 2 tents. Luckily, no random Amazon-brand tents.
We are from Southern California, so "rain" is more of an abstract concept than something we experience. It rained on us for two days during our trek.
Weather:
Both tents, with their polyester flies, did significantly better in the rain than the others. All the rest had treated nylon flies. I did not really understand how good the "non-sag" feature was, but I now firmly wish all tents would use polyester for the fly. All of the other tents, after an hour or two, needed their flies tightened and lots of micro-adjustments to keep water from reaching the inner tents. Not all in my group were bone dry the next mornings. It was not super windy on our trek, but both tents did well in the random gusts we had.
I really want to thank Dan for his great setup videos. I used a lot of what I learned there, especially regarding tensioning, to help get our other non-Durston tents set up better for rain protection too.
Both the X-Mid and X-Dome do great in the rain and I would have it be a highlighted feature.
My 135lb daughter really liked the 3 lb X-Dome 2, as her tentmate weighed 90 lbs (Endurance runner build) so we had to keep her weight down. Even being sloppy with setup, they did better than the "perfect pitches" I saw with the other nylon based dome tents.
Setup/Takedown:
All of the scouts were jealous of the X-Dome 2 setup. Clip in the fly, insert the poles, stake it down, and done. My daughter's tent was first up and down in pretty much every scenario.
A funny story: they lost their stakes for 30 minutes and decided they could just throw their bags in the tent to hold it down. With the inner tent being "floating," I had to have words with them about how it needs to be staked, not just weighted down with bags. They heard the Scoutmaster voice of, "It's a $500 tent. It better be staked down." (It's not the first tent they've lost in the wind)
The X-Mid 2 setup was less annoying than anticipated. I have used it before and was sure to get everything reasonably square for staking. Not the fastest setup in the group, but the fastest takedown.
Philmont, in general, is not known for flat tent sites, and I was usually one of the last to select my spot. I still got good pitches even on uneven ground. This was much less of an issue than I thought it would be. I really liked having four 9-inch stakes for the corners and 7-inch stakes everywhere else.
Durability:
The X-Dome 2 was great. I purchased it with the groundsheet, and the scouts put no holes in it.
My X-Mid, ended up with two 6-inch holes in the floor. I think I knelt/stepped on a rock or something, but I'm not sure how it happened. I taped it up with gear tape and it's fine. It's a source of pride now.
For Philmont people reading this, I would recommend a groundsheet as you are forced to set up your tent in non-ideal conditions, which I often was due to the nature of the trek. I normally do not use groundsheets with my tents and have not had issues before.
Packability:
I made a new tent bag for my daughter's X-Dome 2 that was a lot larger, making it easy to stuff the tent in with the stakes. I modeled the size after a Half Dome 2 tent bag. I used her original X-Dome 2 bag for my X-Mid 2, which turned out to be a great size for fast packup.
My backpack is very large, so I don't care much about things being small. I really liked the larger tent bag size for my X-Mid. Most of us carried our tents externally because we needed space inside our packs for crew gear that is not normally required on a trek.
Overall I am super happy with the performance of both. I would not get the xmid 2 for my teenager they dont have the patience to be fiddly with staking pole eight etc.
Thanks for making a good product at a reasonable price point.