January 18, 2012
Gearheads: The Right Tent
What better activity for the dull days of January than going over and over our gear, and making repeated trips to Mountain Equipment Coop (MEC) to return that 20 liter bag or whatever in order to buy the more efficient 18 liter one. You get the idea.
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On the one hand, since we already did 7600 km last summer with our existing gear, you would figure it is well enough designed and should be able to do another 7600 km on the next trip. Well, if you think that you are not a gearhead. A gearhead knows that every piece can be improved, forever.
Take tents. Here is last year's tent:
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It cost $70 and it "worked". Only thing, the fly did not cover the whole tent and the exposed seam at the floor leaked. We tried to seal the seam, but the seam sealer failed. We fixed that with the help of Art Birkmeyer in Longview. After that, the tent leaked less, but with enough rain there was still a small brook flowing across the floor.
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So this year we were after something more secure. A few hundred dollars more than our original $70 and we should be dry, warm, or cool, as needed. Right? Well almost.
Hearing the we were looking for a new tent, several friends and relations recommended the MSR Hubba Hubba. It was sturdy, well ventilated, and super fast to put up, they said. We like to store gear with us in the tent, so the Hubba Hubba was a bit small. But then there is the "3 person" Mutha Hubba. We bought it at REI, paying $400 for the tent and $50 for the footprint. At least, picking it up in Oregon, there was no tax. But with $450 you can put a lot of quarters in a coin dryer too!
The "hubba" part of the MSR tents refers to the fact that the sectional poles emanate from a central hub. Once the shock corded sections are snapped together, the whole frame has been created. There are no loose poles to slot into footings and later bind together with other poles. In principle, a hub system tent can be erected lots faster than anything else. Our friends raved about this feature, and they were (mostly) right.
The MSR hub tents actually have two loose poles floating around, outside the hub system. It's a bit of a bug, but in addition there is not one but two hubs - one at each end of the tent, with one integral pole joining the two hub systems. The two hubs, joining segments, and other sectional poles add up to a real spaghetti handful of poles, shock cord, and hubs. In our bedroom test lab it was hard to keep all these unruly parts under control.
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The fly, it must be said, does offer full coverage. So in principle once erected the tent should be dry. That is the requirement that brought us here in the first place.
Ah, but back to the hubs. We discovered the Black Diamond Vista. One hub, no extra poles, went up like a flash - like really fast! Full fly, good quality overall. $369 at MEC and we`re done? Oops. The fellow who wrote a review on the MEC site about the Black Diamond Vista was right: the vestibule design is awkward, could let water in when you exit. We realized that any vestibule that relies on just pegging one side and then closing the vestibule up with a zipper is going to be awkward. For example, the Sierra Designs Zolo 3 features a fast one hub frame but is also a problem with the one peg point vestibule. Hmmm.
But we bought the Black Diamond Vista anyway. Now it's back to Portland to return the MSR!
Hold on, MEC also has the "Volt" model. Quite similar to the Vista but looks like a better vestibule design. It's not in stock yet. We will have to sleaze around the MEC website (www.mec.ca) and make another mid winter trip to MEC to visit the tent when it comes in. If the Volt is superior, we will return the Vista (and the Mutha Hubba)! Gearheads love this kind of thing, I guess!
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