Durston tents

[264mag]

Does anyone have experience with these tents? Very well reviewed and seem to be well designed. Looks like a potential lightweight option for early mountain hunts.


https://durstongear.com/product/x-mid-1p (https://durstongear.com/product/x-mid-1p)

[RJHunter]

I haven't seen them before but they look very similar to the Tarptent Stratospire I used sheep hunting last season. It was a great tent and very light weight.

https://www.tarptent.com/product/stratospire-2/

[dandurston]

Feel free to ask away if you have any questions.

I have a video explaining the X-Mid 2P here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Al1jrkKrVYo

The X-Mid has some similarity to the TarpTent StratoSpire but it based around a simpler to pitch and more weight efficient rectangle shape. Instead of a hexagon shaped fly, it uses a rectangular fly with a unique diagonal floor to create vestibules inside that. That means a lot less guesswork during the pitch, fewer seams and no struts. I have an infographic comparing these two tents here:
https://imgur.com/ABEMoaB

In addition to being simpler to pitch, the X-Mid is substantially lighter (36 vs 42oz), packs up short without struts (can store horizontally), uses no-sag polyester fabric (which is especially important for a trekking pole tent where the canopy is part of the structure), factory seam taped, larger vents, doesn't absorb up to a pound of water weight in the rain, etc.

I design and test the tents here in BC and then we build them in the same premium factory as MSR and Mountain Hardwear tents.

[huntcoop]

Thanks Dan, how do they stand up to wind? The wind of August 2020 killed my tent and ruined our hunt....

[RJHunter]

Thanks Dan

That's good to know that you are based in BC, I missed looking at the about page. Where do we look for pricing and ordering?
I do like the simpler pitch for sure.

[dandurston]

Talking about wind is a tricky one because people's assessment of wind is often quite inaccurate. Wind can feel pretty intense so many people get out in 40km/hr wind and think they camped in 80km/hr. Or people check the wind forecast and see 100km/hr at the summit and then think the 40km/hr they got at their sheltered site in the forest was really 100km/hr. That leads to people thinking they need +100km/hr wind performance, which is actually pretty extreme. Ideally if the winds were anything like this, you'd seek out a sheltered site (although I know sheep hunters love to camp in the open alpine).

Wind performance depends quite a bit on how the tent is pitched and what you're expecting. Overall, it's not a 4-season tent but does quite well when pitched well. The tent can pitch with as few as 4 stakes but obviously for high winds you'll want to add a few more and make sure you're using good stakes. In windy conditions I add the optional peak guylines and up to 8 extra stakes around the base. Like this, the tent can be quite solid. There's lots of verified reports of it doing well in 40-60km/hr winds and some claims of it surviving 80-100km/hr but hard to say if the winds were really that intense. We've never had anyone damage one in high winds. Only things that have ever happened are people have broken guylines (we have now switched to thicker cord) and of course pulled stakes out, so good stakes and staking technique is important.

A nice thing is that the tent is wind stable throughout the pitch, so you're not battling against the wind to erect the structure. There's no step to the process where it would fall down without your support, as shown here:
https://youtu.be/Al1jrkKrVYo?t=152

The weakest link are the side panels, so it's ideal to have one of the ends or corners pointed into the wind. In high winds we've seen some people add mid-panel guyouts by tying to the door toggles. We haven't tested those for that, but it actually seems to work well.

[dandurston]

That's good to know that you are based in BC, I missed looking at the about page. Where do we look for pricing and ordering?
I design and test the tents here in Golden, BC and work with the factory to dial in the production. Once perfect tents are rolling off the production line, my work is done and things are turned over to my partner Drop.com so I can focus on the fun parts (design and testing) while they handle sales/marketing/warranty/customer service etc. The tents are co-branded as Drop + Durston. Drop sells them on their own site and on Amazon. The lowest cost for Canadians is Amazon.ca (https://amzn.to/3mhzhOe)

Pricing is $310 (1P) or $410 (2P), which is quite affordable because we only sell online so there's no retail markup. For comparison, the MSR Hubba Hubba is produced at the same factory for a roughly similar cost of production but sells for about $600 at MEC. That includes the 18% tariff on tents that Canada has, which applies to pretty much all brands. If you buy from outside Canada that'll commonly get charged upon import (in addition to sales tax), so for example a TarpTent StratoSpire 2 is $359 USD but with the 18% tariff it works out to $550 CAD + sales tax.

The largest collection of reviews is on Drop's website. They have about 150 reviews (2P) or 250 reviews (1P) that are not edited/filtered in any way (many brands cheat and remove bad reviews) and yet average 4.8 - 4.9 out of 5.
https://drop.com/buy/drop-x-mid-2-person-tent-designed-by-dan-durston/reviews#reviews

[RJHunter]

Do you have an option for a solid inner liner with minimal mesh?

[dandurston]

Not at the moment but working on developing that. Can't promise anything right now but hope to have that available in the fall.

[RJHunter]

Cool. FYI I used my Tarptent for a late September hunt last year and found there was a bit too much mesh in the solid inner. I wrote to them and suggested they add the ability to close the mesh right off if needed. Bit chilly some nights and hard to keep water from freezing.

your design looks great thanks for all the info!

thanks for the info!

[Treed]

Great looking tents. Thanks for taking the time to intro your gear. Speaks volumes about your approach.

[xfactor]

love that these are local! any plans for something like the kifaru sawtooth? in particular the ability to have a wood stove.

[Treed]

Hi Dan,

Do the tents on Amazon come with the 4 new tent pegs and updated cordage? I've been researching and reviewing comments on your tents and I'm sold! They look amazing.

[dandurston]

Yes the ones on Amazon are the latest version. My distributor (Drop) sell them on their own website (Drop.com) and on Amazon where both are normally the update to date version. We got everything switched over to the new pegs and wider cord a few months ago.

The X-Mid on Amazon.ca (https://amzn.to/3mhzhOe) is the lowest cost for Canadian's because that avoids a bill at your door for handling fees ($10) and tariffs (18%) on top of sales tax.

"any plans for something like the Kifaru Sawtooth? In particular the ability to have a wood stove?"
I've put a wood stove in the X-Mid 1P in conjunction with a one-off bathtub floor instead of the inner. You can see pictures of that here:
https://drop.com/buy/drop-dan-durston-x-mid-1p-tent/talk/2524199

I don't have any plans to offer that though because we have pretty high minimum orders at the factory (a few hundred tents) and currently I don't think there's enough interest to do a run like that....And I'm just super busy with other projects as I roll out more of a complete product line. Might be something I can do in a couple years. I'll keep it in mind.

[plumbcrazy]

I’d be very very interested as well if I could get a wood stove option. I’m sure there would be a lot more as well, anything to support a local guy!

[Treed]

Thanks for the answer Dan. Just ordered one! Cheers

[rageous]

Hey Dan, let us know when more 2P versions are available,

[dandurston]

There's more arriving this week. I expect they'll be back on Drop.com around the end of the week or early next week. But the best price for Canadian's is Amazon.ca as it saves about $50 via lower tariffs and handling fees. I expect my partner Drop will send more to Amazon.ca so we'll see them there in perhaps 3 weeks, but I'm not certain Drop is in charge of selling the tents and they're getting so much interest that they might just sell them through their own website as they would sell out there pretty fast.

You can click "request" on Drop.com to get a notice:
https://drop.com/buy/drop-x-mid-2-person-tent-designed-by-dan-durston

Or sign up to my notification list here:
https://durstongear.com/product/x-mid-2p

[Elkchaser]

Holy smokes. I put requests in on Dan’s site and on the Drop site where 2800 others have as well. Hoping to pick one up for 2021 sheep hunt but might be a challenge. Must be the same COVID phenomenon that had bike shops dealing with unprecedented sales and scrambling to find bikes to meet demand. Maybe for my later season alpine mule deer adventure? Dan - sent you a PM about possibly checking out your tent. I’ll be up your way in a few weeks.

[dandurston]

Those 2800 requests on Drop are partly from previous times, since Drop only resets it once in a while. 1700 were from the previous time it was sold out (a few months ago), and now it has added another 1100 in the past few weeks, plus another 500 or so on my site. So roughly 1600 people requesting to be notified over the past few weeks and growing by about 50 per day. Those interesting in getting an email notice when Drop opens orders can click "request" here:
https://drop.com/buy/drop-x-mid-2-person-tent-designed-by-dan-durston/

The next batch is arriving in a few days. I'm not sure of Drop's exact timing for opening orders but the ship with the tent landed at the port today so they should have the tents in the next few days. Next week looks likely for reopening orders. They only have 1000 of the X-Mid 2P in this upcoming batch, which will sell out pretty fast but not a panic. I think we'll sell a few hundred on the first day and sell out that 1000 over a few weeks or a month. So no panic there, but you don't want to miss this batch if you want one for summer 2021 because we won't have any more until fall (September). It certainly is a challenge to meet demand with how the popularity of these tents was already growing so fast and then covid increased interest.

[rageous]

Are they going to be back on Amazon for same price?

[Ride Red]

I’ve been on the list for a while but chose to buy a Mountain Hardware Aspect 3 to be ready for this years sheep hunt. I sure do like the simplicity of the Durston tents though. Gear is getting tough to find with this whole covid crap.

[dandurston]

Yeah gear is getting tough to find with covid. The lead times in the outdoor industry are huge right now (e.g. instead of 6 months for a factory built production run it can be 16 months).

Drop has a new batch of the X-Mid 1P and 2P that arrived with them recently. Selling those is their business, so I'm not sure of their exact plans but I expect to see them for sale any day now. Usually that is on Drop.com first and maybe Amazon a couple weeks later. But with only 1000 tents of each they might sell out too fast for them to send any to Amazon, so it's hard to say. Once these sell out, we won't have more until September.

[rageous]

Snooze ya loose I guess lol

[Treed]

Hi Dan, I ordered one in February via Amazon but it still hasn’t arrived. Does that mean I’m out of luck? That would really suck.

[RackStar]

Looks like the seek outside selix, you can run a small stove with that one

[dandurston]

"I ordered one in February via Amazon but it still hasn’t arrived"

Did you order the 1P from Amazon.ca? It should be there in a few days. What does your tracking info say?

EDIT: Oh perhaps this was a pre-order for the 2P. The 2P was out of stock then but perhaps was available on pre-order with I think a mid-March estimated date. That stock just arrived last week, so it is likely en route to Amazon Canada now who will ship it to you.

[dandurston]

Looks like the seek outside selix, you can run a small stove with that one
Yeah the Silex has similarities for sure. After the X-Mid came out, Seek Outside was familiar with it (they pre-ordered one) and then designed the Silex. IMO, it infringes on the patent for the X-Mid so I've asked them to stop, but they haven't responded. Would be nice if they respected my patent.

The X-Mid has a lot of advantages anyway though. You can run a stove with it too, it's no-sag polyester (vs nylon), it doesn't have poles blocking the doorways, much easier to close the doors because it's a not a super long reach, lighter, has vents to reduce condensation, higher build quality (e.g. fully double sewn, no raw fabric edges), more affordable, etc.

[Treed]

Amazon just cancelled my order too! Uggg. I ordered it Feb8th and it was scheduled for delivery March 16. And now it says the order is cancelled. So frustrating. Not your fault.


"I ordered one in February via Amazon but it still hasn’t arrived"

Did you order the 1P from Amazon.ca? It should be there in a few days. What does your tracking info say?

EDIT: Oh perhaps this was a pre-order for the 2P. The 2P was out of stock then but perhaps was available on pre-order with I think a mid-March estimated date. That stock just arrived last week, so it is likely en route to Amazon Canada now who will ship it to you.

[dandurston]

Sorry to hear that. I'm not sure why Amazon Canada kept taking orders for a few days after they sold out in late March. We are trying to get more stock to them (it's complicated) but they haven't requested any (which you think they would if they have orders to fill). I'm not sure how Amazon runs things, but hopefully it is back on there soon as an in stock item. Drop is hoping they request some soon so they can send some of their last 200 to them, but if they don't they'll probably sell it on Amazon USA. I think they are at least going to enable shipping to Canada from Amazon USA.

[Treed]

Drop is out too as far as I can see or I’d order through them. I’ll keep refreshing Amazon. If there is another way, let me know. Thanks so much Dan.

[dandurston]

Drop has decided to only sell them on Amazon now to simplify all the logistics/warehousing/shipping etc. The 1P is in stock now but the 2P is mostly sold out. They sold 800 of 1000 of the 2P last week and will release the final 200 soon (likely in a week or two). That'll probably sell out within a few hours, so best to be on the 2P notification list at the bottom of this page if you want a heads up:
https://durstongear.com/product/x-mid-2p

They're trying to get some 2P to Amazon Canada, but if not, hopefully enabling shipping to Canada from Amazon USA. Worst case scenario, you can use a re-shipping company like MyUS.com where you ship it free from Amazon USA to them, and then pay them to ship it up.

[Keta1969]

Drop has decided to only sell them on Amazon now to simplify all the logistics/warehousing/shipping etc. The 1P is in stock now but the 2P is mostly sold out. They sold 800 of 1000 of the 2P last week and will release the final 200 soon (likely in a week or two). That'll probably sell out within a few hours, so best to be on the 2P notification list at the bottom of this page if you want a heads up:
https://durstongear.com/product/x-mid-2p

They're trying to get some 2P to Amazon Canada, but if not, hopefully enabling shipping to Canada from Amazon USA. Worst case scenario, you can use a re-shipping company like MyUS.com where you ship it free from Amazon USA to them, and then pay them to ship it up.
Dan are you looking for a Canadian distributer? I'm on the list at Amazon but with the interest it seems like a Canadian Distributer would put more people in your tents, plus I'm supporting local and not Amazon. Probably a lot more to it than I understand.

[dandurston]

The tents were originally developed as a partnership between myself and an American company ("Drop") where I do the design and testing, and they handle sales/logistics/customer support etc. So for the time being they're the only ones who can sell it. They prefer to use Amazon for the warehousing/shipping part of things because it's faster and more efficient than running their own warehouse. They have them on Amazon USA (that does ship to Canada) and usually on Amazon Canada (the 1P is on there now). Amazon does make a few %, but most of the purchase is supporting myself and Drop.

In a few years when our agreement is up I'll probably sell them myself from here in BC. I'm dipping a toe into that now with some accessories on DurstonGear.com currently like groundsheets that are shipping from my home in Golden, BC. I'm planning some bigger stuff for 2022 and steadily taking on more from there.

[RackStar]

Cool tents. I’m in the market for a solo shelter. I will have to look into this one more. I’d prefer a larger tent for a stove anyways. Price seems good. I was not aware SO ripped off your idea.

[dapesche]

Just wanted to bump this up to see if anyone has purchased the 2p tent.

For me it'd be for August sheep hunts and Sept/Oct elk in the west koots.

[MattB]

I have an x-mid 2p solid from this summers production run. I used it one a short backpack trip in early september and it worked great in the windy alpine conditions. Really nice light tent!

[Treed]

I just ordered one. Took a long time and still have to wait until April to get it. From my research, I can find a better and lighter 2p tent. I’ll post a review up once I try it out.

[dapesche]

I'm in between the 2p solid and the pro 2.
The weight of the pro 2 is appealing, but there is the condensation.
The 2p is wider , heavier, but more durable.

Feels like I could go with the 2p solid and bring a down bag, vs. the having the lightweight pro 2 and maybe having to bring a heavier synthetic bag.

Any comments from the experienced sheep hunters on the amount of condensation you actually get during august sheep hunts? Is it that big of a concern for august hunts?