Durston - X-Mid 2+ Solid

towards the end in a larger group I was skinny pitching my 1p durston and both 2p tents in my group had 2 people in them just to fit in tent sites. honestly 2p solo tents in some of the sites on this trail felt like a selfish move. if you fit in a 1p, you aren't spending enough time in it to need extra space, save the weight. except the very very tall, solo 2p durston owners seemed to agree it was a little ridiculous to hog that kind of real estate. it was usually their first ul tent. 1p durston owners should all know how to skinny pitch. for one thing, it saves you when your door zippers start to go. in bad weather, 1p let me sneak off to a tiny wind protected ledge and have a peaceful night. 2p would have been stuck w the brunt of the wind up on the ridge spots established by fair weather weekenders....

2 person tents are only big enough for one person. 2 Pygmy's at best I like the Durston XMid. 2 person.

Unless you're all small a 2P tent will be too small. I'd recommend a 3P tent or a 2P tent that is really a 2+ like the X-Mid 2 which has space at the ends to fit a medium sized dog and has space for two wide mats. You could even go for a 4P tent like the TarpTent Hogback and still come out lighter (and more durable) than the Sierra Lite tent.

The X-mid is a sturdy tent. I've used my 1P for years, no issues. It's also very popular with folks newer to UL and lightweight backpacking.

As someone who has exclusively used X-Mids for years now (OG, Pro 1, Pro 2+) I'd recommend going with none of them. The Lunar Solo is going to provide you with enough space for your dog, and save you $400. I love my Pro 1 but it will not fit a dog comfortably, and the Pro 2 is too big for the PCT.

X-Mid 2 footprint is 7.67 feet/2.34m long and 52"/132cm wide. It can fit two wide large 25" x 77" rectangular pads. Please explain to me how this is only meant for dwarfs.

I've not heard a single report of anyone having a problem with *any* 15D floor treated appropriately.

X-Mid Pro 2 weighs 509g and Duplex weighs 507g according to their websites. I have an X-Mid Pro 2+, with my mods (clothesline, extended guy lines, mesh patches) it weighs 669 grams.

I'm late 50's backpacker. You want to go as light as possible. Your knees may be fine now, but maybe not in 3 years. I have problems with my knees, and hip, my lower weight really helps. You should consider weight for everything you buy. You don't need to go full ultralight (r/ultralight), but you should pay attention. The durston xmid is a very popular light tent (treking pole tent). They make a 1 person and a two person tent. Many hikers already carry poles, if not you should consider it. Many skip the footprint, it isn't needed. If you really want one, buy a piece of tivex from Amazon and cut it so that it is a little SMALLER than the floor of your tent. You can buy small pieces of tivex on Amazon for ~$20. Many hike the entirety of the PCT or AT without a footprint.

I've had a naturehike for years and love it. Just upgrade to a Durston 2 Mid X. It was a hard decision upgrading because the naturehike has just worked so well for so long.

I'm late 50's backpacker. You want to go as light as possible. Your knees may be fine now, but maybe not in 3 years. I have problems with my knees, and hip, my lower weight really helps. You should consider weight for everything you buy. You don't need to go full ultralight (r/ultralight), but you should pay attention. The durston xmid is a very popular light tent (treking pole tent). They make a 1 person and a two person tent. Many hikers already carry poles, if not you should consider it. Many skip the footprint, it isn't needed. If you really want one, buy a piece of tivex from Amazon and cut it so that it is a little SMALLER than the floor of your tent. You can buy small pieces of tivex on Amazon for ~$20. Many hike the entirety of the PCT or AT without a footprint.

I'm UK based and recently got an xmid directly from Durston. You can get a lot of the duty charges back too, which really keeps the cost down. EBay is also an option if you're open to second-hand. Gossamer Gear's 'the one' or 'the two' can be picked up on Ultralightoutdoorgear and are on sale. The One is £239 and 529g (albeit, you'd need to pick up some trekking poles or Durston a-flicks too, which would add a bit of cost/weight). Alternatively, if you really want v little spend, your best bang-for-buck might be a foam pad. An exped or Thermarest will cost £20-50, would have about the same r-value, but should be ~300g.

I have the Lanshan and the X-Mid. Both 2 Pro. Both are terrific tents. The Lanshan is perhaps the better value because of its low price. The X-Mid is the better performer because of its lighter weight and clever design. Both are fine 2 person tents with excellent materials and well performing layouts; although both are cramped for two people.

If you are Canadian and want to support a Canadian company buy a durston gear tent. Depending on your budget for two people I would go with the x mid 2 or the x mid 2+ pro. The floor on the 2+ pro allows for two wide pads. If you don't care about the Canadian aspect of it look at the tarptent stratospire models or the new mesospire models. Z packs also makes good light tents but I have always felt their two person tents are a little small for two people.

Thank you! Great points. The sagging fabric of the Lanshan is a bit annoying, especially when hiding out from the rain and I feel the tent becoming smaller and keep reorganizing my stuff so nothing touches the inner. Decided to go for the xmid 2! I'm keeping the Lanshan 1, nice to have an extra option.

For me the difference between the one entrance at the head end to two entrances (one on each side) would be the big selling point. I've hiked with a naturehike tent once, while sharing the tent. And found that one entrance to be a dealbreaker for me, while I've shared tents with two side entrances no problem as that allows you that little bit of freedom to comfortably exit without bothering the other person. Might be less important when it's your partner, but I know it really matters for me. So I would definitely think the upgrade to a xmid 2 is worth the price even if it's not that much weight (already significant enough with the v3 I'd say).

Durston X-Mid Edit: missed that you said freestanding. I haven't personally used the X-Dome but it's made by the same guy out of the same materials, so I'd assume similar quality. The X-Mid has worked really well for me on all types of terrain.

Durston Gear X-Mid all the way, baby!

I got a Xmid 2 for me and my medium size dog too. I also considered the lunar solo and was looking at the 1p Stratospire. I haven't had issues with the footprint being big, but that might just be luck/locality. I'm glad I got a double wall tent - the condensation from a panting dog+regular environmental concerns is intense even in a double wall. I do use it when I'm solo (and it's overkill), but have considered picking up a one person tent for the weight savings.

I have a Durston Xmid and love it - I also considered Six Moons Lunar Solo and Tarptent Stratospire and rainbow. They have some other tents in your budget too. Gossamer Gear has affordable single wall tents.

Look at the X-Mids. Superb value, superb tents.

"Camping gear" is so broad as to be almost meaningless.... I love camping, I've camped all my life, but it's impossible to reccomend anything with such a wide remit. My lightest backpacking tent (Xmid) weighs less than 700g and is fabulous for what it does. My heaviest 'tent' is our family folding camper (a Pennine Pathfinder) at 1000kg. That's also fabulous, but completely incomparable. Then there's a whole range of tents in between. The same applies to all my other camping gear, from pans and stoves to sleeping solutions and chairs... it's such a massive case of fitting the item to the purpose. And some certainly is BIFL worthy, while other stuff may compromise durability for lightness or some other priority. Tell us a little more about what you want to do? - car camping, backpacking, trailer camping - and in what terrain/environment and you might get something more useful.

The xmid 2 is pretty solid if you use all guy points. If you want something sturdier that you can take into the mountains, look at sling fin.

pioneer a 1.5 person tent, i found the helm 2 too tight for 2 and personally i think it is overrated, saggy inner and unless you are under 6 foot too short either side of the centre. I have a hubbahubba clone and we find it fine for 2. Our main tent is an X-Mid 2 and that appears to tick all your boxes. Easily best 2 person tent we have used.

towards the end in a larger group I was skinny pitching my 1p durston and both 2p tents in my group had 2 people in them just to fit in tent sites. honestly 2p solo tents in some of the sites on this trail felt like a selfish move. if you fit in a 1p, you aren't spending enough time in it to need extra space, save the weight. except the very very tall, solo 2p durston owners seemed to agree it was a little ridiculous to hog that kind of real estate. it was usually their first ul tent. 1p durston owners should all know how to skinny pitch. for one thing, it saves you when your door zippers start to go. in bad weather, 1p let me sneak off to a tiny wind protected ledge and have a peaceful night. 2p would have been stuck w the brunt of the wind up on the ridge spots established by fair weather weekenders....

I never loved pitching my Xmid, it's a genius design and fabulous when pitched properly, but I always felt like a slightly wrong pitch made it perform worse than you'd think it would. But, I'm 99% a hammock guy and only take a tent when a trail isn't great for hammocks. So, most likely because I wasn't pitching it enough to get a feel for it.

If you live somewhere damp, you can't go wrong with the X-Mid. If you live somewhere dry, consider the single-wall The Two from Gossamer. It's a tad harder to set up but quite a lot lighter.

I've got a lanshan 2 Pro and an Xmid 2. I've had them both out in heavy weather and they both work fine but the Xmid is definitely a better tent. The lanshan sylnylon sags a lot and condensation is a big problem, but if you seal the seams properly it will keep you dry in high wind and heavy rain. The Xmid is way more flexible, you can set it up without the inner to get out of the weather in a hurry and the sylpoly doesn't sag as much. Also a much more solid pitch and way less flappy in the wind.

X- mid with a solid pitch (harder to achieve on uneven sites) is quite sturdy. I carry a couple of MSR Groundhog stakes to use in looser soil.

I have the Tungsten UL 3p and we love it. Not sure how different the UL is other than materials? Easy setup, very roomy, great in rain. One vestibule is smaller than the other, stakes out closer to the tent so my wife who is 5'3" can reach the zipper easily. It is very similar to the Limelite that we used to have, but half the weight. Our other tent is a Durston X Mid, which we use most of the time. But we take the Marmot when we want a little bigger space or if we are taking the dog.

My two suggestions are basically more about the companies. The less budget suggestion is Durston. Though, not all of their tents are actually that expensive. Some of them are pretty affordable. When you get into the dyneema tents that's where it's expensive. The X-Men Pro 2 plus is going to be expensive. But it's lightweight. It's easier setup you just have to learn how to do it right to get a tight pitch. However, an XMid 2 it's still pretty light. Both of these options are trekking pole tents. If you were going to use trekking poles anyway, you could look at these to save weight. But they also sell polls for these tents which are not that heavy if you didn't want to use trekking poles. There's also the Durston X Dome 2. That's freestanding ish. If you want a more budget option, look at Naturehike. They're pretty affordable. And review well. My understanding is that because Durston sells direct, they aren't likely to be on sale. I don't know that Naturehike will be on sale. But you may keep an eye out for a Black Friday special on them. Be aware of where you are ordering them from and if there are any tariffs on them. Amazon should tell you if there is one.

The build quality on the Durston X-Mid is phenomenal as is their company support. I had the X-Mid 2+ And it's nothing shorter will built tent. The one issue I had with it was promptly addressed by the company and to more than my satisfaction. However, I just don't think the Durston is a good fit for the AT. The walls of the fly are so low to the ground and the vents at the top are just not sufficient enough to get air flowing through the tent to remove humidity effectively in a high humidity environment like the Eastern United States. I personally carried mine from Harpers ferry West Virginia to Kent Connecticut and found myself rapidly switching back to my Z-Packs triplex - The 2+ and the Triplex we're bigger because I was hiking with my daughter so we could share a tent. The zpacks triplex has a lot more ventilation and let a lot more air through so I didn't have to worry about it raining inside with condensation on the inner tent walls compared to the Durston. If I did hiking out west like the Colorado Trail or the PCT or the CDT or fill in the blank where there's less ambient humidity I would without hesitation take the Durston back out there. But my opinion take it for what it's worth or feel free to ignore it is the Durston just does not breathe well enough in the Eastern United States to keep interior humidity under control. Too many mornings I woke up with a wet sleeping bag because it was raining inside the tent... And that's not because there was any sort of leak or poor construction.

Hey Dan, happy holidays. I just sold my Xmid solid tent as I'm a bit frustrated pitching them on soft soil/sand. I went back using BA Tiger Wall UL3 while I'm waiting for your free standing 2p dome tent. Just want to know if 2x regular wide thermarests (64cm Width) will fit inside? Just making sure otherwise we'll continue to use our current tent perfect for 2 people. Thanks mate