My new x-mid arrived just after Christmas. I have not taken it out on a trip yet,but after a couple of test nights in my local forest, I thought I’d do a quick ‘initial thoughts’ review because I am THAT EXCITED about this tent.

These tents by Dan Durston are some of the most sought-after in the world and have achieved cult status and insane levels of hype. I am looking forward to see whether this tent lives up to it on my Cape Wrath Trail hike this spring.

Note that this review is just initial thoughts, I have not done any thorough testing yet.

Specs

The highlights from the website:

  • Stated packed weight (mesh inner version, stakes excluded): 795g (28oz)
    • On my scales: 810g (28.6oz)
    • When wet: Don’t know yet
  • 1 person
  • 3+ season
  • Non free-standing
  • Trekking poles required
  • Packed Size: 30 x 13 cm (12 x 5 in )
  • Floor Dimensions: 228 x 81 cm (90 x 32 in)

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Hot take

  • Ultralight? Yes.
  • Set up time? <5 mins.
  • Set up ease? So easy it’s actually funny.
  • Can be set up/taken down fly first? Yes.
  • Ventilation/Condensation? Looking good so far.
  • Packability? Awesome. Very neat pack size, can fit horizontally in 40L pack.
  • Easy to get back into stuff-sack? Yes.
  • Wind performance? Not yet tested.
  • Rain performance? Not yet tested.
  • Snow performance? Not yet tested
  • Fits wide pads? Yes, with room to spare!
  • Can sit up/live comfortably? Yes.
  • Vestibules? 2. Massive.
  • Would recommend? Early days, but think this will be a yes.

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Tell me more…

What I like

  • The pitch is just too easy. I mean it’s like a joke. I first set this up in my parents’ garden with my dad (who hiked a lot in the days when the only gear was the heavy and bulky kind), and he just could not believe the simplicity and intelligence of design. Even my mum (does not understand the appeal of camping) noted that she didn’t think tents that easy to pitch and pack could exist. The most striking thing for me was that the smart design means the first pole you put in is fully supported by itself. With other trekking pole tents, such as my Tarptent Notch, after you put the first pole in you go through this funny balencing act where it wobbles around or falls over until the second one is in and you begin tensioning. Not so with the x-mid. Each pole is held by 3 seams, so you put in the first pole… and it just stays up, with real tension.
  • It is so easy to roll away into the stuff-sack. I do not like stuffing my tents. I like to fold and roll away, all neat and tidy, with the inner fully protected and dry and everything predictably located when I pull it out again later. This is really hard to do with sil-nylon tents, especially the ultralight ones, as they are just so slippery. Dyneema tents are great for rolling, and indeed it is recommended that you roll that material anyway. The x-mid is made with sil-poly, so I was worried that I would have the same ‘slipperiness’ problem as with nylon, but was pleasantly suprised! It takes me around the same time to roll away as it does to set up, and I am delighted!
  • The room inside is insane! I have never had this much space in an 1 person test. If you removed the inner, you could easily get 2 people under the fly. On my first night out I only used one of the vestibules because they are just so big I didn’t need two: I literaly forgot the other one was there until the next morning and the second one’s presence genuinely suprised me.
  • Condensation management seems really good so far. My test nights so far have had some common elements: sub zero C, completely still with not a breath of wind, and pitches in very sheltered locations for stealth reasons. In other tents in that location with similar conditions, the inside of my tents have ranged from ‘dripping’ to ‘very very damp’ in the morning. The xmid seems to handled this very well, probably because there is just so much space inside for air to flow. The only damp places I could feel in the morning was a patch around the apex directly above my head.
  • There is so much space between me, the inner, and the fly. Any condensation that does form on the inside is just so far away. If I lie down (on a not massively bullky pad) and reach straight up, I am not able to touch the inner apex. The vestibules run the length of the tent, and even at their narrower ends the fly is still a good few inches from the inner. The head and foot ends of the inner are also much longer than even a long sleeping pad, so the chances of anyone under 6’5” getting a wet footbox are very slim. (I am 5’8” for context.)
  • The two huge vestibules give you so much room for stuff.
  • Likewise the space at the head and foot ends is plenty for bringing everything you want inside. People who use regular width pads will also have a ton of space next to them.
  • Large rectangular pads like the Nemo Tensor Regular wide will also fit with a couple inches of gap at the side. This is a huge deal for me as I have to sleep on a wide comfy pad or my SI joint pain will be screaming at me the next day,
  • The inner and the vestibules are large enough for me to crouch in, not just sit up. I am 5’8” and very skinny so this wont be true for everyone, but pretty much everyone will find the xmid extremely livable.
  • Lastly, the price is just so damn good. $240 for an ultralight tent this well designed is just stunning. If you consider the Lanshan sits around £130, and big name brands like the MSR Hubba Hubba is around £400, with dyneema tents easily above $500, $240 ($300 for the 2p) makes the x-mid series genuine contenders for the most budget-friendly high-spec tents on the market.

What I don’t

  • No two way zippers on the fly doors. This is just irritating, as I like to unzip from the top for more ventilation, as well as to insert/remov my trekking poles without having to open the whole door.
  • The pockets are in the roof of the inner. I noted above that I can’t reach the top of the inner while lying down, so yeh, having stuff stashed up there is annoying. I usually put my phone in a pocked by my head, so now I will just have to have it lying on the floor next to me.
  • There are no loops or hooks or tabs at the top of the inner so there is nowhere to hang a line. This again is not the end of the world, just an irritation.
  • I have no proof of this yet, but I am not sure how the tent will handle broad-side winds. There is no way to properly tension the largest panels (the tab half way down will not do anything beyond stop a bit of flapping), so I am interested to see how that goes.

Hope this is useful for now, once I am back from the CWT I will post a full review!

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