Durston X-Mid Professional 2 Tent Overview

If you happen to’ve been within the ultralight scene for greater than a minute, chances are high you’ve heard concerning the Durston X-Mid Professional 2. This distinctive tent will get lots of hype in UL circles, however does it stay as much as the reward? Learn on to see our trustworthy ideas and evaluation from field-testing the X-Mid Professional.

Replace:Durston Gear contacted us to tell us that there are some adjustments coming to the X-Mid line of tents in October 2023. They’re planning to scale back the worth of the X-Mid Professional 2, they usually’re releasing a bigger model with more room for 2 hikers. We’ll replace our assessment with adjustments when the brand new X-Mid hits the market.

Fast Specs

MSRP: $679

LISTED WEIGHT: 19.6 oz.*

MEASURED WEIGHT: 20.7 oz.*

DIMENSIONS (LxWxH): 90 x 48 x 48 in.

*Listed weight doesn’t embrace the stuff sack, our measured weight does. Poles & stakes aren’t included for both measurement.

Professionals

Ultralight – Durston Gear lists the burden of the X-Mid Professional 2 at 19.6 oz. with out the stuff sack, and we clocked it at 20.7 with the stuff sack. Regardless of which quantity you go together with, the Xmid Professional 2 is lighter than all however two of the 2-person shelters on our checklist of the Greatest Ultralight Tents – the Zpacks Duplex and the Hyperlite Mountain Gear Ultamid 2.

We’ve discovered that holding our pack weight down helps us take pleasure in backpacking adventures extra. And one of many gadgets that makes a big effect in your pack weight is your shelter. Utilizing an ultralight tent just like the X-Mid Professional 2 will make an enormous distinction in your consolation when overlaying lengthy distances or tackling huge elevation features.

Glorious air flow – One of many largest issues we expect the X-Mid Professional 2 will get proper over different single-wall shelters is the air flow. All too usually tent makers look to shave ounces by excluding a correct option to maintain peak vents open or dropping peak vents altogether. The X-Mid has a peak vent on each vestibules and contains small struts to carry them open. Having these open vents up excessive will give heat air (like out of your breath) a option to escape, finally lessening the quantity of condensation you expertise on the within.

The X-Mid additionally makes use of the tried-and-true mesh perimeter design seen on tents just like the Zpacks Duplex and Six Moon Designs Lunar Duo. We expect the X-Mid does it barely higher than the Duplex however not fairly in addition to the Lunar Duo. The Lunar Duo has a big vertical space of mesh on the head and foot that gives glorious air flow, whereas the Duplex perimeter mesh runs extra horizontally to the bottom. The mesh perimeter on the X-Mid blends the 2 types properly by having an honest quantity of mesh on the head and foot that’s steady with the mesh sidewalls (learn as: no breaks within the mesh to disrupt airflow), and it sits horizontally to let any condensation drip out.

Straightforward to pack & packs smaller than different Dyneema tents – Silnylon and silpoly tents pack down a lot smaller than Dyneema tents since they are often stuffed down tight right into a stuff sack or the underside of your pack. The principle materials of the X-Mid Professional is Dyneema, however the flooring is product of silnylon. This tremendously reduces the majority of the tent when it’s packed away in comparison with different Dyneema shelters.

When you nonetheless shouldn’t use the stuff technique of packing with this tent due to the Dyneema cover, we’re impressed with how small it packs down – particularly for a tent of this measurement.

Glorious safety in moist climate – The form of the X-Mid Professional doesn’t go away any horizontal areas the place rain/snow might pile up. Tents that shed moisture readily are much less prone to have unhealthy condensation points inside when moist climate hits. The form and vestibule design additionally maintain the doorways shielded from drips – even when the vestibules are open – which is especially good when it’s important to take a 2 a.m. lavatory break within the rain. We’ll speak a bit extra concerning the climate advantages of the vestibules later on this assessment.

One other very helpful design characteristic (that almost all different UL shelters are first rate at, however not fairly on the degree of the X-Mid Professional) is the truth that you may pitch this tent within the rain with out getting the inside mesh partitions and flooring moist. Since you lay the tent out flat in a sq. with the vestibules zipped up, stake from there, then place the poles via the height vents, rain by no means has an opportunity to enter your residing house within the X-Mid Professional 2.

Sturdy materials – The cover of the X-Mid Professional 2 is made with .55 oz. Dyneema which is extraordinarily sturdy for its weight. Whereas the X-Mid Professional hasn’t been in the marketplace lengthy sufficient for us to talk to its longevity, we will say that we’ve used different tents constructed from .55 oz. Dyneema – just like the Zpacks Duplex – for years with out difficulty.

One factor that units the development of the X-Mid Professional 2 other than many different DCF shelters is that the seams are hot-bonded. The panels of most different shelters are sewn or bonded collectively after which taped. If a seam is sewn, every needle gap is – in concept – creating little weak spots. Seam tape is then used to cowl the needle holes so the panels are fully waterproof, and it reinforces the seams to regain a lot of the authentic energy of the material. You possibly can see an instance of this kind of seam on the Zpacks Duplex.

When two Dyneema panels are bonded, it’s often performed with a particular bonding tape that may create a seamless transition via sturdy adhesive and stress. Then the bond is strengthened with Dyneema tape. This kind of bonding can grow to be weak in excessive scorching or chilly temperatures. However it’s unlikely that the common backpacker will run into such circumstances. You possibly can see examples of this kind of seam on many flat tarps, just like the HMG Flat Tarp.

Scorching-bonding – what’s used on the X-Mid Professional 2 – is a course of that creates stronger bonds that gained’t lose their integrity in harsh circumstances. Is that this prone to make a distinction to the common consumer? Most likely not. Is it extra sturdy? Sure.

Glorious vestibule design – Many ultralight Dyneema shelters pitch with the vestibules raised pretty excessive off the bottom. This will go away the tent occupant susceptible to splashback from rain and chilly gusts. Whereas we’ve hardly ever discovered ourselves in circumstances that make the raised vestibules on different ultralight tents an enormous difficulty, we all know many hikers aren’t keen on this design.

The X-Mid Professional vestibules, in distinction, might be pitched all the way in which to the bottom and supply full safety from the weather when wanted. Or you may stake them a bit increased to extend air flow.

The vestibules are additionally extremely spacious. The squared off nook supplies way more usable house than the standard triangle vestibule. There’s loads of room to retailer your whole gear out of the way in which of the door, so that you’re not having to shuffle issues round each time you wish to go in or out.

Spacious inside – We discovered the inside flooring house of the X-Mid Professional 2 to be greater than sufficient for 2 hikers and exceptionally spacious for one particular person. The twin pyramid peaks additionally present a very good quantity of headroom at both finish and alongside the diagonal ridgeline within the middle. So if hikers sit at reverse ends of the tent going through one another – say, to attend out a storm – each folks have a ton of headroom. That stated, we don’t typically advocate sleeping on reverse ends as that’s prone to lead to one particular person’s head on a downhill. This will trigger blood to hurry to the top and make it tough to sleep.

This professional comes with a little bit of an asterisk – we’ll speak a bit extra concerning the points we now have with the distribution of inside quantity a bit later on this assessment.

Comes absolutely waterproof – It’s not unusual for ultralight tent makers to cost extra for in-house seam-sealing or to require the consumer to do it themselves. We’ve by no means actually been a fan of this since we really feel a tent ought to arrive absolutely waterproof and able to hit the path.

The X-Mid Professional 2 seams are bonded and absolutely waterproof from the manufacturing facility. There’s no want for added seam-sealing.

Excessive pockets create much less sag – Many tents are constructed with pockets that sit low on the inside wall to allow them to be simply reached when you’re laying down. Whereas we just like the comfort of getting small gadgets shut at hand, it tends to trigger the mesh wall on non-freestanding tents to sag inward. This often isn’t a sufficiently big gripe to be a dealbreaker, however we undoubtedly respect that the upper pockets on the X-Mid Professional 2 don’t encroach on our sleeping space.

Cons

Inside form makes usable house much less handy – If you happen to’re trying on the X-Mid Professional 2 as a single-person shelter, this level gained’t apply to you. We’ve seen many a cheerful solo hiker residing their finest life within the X-Mid, and we agree that it’s an distinctive tent for one.

However for individuals who shall be sharing this tent with one other hiker – that is our largest gripe with the X-Mid and the primary cause why it gained’t be amongst our prime suggestions for backcountry shelters.

The distinctive form of the X-Mid does undeniably present lots of headroom, however not the place we actually need it. The inside of this tent is a parallelogram and the poles are offset from each other to create two opposing peaks at both finish. This may work nicely if you wish to sleep head-to-foot so that every hiker will get their very own finish with ample headspace. However that’s not how most individuals favor to share a tent, and it’s not how Durston intends the X-Mid for use.

Sleeping side-by-side, as most hikers do, leads to one particular person having loads of room to sit down up whereas the opposite will get a face stuffed with tent wall within the morning. On prime of that, the X-Mid is designed in order that the one that obtained the quick finish of the stick on headroom additionally sacrifices some comfort on the subject of storage. Their inside pocket is located on the reverse finish of the tent close to the opposite peak.

Form makes it robust to get an ideal pitch – The X-Mid is usually praised for its quite simple pitch. Whereas the fundamentals of pitching the X-Mid are fairly simple – we discovered getting a taut pitch with no sag or surfaces for water to pool as much as be a bit tough.

To begin, you lay the tent out flat and stake the corners out in a rectangle. The difficulty begins in the event you don’t stake the corners at nearly exactly 90 levels. You’ll get the trekking poles set solely to appreciate the ground isn’t sitting fairly proper or the ridgeline is bowed or a wall is billowing within the wind. Certain you may transfer the stakes round and enhance the pitch, however we discover that is usually simpler stated than performed. Backcountry campsites are often hiding rocks that impede tent stakes slightly below the grime’s floor, and much more usually the bottom isn’t going to be degree.

In our expertise, A-frame formed tents are extra forgiving on the subject of unideal pitching circumstances. Particularly due to their extra compact footprint, which leads us to our subsequent level.

Giant footprint & non-freestanding design could make campsite choice tough – Non-freestanding tents can pose a little bit of a problem on the subject of campsite choice since you want to have the ability to get stakes within the floor to present the tent construction. It is a potential difficulty with all non-freestanding tents, not simply the X-Mid. However the place the X-Mid provides an additional layer of issue is in its massive rectangular footprint.

When taking a look at its total dimensions, you’ll see that the X-Mid Professional 2 is an 8.3 x 6.7 ft. rectangle. Which means it’s important to discover a campsite massive sufficient to accommodate over 55 sq. ft. For comparability, the world occupied by the footprint of the Zpacks Duplex is about 49 sq. ft. That’s about 13.6% smaller, and but the inside flooring house of the X-Mid is lower than 2 sq. ft. bigger than that of the Duplex.

We’ve additionally discovered that tents with a hexagonal footprint, just like the Duplex, are simpler to pitch in imperfectly formed areas than the oblong footprint of the X-Mid. And while you consider our earlier level about the necessity to pitch the X-Mid with its corners as near 90° as doable, campsite choice can grow to be a bit difficult.

Throughout testing, we generally needed to cross up epic campsites as a result of the tent wouldn’t match. We’re not saying that is the one tent that we’ve skilled that with, however we did discover it occurred extra usually with the X-Mid.

Costly – Dyneema shelters all the time include a hefty price ticket as a result of DCF is an costly material. The X-Mid Professional 2 prices a bit lower than the Tarptent Stratospire Li and a bit greater than the Zpacks Duplex, however they’re all inside a $40 vary of one another. We had been shocked that their costs had been so shut as a result of the X-Mid makes use of a less expensive flooring materials (silnylon); we had been hoping to see some value financial savings there. The Duplex and Stratospire are each made with Dyneema canopies and flooring.

So why does the X-Mid have the same value level to tents which can be made with extra Dyneema? As a result of the hot-bonding course of used on the seams is extra pricey and time consuming. As we talked about beforehand, this course of most likely gained’t make a lot of a distinction to the common consumer, so we’d reasonably have the financial financial savings from the cheaper materials.

You would all the time get the usual sil-nylon X-Mid 2 for fairly a bit much less cash, however it does weigh nearly a pound extra (35.4 oz.). That’s nonetheless lighter than half of the tents on our Greatest Ultralight Tents checklist although, so it may very well be nicely definitely worth the financial financial savings in the event you’re prepared to hold some further weight.

90-degree zippers aren’t everybody’s favourite – It is a very small gripe, however one factor some customers don’t like about zippers that meet at a nook is the lack to decide on the place they sit. On a spherical door, the zippers transfer collectively and you may place the exit level wherever you need. Generally hikers need each zippers to be up prime to allow them to shut the roof vent if rain or wind is basically whipping up, generally they need the zippers on the backside to allow them to simply attain out and seize a water bottle in the course of the night time.

The opposite facet of this argument is that with the X-Mid’s zipper design you’ll by no means should fumble round in the dead of night to seek out the place the pulls are. They’ll all the time be in the identical place on the backside nook, which makes them constant and simple to seek out. Some members of the CH staff favor tent zippers like those on the X-Mid and others don’t. Ultimately, this one will get chalked as much as private desire.

BOTTOM LINE

The Durston X-Mid Professional 2 is a well-liked tent in ultralight circles, and we will see why. It’s light-weight, spacious, supplies glorious climate safety, and has nice air flow. However for us the X-Mid missed the mark in a couple of key areas. We nonetheless assume it’s an amazing shelter for solo hikers who need a luxurious quantity of house with out a lot weight acquire over an ultralight single-person tent, however we’re not fairly as eager on this shelter when shared with a associate.

The place we appear to vary in opinion essentially the most from different accounts we’ve learn is on the matter of spaciousness. For us, the parallelogram flooring form and the offset poles make the inside a bit awkward to occupy with a associate, as one particular person will get the quick finish of the stick on the subject of headroom.

The opposite key difficulty we discovered with this tent is that getting a pleasant, taut pitch with no sag was more durable than we needed. The big footprint and rectangular form may also make campsite choice a bit extra tedious than with different tents, and we’re not fond of getting to battle with an ideal pitch after a tough day on the path.

Durston nails most of the particulars that make for a really nice tent expertise, like well-designed vestibules, sensible pockets, and excellent air flow. However for our two-person adventures, we discovered that the X-Mid fell a bit in need of our excessive expectations.

MORE INFORMATION

We hope this assessment helps you identify if the Durston X-Mid Professional 2 is best for you. As all the time, please go away a remark beneath in case you have any suggestions, questions, or ideas. And are available verify us out on Fb and Instagram to hitch the group dialog. If you happen to discovered this assessment useful, please share on social media and click on the little coronary heart button beneath to present us a digital excessive 5!

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