Tents

Aren't ferrinos available at outdoor warehouse? I was there just this past Saturday and the Ferrino looked a bit flimsy imo. To be honest I wasn't to impressed with the quality of the poles of ANY of their 4-season tents. Honestly I'd rather buy the treklite which cost the same as the cool mountain II.

Still the money isn't spent til the money's spent. I'll test 'em all (or as many as possible) before laying out cash.

Definitely won't be importing anything though.

Two of my friends have Mountain hardware tents (the hammerhead 2 and the lightwedge 3). Both kept us perfectly dry during 10 days of some torrential berg rain and storms (We had swimming pool sized puddles under our groundsheets numerous times but none of it managed to seep through). The hammerhead also handles wind quite well...while the lightwedge's fly sheet tends to flap quite a bit. The Hammerhead is also a fair bit warmer as the Lightwedge's innner is made up mostly of mesh. Overall they seem to both be awesome tents and I would recomend them if you have around R3000 to spend on a tent!

Whoops, I've your measure is thickness of ripstop material you are gravely mistaken. Nowadays it is a lot more complicated, much more advanced polymers are used than the good old ripstop nylon. The tents that are used by North Winds (the guide that accompanied Hammond to the north pole) for instance is Hillebergs, with Ultra thin (an I mean really thin) material. It is in fact, of materials currently used for tents, one of the most shear and tear resistant fabrics available.

The ferrino tent poles look funny, I thought it was made from plastic or glasfibre, but it aint any of the two. Having been sceptic of the poles (and being so to date) they've proven to be bomb-proof.

I'll try and attach a picture of my mainsty mountain tent, wich one may also regards as flimsy or thin or whatever you want, but that one I used in really messy conditions and on this particual phots my wife and I were trapped in the tent for eight hours after sunrise (which is was only at 10.15 due to being so far north) by wind and sleet, with winds of up to 105 mph. we remained completly dry and the tent did not occur any damage.

For the high tech ones you do pay a considerable premium, and I personally question the real value of such expenditure, unless you will be doing serious extreme summits where weight is an essential consideration.

For us mortal beings, I reckon a sound construction (seams, pole attaching points and rope attaching points, good quality zippers) is imoportant and from there you get the one that fits best in your budget.

For those of you interested, here is the actual tent that Mallory used on ins fatefull expedition:




And for that matter here is his boot

Thanks for the replies. Had look at the Hammerhead 2 the other day... not bad although its waterproofing specs don't seem to be as high as the Treklite (still my No. 1 choice). Having 2 doors can only be a bonus though. To be honest I can see the bulk of my hikes taking place along coastal areas (at least in the near future) so something that can handle snow and blizzards might be a too ambitious purchase.

3kg tents being all the rage! Makes me want to weep! I'm in the US (Zulu born) and I will NOT participate in any threads here because of the wholesale theft of intellectual property that is SOP in every community in "capitalism's Vaderland" - incl. the MT community. I suppose the definition of capitalism these days is we make money the old fashioned way - we STEAL it.

I see this thread is old but I was homeless for 6 months. So much for capitalism being the best system around. I hold 2 degrees in Physics and am completely unemployable. Studying, at age 50, for the GRE to apply to do a PhD in Physics.

But...because I'm alive I still have dreams. My story in short. 1996 hit by lightning (at work - mts safe, Itelu!) and severely disabled. Realized if I was ever going to hike again I had better lighten my pack - considerably. Invented ultralight backpacking. Invented a 1lb 10oz (700g) sleeping bag, an integrated sleeping system, a 1lb (450g!!!) tent, carbon tentpoles, titanium tentstakes, and a few other neat things. All listed stolen from me, except the tent, which half was. I have since switched to aluminum stakes, and have gone back to aluminum poles because it breaks my heart to use carbon which was taken from me. But...my poles weight the same as carbon, so (thumb nose) there!

If anyone knows anything about invention, and I do, first, nothing was ever invented for the money, necessity is the mother of invention and it only has one Mum, and second, inventors can no more stop inventing than stop breathing. So I have more in my head that I will NOT reveal. They can go to my grave with me - which won't be too long now.

But...on the tent, I used a 450g tent successfully for 10 years in the Drakensberg (2 or 3 traverses and a bunch of multi-days) and in the US Rockies. Had some leaks but they never killed me, and I spent some weeks in torrential hard rain. One September a Hurricane came through Colorado and I was at 13,000ft (4,000m) and the squalls and spindrift (avalanches really) threatened to collapse my tent. I knew if my tent went so would I. Three days it stood in a meter of accumulated snow and 100mph winds. So it passed every test! Even surprised me!

But Prototype I is now retired, and I will be building prototype II this (US) winter. It will be improved, not lighter, just watertighter!

Now what I hear from all the naysayers is - well ja man it doesn't have a floor. It does. well ja man, you can't sit up in it. You can more than sit up. well ja man it is a 1-man. It is a 2-man. I can build a 3-man at about 600g. well ja man you need trekking poles (the man who stole my specs now has a tent that uses trekking poles). My tent has its own poles - included in the weight. well ja man your weight doesn't include stakes and a bag. It does, and guy-wires and tensioners. well ja man, it isn't free standing. That's right, it ISN'T free standing. That is the ONE and ONLY sacrifice I made. You MUST stake it out. In 10 years I have NEVER failed to properly erect it. well ja man it takes 15 minutes to erect. I can do it in 3. I'll admit to one other drawback. If the wind comes from the foot it stands tall, but if comes from the head it flaps. Not a structural issue, but it can be annoying. Not to me - I have slept through many a flapping storm!

So...who wants one? I am NOT a manufacturer. I am an INVENTOR. I am NOT even a businessman. Why is it that capitalism always preaches bull****? Let others do what they are good at. I've done my end, the end that is so very special and so very rare money will not buy it. Now comes the money part. YOU (pl meaning humanity) need to put up the money. I need a business partnership formed around me to bring my wares to market. If you (pl, meaning humanity) won't step up to the plate (sorry, baseball term, step up to crease?) and put your money at risk, then I will never produce one of these tents for anyone else.

Whenever I approach manufacturers I get; well ja man it'll never work. When it's clear it works superbly, well ja man, it won't sell. When it sells like hotcakes, well ja man it'll never make a profit. And when it turns out to be more profitable than sliced bread, well ja man, I invented that. Itelu, never again!

There it is. I am a SA citizen and would be happy to return to SA to be the INVENTOR in a consortium. It would make me happy and proud to see "made in SA" and "straight from the mind of a Physicist" on these tents. And make no mistake - it is a whole LINE of tents.

You (pl) are up to bat.

Anyway, I am a kind bloke and if anyone ever needs spare parts you can deliver Rands to my SA acct (I'm no sucker!) and I can mail 'em. You will have to deal with customs, of course! But I can fill out customs declaration as "repairs under warranty, no charge."

As far as commercial tents go, Bibler or Black Diamond (same company now) can get it down to 2-3lbs (1000-1500g). These are free standing single wall tents. Don't let single wall scare you off. The materials today are dynamite! And expensive!

If you wish you can email me at bbharim at xxxxx dot com, where unknown = gmail (best) or yahoo. Make sure your subject states Vertical Endeavour! I live in Nucla Colorado on the Utah border. If you ever find yourselves in the neighborhood, you have a place. Warning: This is the "sparsely inhabited zone!"

BRILLIANT ! - Time to publish chap!

BB, next time you are in the land of the ZULU, drop us a line. People who always land on their feet interest me immensely.
I'm not a Physicist, so when it comes to intellectual theft you won't be in danger with me.

Just a heads up re CAPITALIST theft, watch out for the CHINESE.
They are Capitalists masquerading as COMMUNISTS. They even steal and copy MUMs !

(actually we have a number of fat-cat Capitalists masquerading as Communists here, when they aren't masquerading as Capitalists)

I recently purchased an E3 Escape, a 3-man tent. I wanted a sturdy tent that was able to withstand the high winds in the Berg. I didn’t want to spend much money so I went for a local make. The E3 Escape seemed to be what I was looking for. At 5.5Kg (4 poles) it’s a quite a heavy tent but I thought that’s what you get when you don’t pay R6000+ (I paid R3200 for it). Otherwise, I was expecting the same standards as the Cadac Isodome.

I was wrong. Last week, while camped by the Centenary Hut, the wind picked up during the night. It got stronger as the time went by, and by the morning it was of sustained strong gale force. I reckon the wind speed must have been between 50km/h-90km/h, maybe even with peaks over a 100km/h. My tent coped quite well at the beginning but progressively the poles got bent. As one pole would give way the others would take more strain and eventually give way too, until the whole tent was flattened out.

It was quite a mission to pack up the tent and we could only stuff it in the tent bag. Back home I had a look at the damage: the poles were bent in different places. I realised the poles weren’t actually that strong because it wasn’t difficult to straighten them up again.

So, now I feel that I’ve wasted my money and I’m back to zero. By reading all the posts in this discussion it seems that there are other local makes (360 degrees and K-Way) that might be better than the E3 at a lesser cost, although I’m very sceptical about it. I, for example, don’t buy at Cape Union Mart as a principle.

I’ll start looking around again with R3000 less in my pocket