4-season tents: Eldorado or Alpinist?

[tlinn]

Hi,

 

I'm having trouble deciding on a lightweight, strong single wall 4 season tent and before I plunk down a wad of cash I`d like to get people's opinions. I've seen mixed reviews on both of these tents but these two seem like they would both fit my needs quite well. My main reason for choosing a single wall is the strength to weight ratio but if there are other options in the 5 to 6 pound range that would work well in all conditions I am open to any suggestions. The price of these tents is pretty high but I'm willing to suck it up to get something I`ll use for several years.

 

the most important things to me are:

- lightweight

- easy to set up

- strong

- less than $600

- would prefer a vestibule but not essential (Eldo doesn't have one, Alpinist does)

- I'm 6'2" so I'd prefer something larger (hence the Eldo over the I-tent)

 

Thanks!

[DPS]

What about the Integral Designs MK1 XL (or whatever the long version is). I like my ID MK1. Folks seem to like the Mountain Hardware EV2 quite a lot.

[jared_j]

FWIW, the optional vestibule on the Bibler leaves much to be desired. It's real small (though the Alpinist vestibule also looks really small), adds on weight, and the attachment setup leaves much to be desired. When going through these decisions last year, I got much advice on this board to opt for the Bibler. I did, and got out with it several times this winter, and highly recommend it (caveat: it's my first single wall tent, so I don't have a lot of comparisons that I could make).

 

The one beef I have with the Bibler is that some property of the fabric (thickness?) prevents the tent from being compressed down real small very easily. FYI.

[ericb]

Hi,

 

I'm having trouble deciding on a lightweight, strong single wall 4 season tent and before I plunk down a wad of cash I`d like to get people's opinions. I've seen mixed reviews on both of these tents but these two seem like they would both fit my needs quite well. My main reason for choosing a single wall is the strength to weight ratio but if there are other options in the 5 to 6 pound range that would work well in all conditions I am open to any suggestions. The price of these tents is pretty high but I'm willing to suck it up to get something I`ll use for several years.

 

the most important things to me are:

- lightweight

- easy to set up

- strong

- less than $600

- would prefer a vestibule but not essential (Eldo doesn't have one, Alpinist does)

- I'm 6'2" so I'd prefer something larger (hence the Eldo over the I-tent)

 

Thanks!

 

I think one big difference between the Marmot and all of these is that it has a PU vs. PTFE membrane.....I'm not sure that PU has been demonstrated to breathe as well as PTFE. You might not be able to get much feedback on the Alpinists' performance in the PNW climate, but he Alpinist uses Marmot's "Membrane" laminate, so it would be interesting to see what folks' experience has shown with Jackets made out of this vs. PTFE laminates.

[kweb]

http://www.backpacking.net/forums/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=154161&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1

 

I have the MK1 Lite. Awesome tent.

[EastCoastBastard]

I have one of the newer Marmot Alpinist's (with the pole clips as opposed to the first generation's sleeves) and overall, I quite like it. I've found that it breathes as well as any of the Bibler/Integral Designs tents I've used, and is just as strong in wind/snow.

My big praise for the Alpinist is it the amount of room on the inside, while still maintaining a relatively small footprint. Because of the bend in the poles, there is a lot more elbow room in the tent. the I-tent/Eldorodo/MK1's all make me feel like the roof is collapsing on me. A side effect of this is that the fabric actually stays away from your bag, allowing it room to breathe, thus your bag stays dryer. In the other singlewall tents I've used the walls slope so steeply that the fabric is resting on your bag, which usually means you end up with a wet spot. The light colour of the alpinist also makes the interior quite pleasant to spend lots of time in. The pole clip system works great and is super fast to set up - no crawling around in a collapsed tent while it tries to blow away.

 

The detractors for the alpinist are the vents and the "bat wing" that covers them. This aspect of the tent is very poorly designed, and was heaps better on the original Alpinist. there isn't enough room under the bat wing for the flap of Membrain that covers the vent to lie flat against the tent, which can cause condensation to rise up onto the bat wing and then drip back onto you. That being said, that's only happened once when I was cooking in the tent, and it was raining outside (high humidity). Most of the time it's just annoying. The bat wing, which supports the brow pole is also a lousy piece of design. I'm not sure what it's function is (other than cover the vent, which could be fixed with a better vent design). It flaps around a lot in the wind, and when wet, presses against the roof of the tent, effectively closing the vents. I have thought about just cutting it off, but the zippers for the vent are not waterproof and I'm worried about rain leaking in. Marmot also advised me not to cut it off as the flap stabilizes the brow pole - without it the brow pole might flap out of it's grommets.

A less annoying, but still poor design trait of the alpinist is it's door. There is only one, a sort of integrated membrain and mesh door, instead of a shell door and a seperate mesh door. The mesh only covers half the door (the bottom half) and there is a flap of membrain that covers it when you zip it closed. I'm not sure why they did this, as having two doors (as is normal) would add a marginal amount of weight (the zippers are almost two full seperate zippers anyway, the extra weight would be in maybe a meter of zipper and a square meter of mesh - grams at the most) and add a lot more mesh to allow moisture to escape/breeze to enter.

 

I still like the Alpinist, it works well, is light, has a small vestibule for stashing boots/packs - it packs small, is easy to set up and once set up is really roomy inside. It handles the weather well and has plenty of guy out points. The vents leave a lot to be desired, but the fabric breathes well enough that it's mostly an annoyance at very poor design rather than something that is going to go drastically wrong. If they changed the vents back to the original Alpinist, they would have a great tent on their hands. As it is, it's just pretty good. Oh, I'm 6' and there's plenty of room for me lengthwise.

 

Hope this helps you make up your mind. Can you tell I'd rather not be studying?

[dbconlin]

Do you take your dog mountaineering? Why a vestibule?

 

Mk1 LIte rules! (I would also consider BD firstlight).

[Coldfinger]

What are you doing? Reason I ask is you sound large (at least tall) and two people in an Eldo or Alpinist sounds rough for long trips, backpacking etc. The vestibule won't make you more comfortable.

 

Especially if there are usually going to be two of you I'd worry more about comfort than saving a pound or two.

 

If for solo get the Firstlight (light and cheap and surprisingly strong).

 

Otherwise I'd look at the Eldo, tempest or Fitzroy (Bibler is the BEST quality tent).

Edited May 26, 2008 by Coldfinger

[tlinn]

Thanks guys,

 

I was thinking of the vestibule more in terms of cooking during a storm but maybe there are some secrets to cooking inside of the tent I am unaware of?

 

Anyone have experiences with the Nallo 2? Seems to be along the same lines of strong and light, with a reasonable amount of room for two people. I missed out on using my REI discount to pick up the Eldo and now I'm kicking myself.

 

 

 

[Coldfinger]

Here's a nice and cheap option:

 

http://www.backcountry.com/store/ODR0235/Exped-Sirius-Extreme-Tent-2-Person-4-Season.html

[Coldfinger]

Hey I just noticed you're supposedly Canadian. I say supposedly b/c you don't seem to want to buy Integral Designs. You a Quebecois?