The North Face  Stormbreak 1 Tent

This is my 4th tent (Eureka Timberline, Sierra West bivi, cheapo dome). The others have done 3 John Muir Trail, 2 cross-country bike rides, the Colorado Trail, and several other nights here and there. The wife isn't much of a backpacker and I didn't do much backpacking in while raising the kids, so I stored them in the basement. After 30 years I thought it was time to hit the Muir Trail again while I still could. But my old tents didn't seem to have it in them -- the polyurethane was flaking in my 30 year old bivy, and was completely disintegrated from my 40 year old tent. Instead of trying to redo the waterproofing I I figured it was time to splurge on a new tent and thought it was time to try out one of these new fangled contraptions. Being an old man I didn't want to go much above the 2.5 pounds my bivy weighed, and being a cheapskate (you can probably tell from having kept my tents for 30+ years) I didn't want to risk $300+ bucks on what only be a few nights in case my old body couldn't handle it anymore. Plus I'm not always the gentlest on my gear and I wanted it to hold up (I'm kinda sceptical of this new fangled cuben stuff). The best option seemed to be the Stormbreak 1, under $130 bucks and about 3 pounds. I swapped out the stakes for titanium, reduced the tie-outs, and the tent came in right at 3 pounds. I was tempted to reduce the stakeout cords to lose another ounce but I was being cautious [it turned out I didn't even use all of the stakeouts over 20 nights, so it would have been fine. Half of the stakeout points would be fine]. Meanwhile, my hiking buddy bought a Quarter Dome 1. The first night's setup, I was able to set up the 2-pole design of the Stormbreak in a couple minutes. After I was done, he was still struggling to figure out the asymmetrical poles on the Quarter Dome. I offered some advice and he eventually got it figured out (I'm not sure if I was a help or hinderance). He got faster by the third night, though the Stormbreak was always faster. Both of us found the 1 person tents a bit tight. There is just barely room to sit up (though he's about 6'1" and I'm only 5'10"). But he said his head and foot scraped on the Quarter Dome, but I had probably 6 inches to spare in the Stormbreak. He only stayed 3 nights days, but I continued on for another 18 to complete the rest of the JMT. I was happy with the easy setup of the Stormbreak. Winds were mostly light, so no problems there. I only had one day of rain, but the Stormbreak stayed dry. Along the trail a lot of folks asked how I liked the tent, and I said "a lot". I told them I was thinking about buying the Stormbreak 3 for a future trip with the wife or one of the kids, whether backpacking or car camping (I think the 6 pounds for the Stormbreak 3 person is better than than 5 pounds for the Stormbreak 2). At the end of the trip I dried out the Stormbreak and stored it away (loosely) in the basement. I hope I will get to use my Stormbreak again, maybe for a long-distance kayak trip next year. I'm not too worried whether the polyurethane is still intact after another 30 or 40 years, since I don't expect to be doing any more backpacking when I'm over 90. Even if it has disintegrated, I will have gotten my $150 worth out of this baby, and that makes this cheapskate happy.

It doesn't take any longer to make a tent light, it's the same amount of sewing, it's the same number of parts. This tent flagrantly had a steel stake set (of six) which weigh almost half a pound. I resent being expected to pay $300 for an actually light, one person back packing tent. I guess I'll have to suck it up, carry the extra pound and expect better durability.