Durston X-Mid Pro 2+

The floor of the Durston X-Mid Pro 2+ is 228.6 cm (90 in) long and 132 cm (52 in) wide. Two wide sleeping pads easily fit side by side, including long wide pads and rectangular pads. One person can sleep diagonally at almost any height. Two tall people fit up to about 198 cm (78 in) each. The offset rectangular shape of the floor results in extra space in the corners for gear. There are also two interior pockets on either side of the door.

The peak height is 124.5 cm (49 in) with the two poles on opposite sides of the tent but slightly offset, so the ridge between them runs diagonally across the tent. The diagonal ridge results in two corners where the ceiling is near full height - high enough that you can sit up and move around without touching the inner walls. For the other two corners, the tent walls angle more sharply into each corner. Compared with the Durston X-Mid Pro 2, the poles are less offset, which does reduce the slope at the lower corners slightly. If two people are sleeping in opposite directions, they will each have a lot of space around their upper body and the fly wall will sit far from their face. If two people are sleeping in the same direction, one person will have the fly wall closer to their face.

The tent has two vestibules, one at each door. With the door flap staked out, the vestibule holds a pack, shoes, and an assembled camp chair. With the extra interior space, the tent is a comfortable place to hang out, get changed, or wait out a storm.

The Durston X-Mid Pro 2+ is a single-wall trekking pole tent. The fly and the inner are one piece, so the pitch is all-in-one and the inner cannot be separated from the fly. Setup needs only four stakes, one at each corner. After the corners are staked, one trekking pole is extended inside each door to provide structure for the tent. I find the tent pitches easily on flat ground but is harder to pitch on uneven ground. If one corner sits higher than the others, the geometry of the tent is off and the fly does not pull tight. The fix is to adjust the corner cordage and the guylines until the pitch is square. Pitching on uneven ground takes practice and anyone new to the tent should practice on flat ground first and move to uneven ground after the pitch feels familiar.

There are two doors for the X-Mid Pro 2+ - one on either side. The fly door has a full-length waterproof YKK zipper that runs smoothly and can be operated with one hand. The inner mesh doors consist of two straight zippers: one that runs horizontally along the bottom of the tent and one that runs vertically towards the peak. The lack of curve to the zippers results in less snagging and easier operation with one hand. The doors are large and open wide. The trekking pole does not block the opening of the inner door, so getting in and out is easy. The door flaps stake out to the side, which I do on every pitch so the flap does not fall into the vestibule.

The X-Mid Pro 2+ takes more time to pack compared to tents not made with Dyneema. Dyneema should be folded and rolled rather than stuffed, because repeated creasing wears the fabric. Folding and rolling the tent adds time to packing and is even more difficult in cold conditions when the Dyneema becomes stiff.

Stormworthiness consists of the ability for a tent to maintain its structure in strong winds and how a tent performs in rain. The Durston X-Mid Pro 2+ has four standard stakeout points and eight optional guyouts: one at each door, one at each end, one at each peak, and then two on side panels of the tent. While the four standard stakeout points keep the tent secured to the ground, the peak guyouts are the most important for helping support the structure of the tent in strong wind. I have tested the X-Mid Pro 2+ in winds over 70 km/h (43 mph) and, while the tent did not collapse, the fly material was being pushed in by the wind and flapping aggressively. More guyouts would help support the tent structure but the geometry of the X-Mid Pro 2+ makes placement of more guyouts difficult.

In rain, the Dyneema fly does not absorb water and does not stretch or sag when it is wet. I have had the tent in a lot of rainy conditions and it has not leaked and, in the morning, rain on the outside of the fly wipes off easily. The fly has excellent coverage over the inner tent and doors so that you can get in and out of the tent when it is raining without the inside getting wet. Splashback is minimal because the fly pitches close to the ground. While there are a lot of benefits with Dyneema in bad weather, rain drops on the material are loud and flapping of the material in wind is louder than polyester or nylon materials.

The Durston X-Mid Pro 2+ is single walled, so there is no inner wall providing a physical barrier between you and gear inside the tent and the fly. To introduce airflow and prevent condensation, the tent has a vent on each side - directly under each peak. With how low the edge of the fly is to the ground, the vents are the primary way airflow is introduced into the X-Mid Pro 2+.

If condensation does form in the X-Mid Pro 2+, the tent is roomy enough that it is easy to avoid touching the inner walls and getting gear wet. It is also easy to wipe moisture off of Dyneema with a cloth, which is what I do every morning where I have experienced condensation on my tent. The negative aspect of the tent size is that it can take a long time to wipe all the moisture off it. It has taken me over 20 minutes to wipe off condensation from the inside and rain from the outside of the X-Mid Pro 2+. Overall, the tent is about average at preventing condensation but above average for condensation management.

The fly material of the Durston X-Mid Pro 2+ is 0.55 oz Dyneema Composite Fabric. The floor on my version is 0.65 oz Dyneema Composite Fabric. The tent also comes in a 15-denier nylon floor with a silicone coating on the outside and polyether urethane coating on the inside. The fly zipper is a waterproof YKK #3 AquaGuard and the inner zippers are YKK #3. All seams are hot bonded, which is a durable way to join Dyneema panels. The construction of the tent and cordage and accessory pieces are all solid.

The two parts of the tent that need attention to avoid damage are the floor and zippers. The zippers need to be regularly cleaned, especially if the tent is used in sandy places. I have found 0.65 oz Dyneema wears easily on rocky or gritty ground. If using the Dyneema floor in conditions where the floor might experience abrasion, I recommend using a groundsheet.

Durston Gear lists 226 reviews with nine reporting damage or a defect. Three owners found holes in the Dyneema: one after two weeks on the John Muir Trail from abrasion inside a pack, one where the tip of a Durston Z-Flick pole rubbed through the fly in strong wind, and one with cuts in the floor after the first night. Two tents arrived with a small hole in the mesh and two had a seam between the mesh and the Dyneema come apart. Two owners had zipper problems: a slider that came off the top of a door zipper (which has been addressed in recent versions of the tent) and a zipper that stopped sliding until it was cleaned of dust.

Durston Gear provides a two-year warranty for the X-Mid Pro 2+.

The Durston X-Mid Pro 2+ is a roomy ultralight tent that is light, well built, fully waterproof in my testing, and large enough for two people on wide pads. The compromises are the time it takes to wipe down the Dyneema, the practice needed to pitch the tent on uneven ground, and the price that comes with Dyneema. Very few tents are both roomy and ultralight, so I think the X-Mid Pro 2+ might be worth it if you prioritize weight. The tent is for two people who want a true 2-person tent at an ultralight weight.