Wandering Daisy wrote:I am back to looking at TarpTent. The new Moment DW or Notch.
I have the original single-wall Moment and later I bought Notch. I like the Notch. It is lighter (no pole), flexible, because it has separate mesh and fly, and it has wide entrances on both sides. It is easier to shake the fly dry after detaching the mesh/floor. Also, one can set up the fly higher or lower trading off ventilation for wind protection.
Sometimes, when there are no bugs, I set the fly with no mesh, and use the mesh/floor as a ground sheet under my inflatable pad to protect it. Sometimes I set the fly with both vestibules wide open, and only the roof "stripe" overhead - sleeping almost under the stars. If the wind picks up, I simply close some of the four halves of the vestibules (no need to close them all) at night, without fully getting out of the sleeping bag. Only one half of the vestibule wall has the guy line, but I attached lines to the other halves.
Once I set up camp on top of McGee pass (got there after sunset). There was seemingly no room for the tent, so I set up the ground sheet near a rock to shield from any wind, and used the fly as a cover or a bivvy. Then I propped one side up with a pole, then another, then I found that, after clearing a few rocks, I was able to erect the fly around the sleeping spot - I had the full tent set up.
A down side is that it takes a little longer to set up. A bigger down side is that it is harder to adjust the position of the tent, because there are more stakes to move and the vestibule stakes have to be more precisely positioned than the remaining stakes (although it is not as bad as for TarpTent StratoSpire 2, that I also have for family trips), which sometimes is a trouble due to rocks that have to be avoided. By the way, with both Notch and StratoSpire I always use the apex pull-outs, because they allow me to open both halves of the vestibules and they increase stability. If the sleeping spot is very small, that I can't shift up/down/left/right, I set up the floor, mark the corners, then carefully set up the fly over the floor making sure that it lines up correctly.
The trekking poles are easy to remove if you want to hike and leave the tent behind. You can easily tighten the apex pull-outs after the tent does down to keep it taunt, if you want.
Click to enlarge photos.
Wide open, floor/mesh used as ground sheet:
DSC14534-camp-small.jpeg
On top of McGee Pass. Note that there was no room for one vestibule next to the rock - I set it up "squished" (and closed, to protect from the wind). You can see my short (head to hip length) inflatable pad, supplemented by a short foam pad - soft, but if inflatable fails I have at least some foam pad (although too short by itself), and I can use the foam pad for sitting on rocks, etc.
DSC16445-mcgee-pass-camp-small.jpeg
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