u/downingdown

I read so many reviews, watched YouTube videos, have been lurking here in the Durston sub, and I almost know the Durston spiel and specs by heart from being on the website so much. And yet.

I got my X-Mid about a month ago. I did one pitch in my front yard. It went okay but not great, in ordinary, normal soil. I could tell I would still have a lot to learn and would need more practice. I was also getting nervous about what it would be like to pitch in less-than-ideal conditions.

So I decided to try a more challenging pitch, using rocks. No matter what, I couldn’t get it to hold. I couldn’t get big rocks that were heavy enough to hold it in place without it blowing over. Okay. I figured it was just a limitation of the rocks I had, so I decided to just pitch it normally for practice.

It was not good. I kept making mistakes and getting frustrated. The inner was still too high off the ground, and I couldn’t figure out how to adjust it without starting from scratch, which at that point, no way I was going to do.

Takedown was a disaster too. I tore one of the loops on the stakes pulling it out, and the stakes were nearly impossible for me to get out of the ground. I also noticed some flaws in the inner mesh that were kind of surprising for a brand-new tent and didn’t give me confidence for how fragile it would be.

I’ve been camping and backpacking for a long time even if I’m not an experienced thru hiker or anything, and have never, ever felt so frustrated putting up a tent. It was miserable.

In any event, I’m feeling stuck, discouraged, and regretting my first cottage backpacking gear purchase. Because realistically, the thing I need to do to see if this works for me is pitch it a few more times and see if I can ever get it down. But if the tent can’t be resold as new, the depreciation is on the customer, meaning I have to wear the loss. So I’m using it, dirtying it, and decreasing its value.

I want to support small companies, but these are big purchases. I trusted the reviews and community support. I couldn’t have known it really wasn’t for me until I tried it out, and the loss/cost for trying the product is on me.

I gave it a decent shot. I pitched it once on my lawn and once on my driveway. It’s not for me. Honestly, the idea of needing to worry about pitching this thing at the end of a day backpacking has me not wanting to go. I can’t imagine needing to worry about where on earth I could pitch this thing or needing to get it just right for it to work.

I guess what I’m wondering is: does this tent get better? Am I just not experienced enough to take a chance on cottage gear and need to go back to REI/Sports Basement until I’m more knowledgeable? Or frankly, until I’m wealthier and can afford to take a risk on the loss/depreciation of gear not working for me?

If this was a product where I knew the company had my back if it really didn’t work for me, I would keep trying it. I’d probably even take it out backpacking and really see if I could get to the point where I have the experience and skill that people must have to make the tent so great. But every time I use it, I’m risking more dirt, wear, or damage, and reducing the refund/resale value.

I guess I just feel stuck and don’t know what to do. Be gentle folks, I’m overwhelmed, regretting what for me is an expensive purchase and got a tent stake to the jaw pulling it out of the ground just now.