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I've got a new tent, and it's good

evanbb

11-Jun-2008
4:18:04 PM

Climbers,

We recently upgraded our tent to, funnily enough, a Kathmandu tent. Now I know better than most the dangers associated with these guys, but I think this might be a winner.

About 2 years ago i worked at the Du, and word on the street was that they'd just bought one of the designers from FairyDown to do their new range of tents. They've just come into shops and compare fairly well.

I wanted something light, and small, that can sleep 2, and be able to cook in it in the case of horrific weather, say at Castle Hill. The one I bought is a Lansan Plus, (the Plus designates the vestibule version) and it's the business. Lighter than my old Macpac which was the benchmark and about twice the covered area, half of that without a floor (2.4kg vs 2.3). It's well thought out from start to finish with good quality zips for entry, and well designed entry spaces. Not a great cold weather tent, as it's quite well ventilated, but we were in it down to 7 on the weekend and it was still really warm. The fly doesn't fully meet the ground though, so high wind might be a problem.

Far and away the best feature though is what can only be called the Wee Zip. At waist level on either side there's a foot long zip, at ground level, that access some cords outside the tent to improve ventilation. But, it seems to me they're perfectly designed for poking the wang out of during horrible weather (or when drunk) and peeing while lying down. If that's what they're for it's utter genius and well worth the price of admission.

Speaking of which, if you don't know by now no-one should ever buy ANYTHING at Kathmandu unless it's half price. If it's not on sale now it will be later. At full price they're slightly off the pace, at half price they're very hard to beat. Their website is a stupid Flash thing, so i can't link direct to it, but look for tents, Lansan Plus and you'll find it.

EB

dom

11-Jun-2008
5:47:25 PM

Normally not a huge fan of Kathmandu but you got me at Wee Zip

Cool Hand Lock

11-Jun-2008
10:30:15 PM

Wow, a tent with ensuite. Nice.

Chalk Free

12-Jun-2008
1:40:28 PM

We've got a couple of Kathmandu tents, bought half price of course. Had the first for a few years. Its survived the abuse of two kids and is still going. Bought the second about a year ago. Happy with that one. At the sale price they are great value for money. The tent prior to these was a Macpac and we were really disappointed with its quality.

Sabu

12-Jun-2008
3:01:58 PM

i was eyeing off a kathmadu tent, a northstar v3. but had second thoughts after a thread here and went with a Exped venus II. very happy with it and it comes across as very well designed and made.
Went back to kathmadu not so long ago and saw the tent i had thought of getting acutally pitched in store and considered it a tacky piece of junk in comparison. they were essentially the same price (perhaps $100 more for Exped) while on sale. Well worth it.

evanbb

12-Jun-2008
4:02:53 PM

On 12/06/2008 Sabu wrote:
>i was eyeing off a kathmadu tent, a northstar v3.

Agreed, the North Star was a pile of Nylon crap. The Lansan I've been raving about is from the new design range and is considerably better.

Paulie

16-Jun-2008
12:10:49 PM

I've never bought a tent from them (a good mate has and says he won't ever do it again), but everything else I've ever bought from Crap-man-poo has fallen to pieces...

Dutch

16-Jun-2008
7:11:27 PM

The worst nights sleep ive ever had was sleeping next to a kathmandu tent. The Doo thought it would be a great idea to use xpac fabric for the fly. The poor girl was so stoked that she'd got the tent for $100, but the thing rustled like a freakin bandit. When the wind was up it was unbearable!

Cool Hand Lock

22-Jun-2008
12:47:36 PM

And there is one half price in Kathmandu northern Smith Street.

There are 9 messages in this topic.