A mildly inconvenient featherweight - Zpacks Altaplex review 

Had mine for two years now and reluctantly I'm in agreement. Any uneven ground (and it's always uneven) and the bathtub floor edges outside the sides and you start the collection of water, Not had a wet/outside dry/inside night. Also to add another con, as I tend to stealth camp, this is not a stealth tent: a high, shiny, bright plastic bag. Mine was supposed to be brown so a bit surprised by how bright it is. Find myself using my (OR Helium) bivvy bag more.

i consider 100 days camp in a year also a life🤙🤙🤙

great review, i'm loving my big agnes tiger wall 2 just love the space, and how wel it preforms in storms etc, and while still being damn light for a conventional tent, as of now the issues with the real, ultralight tents is the stuff you mentioned in the video

I have another zpacks tent (free trio) and have stopped using it because the bathtub floor got always kicked out from under the tarp in the middle of the night. Have a durston pro now and so happy about it.

I also think that real customer service would be that they would pay you back the second customs tax. It is absolutely normal that you had to pay it the first time, but it is not your fault that they did poor qualitycontrol. Not OK that you had to pay it again because of their mistake.

Nice review, honest too. I got mine sent over to the uk 5 years ago, was pretty expensive, thought we had a trade deal with the US. I've used it a lot over the years up in the highlands of scotland and various other places and on the whole it has performed quite well in bad weather, the condensation is a big issue and i ended up using a bivvy bag with my sleeping bag to protect it. Its definitely not as long as advertised, im 6"2 and find once i have my sleep system set up my head and feet almost touch the walls, dyneema is slippery too, i have found my big agness sleep pad slips from under me at night which is a bit annoying. I guess the biggest selling point is how light it is and the fact its only a shelter, not designed to spend a lot of time in.

I sold my Altaplex and bought an X-Mid. Love it! Solves all of the problems you mentioned. Thanks for the vid. Great!👍😃

X MID SOLID 1P from my part. My ultimate tent: double roofs ! light, I will never come back to single roof. And sooooo fast to set up. AH ! and nice for tall people., i am 1M87 tall (i think about wet sleeping bags when you wake up, you never touch the wall) By the way: nice review. Regards from Lux.

Great honest review thank you, my friend who has this tent and the Durston x-mid pro1 convinced me (@6'2")to get the Durston, and I'm extra glad I did now!

Tnx for the review. Bonfus Middus 1p is like Altaplex but double wall and modular. Its a little more costly and slightly heavier but avoids some drawbacks you mentioned, and its European company. If they were doing a fraction of marketing that Durston does, Bonfus would be a much bigger deal. Selling xmid pro...

Yeah, a premium price and the looks of a trash bag. Same with some ultralight cottage backpacks. They look like they are designed by twelve year olds. There are one or two good reasons to buy them. But it makes me also realize that hiking is more than transportation of lightweight weather protection products. It’s a dream, it’s emotion, atmosphere, even nostalgia. I can’t see how a trash bag fits into that. 😊

Zpacks leads in innovation. Unfortunately, it also leads in awful quality and equally awful quality control. On the Altaplex, I’m 6’5 and on a 3” pad my feet touched and my head was about 2” from the canopy. My quilt was in constant contact throughout every night. More irritatingly was the fact that if I leaned up, the canopy was very much on my shoulder. Bluntly, it was impractical for someone my size. Marketing this to tall people is non-sense. That said….I’d love a one-trekking pole shelter, just longer and wider. Good video.

Excellent review! I appreciate your approach to dissecting the components/structure of this tent based on your field experience and exterior information gathering. I am planning a Northern section hike of the Arizona Trail for Fall 2024 and have been wrestling between Zpacks, Durston, and Tarptent. I want to avoid large foot prints and want to be somewhat stealthy. I live above 7000ft (Flagstaff,AZ) so my concerns will be wind, rain, and maybe early snow at the higher elevation of 9000ft. So I'm being cautious as to my selection of shelter. Honestly, I do not want to seam seal...perhaps I should accept this as a possibility? I have time to sort this dilemma...If I'm going put out $700, I want to make sure I'm getting the appropriate kit. Currently I have the Alps Mountaineering Lynx1. This tent is holds up excellently in the elements mentioned above (50 m/h gusts of wind in Death Valley, but, its full package weight is about 4lbs. My goal is to keep the base weight (not including the pack) plus variable weight at not more than 30lbs. The water situation on the Arizona Trail is unpredictable, so I will be carrying at least a gallon to be safe. Any thoughts you or anyone subscriber hear can share is appreciated. Thanks much!

Thanks for sharing. Cons can be fixed, pros are great. I don’t mind what others think of me. Looking like trash is actually an advantage. Non hikers won’t target you to steal valuables. In a beautiful tent I had a night visitor who picked my car keys from under my pillow and I had to fight for my keys and my car until my neighbours and police arrived. So, trash looking of dyneema is actually a pro.

Any review planned for the new Decathlon MT 900's?

Tempting, but having to carry dedicated long pole is put me off. My lanshan 1 pro is still lighter :)

yall are a bunch of girls caring about the looks. The QC on the other hand, is an issue