Going light is expensive. Going cuben fiber (Dyneema Composite Fabrics) makes it even more expensive. And many of these specialty items are not ones that you can buy with your REI member's dividend and 20% coupon. I spent several months looking into shelters. I read blogs and watched videos on tarps, tents, hammocks, and what have you. I studied cost comparisons, weight comparisons, durability comparisons, and so on. In the end I had to accept that there would be no single shelter that would be 100% perfect for me and be adaptable to all ranges of thru-hikes. There never will be a shelter that is 100% perfect - manufacturers should keep striving as that drives progress, but we have to accept that a 67% marriage is more realistic and something that we can live with.

 

That being said, I love my cuben fiber MLD Duomid with Solo Innernet. It cost an arm and a leg, but it's the only shelter I've used for the past several seasons. It's uber-light, maintains it's pitch all night even in bad weather, it pitches with my trekking poles, and is in as good of shape as when I first used it. I sleep warm and found that I benefit from the "floorless tent" pyramid design that allows more air to circulate. It provides much more protection than a tarp does. The Duomid size means that I can store my gear inside if the weather is poor. The solo Innernet provides protection from bugs and slugs, but is easily left behind (or simply not pitched) if conditions don't require it. I've had it in wind and rain and it hasn't started to sag or needed re-pitching in the middle of the night. I haven't had the opportunity to use it in snow, but there are plenty of online trip reports describing its performance in those conditions.

 

There are a couple of downsides, though both really have no impact on me. First, most shelters (some tarps are exceptions) get hot once the sun starts to shine on them; cuben fiber seems to heat up much more quickly than other materials. It probably would not be a good shelter if you like to take your time in the morning, have coffee in your shelter, and enjoy the setting while waiting for a later start to hit the trail. I'm usually up and on the trail by 8 am so this feature of cuben fiber hasn't negatively affected me. Second, cuben fiber does not fold as tightly as other materials. Other shelters will require less space in your pack than shelters made with this material. Again, this hasn't affected me as I store my Duomid and Innernet in the large pocket on the outside of my pack (another MLD product, the Prophet).

 

Pitching a Duomid takes a little practice. It's not as challenging to master as properly setting up a tarp, but it's not as simple as threading a couple of tent poles through a few hoops. I practiced in my backyard and found that I was getting good pitches within a small handful of trials. This video shows my current pitching technique. I intentionally slowed down my efforts for purposes of the video - I typically get the Duomid up in a couple of minutes and another minute or two for the Innernet (not shown in the video). An aside here: My search for the perfect shelter (67% perfect!) led to me viewing numerous videos and reading through blogs and forums. These sources were invaluable to me and allowed me to buy with confidence. Blogs and YouTube channels, such as Tony Hobbs's channel, provided a first-person look at the Duomid. Particularly, I found blogs and videos from people using these items in the field to be incredibly helpful. These items are expensive and the more information out there, the better. I consumed a great deal of information that others took the effort to share and the desire to pay it back is a primary reason for this website and YouTube videos (so blame them!).