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Item Receipt:
As alluded to above I received the Big Sky Products Evolution
1P sans the titanium stakes and guy ropes. With the exception of the
positioning of the vent, the shelter came as expected. On the
Big Sky Products website a vent
is shown above the window at the foot end of the tent. Mine does not have
the vent positioned there, rather it is on the vestibule side of the
shelter. Mentioning this vent, it also has a neat feature of a stay to prop
it open. Quite nifty! [Click here to
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First Impressions:
Two adjectives come to mind immediately in describing this
tent ... light and long. The weight or should I say lack of
is very
noticeable for me, but then my standard tent (four-season) weighs in at around 2.7 kg (5
lbs 15 oz). The other point is the length of the tent which at 213 cm (84")
is quite long in my view. My initial crawl inside suggests a bit of
spare room for gear storage at the foot end should it be needed. My initial
impressions are also that the tent is roomy enough to be comfortable and
sitting up is just fine. Of course further testing will confirm or otherwise
these initial impressions.
The tent is easily put up (my first two attempts have
taken around 8 to 9 minutes each time). It has two poles which slide easily
into their respective sleeves (numbered in order of installation) before
inserting into their grommets. At this point the inner is now
up. The fly is then simply thrown over and the poles are inserted into the
grommets at the fly corners. The inner and fly have hook and loop fasteners
on the four corners at the guy points. At first I wondered why bother with
these hook and loop fasteners, what is the point of these? Well on my second
pitch, I smacked my head! My one initial criticism I had of the tent looks
likely to be overcome. My criticism was that the tent was inner pitch first.
A concept I never understand having been used to my Australian tent which is
outer pitch first. But with the Evolution 1P, one can use the hook and loop
fasteners to keep the fly and inner together making it possible to pitch the
tent in one go and break it down in one go, hopefully keeping the inner dry in
wet conditions and of course speeding up the pitch and break down. I will
report on my experience with this approach in my Field and Long-term
Reports.
As mentioned the tent has four guy points on each pole
corner. The tent also has four corner peg points plus three peg points
for tensioning out the fly and vestibule. As the tent is freestanding, it is
possible to pitch it without using the pegs but my first impressions suggest
the pegs will be needed to tension out the inner.
The fly can be tensioned out on the non-vestibule side
providing an air-flow gap between the fly and inner. On the vestibule side
of the shelter, two pegs are used to give the vestibule shape and to hold it
out from the inner. A single zip is used to create the door in the outer and
again a single zip is used to create the doorway in the inner. A storm flap
covers the zip in the fly. The flap is also makes use of a hook and loop
fastener at the ground end to help hold it in place. All the doors or door
flaps can be easily rolled back and held in place by sewn-in hooks.
 Also
on the vestibule side is a small ventilation flap which can be held open
with a sewn in stay or closed using the hook and loop fastener sewn in. See
photo for a better idea of what I am talking about.
Inside the tent there is a small gadget pocket on one side
and a larger pocket on the other side for possibly holding clothes needing
drying.
The tent ships with either carbon poles (7.42 mm / 0.292"
diameter) or aluminium poles (8.74 mm / 0.344" diameter). The poles are
long, reflecting of course the length of the shelter overall.
That pretty much describes the tent in detail.
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Testing Strategy:
The testing plan is focused around a number of weekend
pack-carries and one longer (approximately seven to eight nights) pack-carry
in the Fitzgerald River National Park over the testing period. The
testing will focus on:
- Ability of the tent to provide shelter in three season
weather conditions, particularly during winter here in Western Australia;
- Ability of the tent design to minimise condensation;
- Airflow in varying weather conditions;
- Stability of the tent in varying weather conditions;
- Ease of pitch and break down in varying weather
conditions with a particular focus on the single pitch approach;
- Functionality of the interior dimensions/shelter
design;
- Functionality of the vestibule design for storage of
gear;
- Access to the shelter with gear in the vestibule;
- Durability of the floor in varying ground pitch
conditions;
- Durability of the zips, fasteners, fly, inner and poles
during the test period
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