Reviews > Shelters > Tents > Big Sky International Evolution 1P > Ralph Ditton > Field Report

Field Test Information

shelter on sandstone ground

On the first occasion that I used the shelter the weather was fine with overnight cloud. Temperatures ranged from a low of 12 C to 26 C (54 F to79 F). The wind during the evening and night was approximately  20 knots. The location was at Prickly Bark campsite S 31° 42.800' E 115° 56.981 on the Coastal Plain Walk Trail and sits at an elevation of 83 m (272 ft) as measured by Garmin Geko 301 GPS.

The ground where I pitched the shelter is a mixture of sand and sandstone. I did not use a groundsheet or dedicated footprint to give protection to the tub floor as I wanted to see how the floor stood up to the test. I bent three aluminium tent pegs staking the shelter due to the hard ground. On this occasion I used the carbon poles for the structure.
An examination of the tub floor revealed no puncture holes from the sandstone, but there was plenty of off-white chalky smudges on the fabric which came off with a damp cloth using plain water.

sandstone dirt on bottom

I was appreciative of the luminous tags on the outside of the shelter which showed up the shelter when I shone a torch in the general direction of it. The four luminous tags are located immediately  below, on the outside of the fly, of the hook and loop tabs that are on the inside of the fly which hook up to the inner. In addition, the the fly door tent peg loops have a reflective tape woven into them. Likewise, the zipper pull in the fly also has a reflective strip woven into the pull. At the corners of the inner where the locking pole tips go, there are four tent peg loops with the reflective tape woven through.

Trying to select a site to pitch the shelter was a problem due to the numerous ant nest and long trails of ant tracking to and fro. I am happy to say that no ant got inside the inner shelter due to the very fine weave of the no-see-um mesh.

I had the vent open during the night and felt quite warm inside the shelter. At around 4 am I went to the toilet and getting back into the shelter, the warmth inside was noticeable after experiencing the  outside cool night air. In the morning I checked for condensation inside  the shelter, especially the underside of the rainfly and found none.

Two minor problems presented themselves during this test.

• The rainfly zipper got caught up in the zipper cover each time I used it. I was able to clear the zipper from the caught material very easily by reversing the action.
• When the sun comes out, the marigold colour rainfly does not block out the sunlight and it woke me up. It was very bright inside the shelter. Sunrise was at 5.56 am (Source: Bureau of Meteorology).

When I dismantled the shelter at 8 am, the Ultra Violet reading was 2 which is low. (Source:Bureau of Meteorology)

I again went to Prickly Bark for another field test.
Due to the excessive heat, I decided to pitch the inner only and use it on the sleeping platform inside the shelter which is open in the front. The minimum overnight temperature was 22 C (72 F) with hot winds blowing in from the eastern land mass, being the remnants of Cyclone Emma. By 6.30 am the following morning the ambient air temperature was already 32 C (90 F). The Ultra Violet reading between 6.30 am and 9.30 am reached 11 (Extreme). When I finally packed up and left by 9.30 am, the temperature was 39 C (102 F).

shelter on sleeping platform

Mosquitoes were a major source of annoyance during the night when I was talking to my walking partner at the campsite table, even though we had insect repellent on. When I went to bed inside the inner shelter, I had a very peaceful night without any mosquitoes gaining entry. The no-see-um mesh certainly kept any biting insects at bay.
I did not use any groundsheet under the shelter floor but I had to be careful of screw heads and splinters in the wooden base as to where I pitched the shelter.
Upon my return home, I had to wash the base of the shelter as it was covered in sandstone dust. I removed it with a damp sponge using cold water, then I hung it over the clothes line to dry before packing the inner away.
I found cleaning the base very easy to do. All I had to do was use the top of the washing machine as a table and sponge down the base, moving the cleaned areas off the top of the washing machine and bringing the next dirty area into place and repeated this exercise until it was all done.

Over Easter 2006 I went backpacking along the Bibbulmun Track and camped at two sites, Boarding House S 34° 16.823' E 115° 55.856' and Tom Road S 34° 09.877 E 115° 54.786'.
The first night was spent at Boarding House at an elevation of 133 m (436 ft) according to my GPS. There was drizzle all afternoon with a light shower during the night. Temperatures in the evening ranged from a maximum of 10 C to a minimum of 6 C (50 F to 43 F). Humidity was approximately 95% and there was no wind at all during the night.
The first problem that I encountered was when I opened the fly door. Drops of water from the rain that had beaded on the fabric fell onto the no-see-um mesh, through it onto the floor, the edges of the sleeping bag and self inflating mattress inside the shelter. I used my pack towel to dry the inside of the shelter.
Rain beads very well on the outside of the fabric and I did not notice any sagging of the fly.

rain beading on the fly

Due to the high humidity, a very thin film of moisture formed on the inside of the fly prior to me getting into the shelter for sleeping. By morning, that thin film of moisture had turned into beads of condensation, very similar to the rain beads on the outside.  I also had the ventilation port opened fully.

shelter at Boarding House campsite

In wet conditions, the window in the shelter becomes redundant as it fogs over and I could not get to the inside of the window to wipe clear because the inner was in front of it. This was in the late afternoon when I was sitting inside the shelter having a look around to see how it was handling the rain. I thought about detaching the fly from the tent pegs at the front and lifting the fly up to wipe the inside of the window, but discounted the idea relatively quickly when I opened the shelter door from the inside and got another shower of raindrops falling onto me and inside the shelter. By disturbing the fly, rain drops on the fabric start moving and I did not want to wet the inner shelter at the window end.
The next morning, I spread the fly on the camp table and wiped it dry with my pack towel before packing it away for the day's walk to the next campsite. The reason for this was to keep the inner shelter dry and I did not want to carry any unnecessary weight.
The following afternoon at Tom Road campsite, elevation 210 m (689 ft), I set up the shelter in the area set aside for tents. The temperature ranged from 12 C to 5 C (54 F to 41 F) overnight. The day was fine, overcast with occasional sunny periods. The humidity of approximately 80%.
I placed a tarp under the floor of the shelter that only protected approximately half of the length. The tarp was under where the bulk of my resting body lay.

shelter at Tom Road
I also used the roof of the shelter as a clothes line to dry my walking clothes. This was partially successful as the sun's rays were feeble without much heat in them.

looking inside the shelter.
The overnight atmosphere inside the shelter was much warmer than the sleeping conditions of the other backpackers who slept in the three sided shelter because the shelter trapped what little sun heat there was and my body was generating heat that was being trapped by the shelter fabric.
The downside was that the underside of  the fly was covered in condensation during the night and I had to be careful in not letting the inner shelter brush against the wet fly.
When I dismantled the shelter, I gave the fly a number of good shakes to flick the moisture off.

Performance against Test Plan
I found that the locking pole tips lock easily into place and do not slip out of place when erecting the shelter. In fact, when dismantling the shelter, I had to physically separate the locking tips from the grommets. A very good design.

The shelter is extremely easy for one person to erect. As I was not into any speed erecting, it took me around seven minutes to erect, including pegging it out. To dismantle, about five minutes.
When I erected the shelter in light drizzle, I was a bit quicker, some three minutes to insert the poles and throw the fly over. Pegging out took a little longer, about a minute and a half. Fortunately the ground was easy to put a tent peg into.

At all of the campsites I used seven tent pegs to stake the shelter out. I initially put in just two, one to create a vestibule and one on the other side to pull the fly away from the inner. What I found was that the pole legs had a tenancy to creep together whenever I opened and closed the fly and inner door. The action of opening and closing transmitted itself to the four corners. The corners did not move a great deal and I could have got away with it, but I decided to fully stake the tent out.

To date the Ti UL tent pegs and guy lines have not been provided.

The inner shelter fits on some sleeping platforms along the Bibbulmun Track as evidenced by picture no.3. It will not fit in the shelters where there is no central platform as the distance between the top and bottom platforms is too low for the shelter to fit under.
The reason why I like to pitch the inner shelter only on a platform is for very hot evenings and there are lots of biting insects about. It helps to allow a breeze to pass through the no-see-um mesh and not feel stifled inside a shelter with a fly on.

The shelter can be adapted to be a fly-first pitch. I just line up the hook and loop tags on the fly and inner,rest the two components on top of one another on the ground, then insert the poles. When the poles are inserted, I then place the locking tips of the poles into place in the respective grommets on the inner and fly.

I found that I had enough space for my night time needs. The full length self-inflating mat, pillow, sleeping bag, water bladder, medical kit, headlamp and a small LED light.
I was able to sit upright comfortably and change my shirt. I had to lay down to change my trousers, although I could have done it kneeling down. This would have meant sitting down to get the trousers over the knees. It can be done, but my knees do not like resting on rough ground even though there is a very thin shelter floor between them.

As an experiment, I brought my 90 litre (5492 cu in) backpack inside the shelter and placed it at the foot of the shelter. This took up too much room, so I placed it at the head of the shelter and used the backpack as a pillow. A much more successful exercise.

The vestibule does not have a lot of head room and I had some difficulty in placing the backpack in there without blocking my entry and exit. I did not want to lay it down in the wet soil in the vestibule, so I left it outside with a pack cover on resting on a log.
In the Long Term Report I will explore this aspect much more fully.

When I lay down inside the shelter, the wall of the inner nearest to my face slopes gently upwards  leaving my face very clear of fabric. I do not feel claustrophobic inside the shelter.

Entering and exiting the shelter can be a little tricky when the zip on the fly wants to jam on the shelter material. I have to back the zip up to free the jam and the recommence in the original direction. The zip tended to jam about every second time I operated it.
I had no problems with the zips on the inner.
The fly door opens up quite wide and the inner door is also generous with its opening. I was able to enter and exit through the openings without difficulty.

entry into shelter

Trying to repack the shelter and put it back in its stuff sack was a little tricky initially. The fly, being made of Silnylon is very slippery. When I tried to roll it up with the inner inside it, the fly had a mind of its own. The fly slipped around with the sides blowing out after I had folded them in to make the package narrow to fit inside the length of the stuff sack.
After many folding and rolling exercises at home and in the field, I think I have mastered how to repack the shelter for insertion into the stuff sack.
The rolled shelter slips very easily into the stuff sack as it is made of silnylon also.
It now takes me about three minutes to roll and insert the shelter into its stuff sack.

Most of the time on short trips, the shelter inside the stuff sack fits into my backpack. For longer trips, the shelter is just long enough for it to be strapped onto the outside of my backpack near the base.

shelter strapped onto the backpack

So far during my testing, there has been no severe winds so I cannot comment on stability and anchor points of the shelter. Hopefully in the next phase I will get some adverse weather.

Rain did not enter the shelter through the ventilation port.

The fabric surrounding the grommet points where the locking pole tips are housed during erection, became muddy from the wet soil. Upon my return home, I washed these area on both the fly and inner with lukewarm soapy water in my laundry sink. The dirt/mud was removed and there appeared to be no damage to the fabrics. I hung both sections of the shelter over the clothes line to dry. I left them for around twelve hours to make sure the webbing was completely dry before rolling up and storing away.

Thank you Big Sky Products and BackPackGearTest for the opportunity to test the shelter.

Reviews > Shelters > Tents > Big Sky International Evolution 1P > Ralph Ditton > Field Report