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Field Report:
Having used the Evolution 1P for seven nights, I am
a happy chappie. Sure I have my bug points, but the good
points outweigh the bugs as I see it. I like this tent, I feel good about
taking it with me in my backpack, I sleep well in it. Well done Big Sky Products.
Testing during the field phase of this test has been limited to seven nights
in the Fitzgerald River National Park. A night or two less than what I
hoped. The Evolution 1P was used on the seven nights in a walk of the
Fitzgerald River National Park from Four Mile Beach to Quaalup Homestead
from April 14 - 20, 2006. During this walk varying camping conditions where
experienced from car-camping hard packed camping sites at Four Miles Beach
to numerous nights on sand, including one night just above the high water
mark at Twin Bays, to freestanding on a concrete floor at Point Ann day
area.
Other than two nights where some light rain was
experienced, the weather was fine, but often quite windy, with winds coming
in off the Southern Ocean. On more than one night I was frustrated
that I did not have the full set of titanium pegs and guy reports that
normally come with this tent, as the wind did buff the tent around a bit.
I did not experience any evidence of condensation in the
tent. This may have been in part because of the windy nights encountered or
of course the design of the tent. Hopefully condensation conditions will be
experienced in the long-term testing phase and I will be able to report more
conclusively on how the Evolution 1P handles such conditions.
I had one significant problem with the tent in that I
managed to break, maybe that is a too stronger word, I managed to split one
piece, of one of the carbon poles. I wouldn't say this was a design issue, rather
more reflective of myself not being as careful as I should have been. It
happened at Twin Bays, we had, had a long day of walking, with a good part of
the afternoon spent of climbing in and out of gullies of thick scrub, we had
come off the ridge (took two attempts to find a viable route down) hitting
the beach as darkness fell, leaving the group facing some rock scrambling
and hoping to
find an old abalone hut and water tank whose actual location was unknown. When we gave up looking in the dark for the hut, I
was down to 500 ml (17 fl oz) of water, tired and hungry. The only
camping spot at that point was just above the high-water mark. All up not a
good time to put up a tent, but up it had to go up.
I made my first mistake early into the pitch, putting in one pole and
tensioning it in place by inserting each end into its grommet. This had the
effect of putting tension on the whole tent. When I was putting the second
pole together before inserting it into the sleeve, I had trouble putting two
sections together. At the time I put this down to a bit of sand or grit in
the pole, didn't really pause and engage brain, instead I forced the sections
together. I then went to insert the assembled pole into its sleeve. With the
other pole already tensioned, it just wasn't going into too well, and bingo
it went crack. Tired and hungry I just said stuff it, finished putting the
tent up, got into my sleeping bag and hoped the wind wouldn't to be bad.
Don't think it was, I just went out like a light! Next morning I took a
close look at the pole; I had a small crack in one sleeve, about 2.5 cm (1
in), but it seemed to be holding together okay, so I didn't apply any tape
or other repairs. In fact I continued to use the pole for the rest of the
walk, another three nights, without issue. Lesson learnt? Put both
poles into their sleeves before the final tensioning into the grommets!
One feature of Evolution 1P that I had high hopes about
is its ability to be pitch it as a combination, i.e., inner and outer together.
As mentioned in my
Initial Report, "one can use the hook and loop fasteners found on the
inner and fly 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."
This sounds simple, the concept seems like a good idea. I
tried and tried the pitching together, in fact I did it every night over the
walk. I would say that at the end of the walk, I am sort of getting the
hang of it, but find it a fiddle and frustrating process as the fly and
inner don't match together at enough points, meaning that often they have
got tangled or it is hard to locate and push or pull out the poles. Also the
slipperiness of the Silnylon fly does not help. I still
think the concept is a good idea and expect I will get the hang of it, but at
present it is frustrating.
My only other serious negative with the tent is that I found the door location and size less than ideal.
I would
like to see the small gear pocket, currently on the opening side of the
inner moved to the opposite wall of the inner and the
door enlarged by about 10 cm (4") by bringing the door opening forward towards
the wide end of the tent. At present I found myself catching and often
pulling out the peg that holds the vestibule at the zip end. That is the
doorway is partly obscured by the vestibule. Moving/enlarging the opening
would allow exit/entry further forward avoiding the vestibule fly. This
would also make it better to lay in the tent looking out through the doorway if one so desires. This change also keeps the very useful gear pocket
and the useful clothes drying pocket. All up, a small change
which would significantly enhance the tents functionality in my view.
To summarise my experiences in the Field and to comment on other aspects
of the Evolution IP, I refer back to my test plan as outlined in my
Initial Report.
-
Ability of the tent to provide shelter in three season
weather conditions, particularly during winter here in Western Australia. -
Stability of the tent in varying weather conditions.
As alluded to early in this
report I have not experienced much in the way of rain, but I have
experienced some windy nights indeed. Windy enough to keep me awake with
the flapping of the tent. Ideally I would liked to have guyed out the tent
on these windy nights but have yet to receive the guy ropes and titanium
pegs. My experience therefore is reflective of a less than ideal pitch.
All that said, other than some excessive flapping of the tent I have been
happy with the performance of the Evolution IP. Hopefully I will
experience some more serious weather in the long-term phase allowing me to
comment more on the tents performance in less than ideal conditions.
Due to most nights been windy, I
have not experienced any conditions likely to produce
condensation so really can't comment on this aspect as yet, other than to
say I have not experienced any condensation at all.
I am happy with the level of
airflow that I have been able to get with the tent. In fact on one
night I brought the non-vestibule side of the fly in closer to the inner to
reduce the air flow as it was getting cold. Yep, I am happy with the airflow
levels experienced to date.
As I indicated earlier I find the
single pitch approach a bit of a fiddle and a frustrating process as the fly
and inner don't match together at enough points, meaning often that they
have got tangled or it is hard to locate and push or pull out the poles.
Also the slipperiness of the Silnylon fly does not help. I still
think the concept is a good idea and expect I will get the hang of it, but
at present it is frustrating. That said I have been happy with the ease of
pitching and pull down so far. The tent has not blown away!
Love the space this tent
provides. Find it more than sufficient for me. I keep some clothes and bit
and pieces in the tent, the balance of my gear stays in my pack or loose
under the vestibule. My only negative on this aspect is the size/location
of the doorway as discussed above. If the door can be enlarged/moved
towards the big end of the tent I would suggest the design is then ideal.
I use the vestibule to store my
Granite Gear Stratus Latitude pack and my shoes. I have found it adequate
and on the nights it did rain, it provided full protection of my gear.
Again no issues. This is where
the current door size/location comes into play as it opens widely into the
vestibule area, making it easy to access gear in the vestibule.
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Durability of the floor in varying ground pitch
conditions;
-
Durability of the zips, fasteners, fly, inner and poles
during the test period.
No signs of wear and tear are
evident so far. My only negative here has been my experience with the
carbon pole, not a design problem, more of a clumsy gear tester problem.
That all said, I do have one bug-bear and that is I find that I always
catch the vestibule fly zip rain flap in the zip. Damn annoying on a
zipper run in the middle of the night.
So what do I like about the Evolution 1P?
- Its light weight;
- Smallness of the packaged size;
- A stuff sack that is big enough for the tent - what a breath of fresh
air, no fighting with tent and stuff sack every morning;
- Airflow through the tent;
- Drying pocket and gear pocket;
- Access to the vestibule from inside the tent;
- Interior space;
What do I dislike about the Evolution 1P?
- Door opening size/location in terms of getting in and out of the tent;
- The ease with which the fly zip catches in the zip flap. Damn annoying
on the zipper runs in the night;
- No guy ropes to insure a tight pitch on windy nights.
What am I neutral about at this point in the test:
- The inner/fly pitch together design. Feel the jury is still out on
this. Would like to see more connection points, at least four more to help
keep the fly and inner together.
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