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Reviews > Shelters > Tents > Titanium Goat Vertex 5 > Colleen Porter > Long Term ReportLong-Term ReportTitanium Goat Vertex 5 Tent August 23, 2005 Manufacturer: Titanium Goat URL: http://www.titaniumgoat.com MSRP: $400.00 (US) Year model: 2005 Listed weight: 2 lb, 2 oz (.96 kg) Tested weight: 2 lb, 5.8 oz. (1 kg) Tester: Colleen Porter (Tester biography can be found at the end of the report) Product Description: A single-wall, conical, floorless 2-person tent constructed of 1.1 ounce ripstop nylon with a DWR (Durable Water-Repellent) treatment. It has 14 stake loops, a single pole, a single vertical zippered entrance, a small zippered ventilation port at the rear base, and a removeable guyline system on both the left and right sides. For a much more detailed description, along with photographs and the weights of individual components, please see my Initial Report. Field Conditions: Over the past six months, testing has taken place in the southern Mojave Desert, the Santa Ana mountains (low coastal mountain range, oak & chaparral), Lake Morena County Park (more oak & chaparral), and in the San Gabriel mountain range, all in southern California. Elevations have ranged from 8400 feet (2560 m) to 2400 ft (732 m). Conditions have ranged from heavy rain, to cool & humid, to warm & sunny. One trip featured considerable overnight winds, but I can give no estimate of their true speed or strength. Overnight temperatures have ranged from just below freezing to around 50 degrees (10º C). The Vertex 5 has been pitched on sand, grass, pine duff, and in scrubby weeds. Test Results: I love the Vertex, I truly do. Since I wrote my Field Report, I have had no more condensation issues - I think that our unusually wet rainy season here in California would have taxed even the most ventilated double-wall tent, so I can't really complain about the Vertex's performance in that regard. Besides, the Vertex's interior is spacious enough that wet walls never posed much of a problem. Really, I like so much about the Vertex that I find it difficult to know where to begin. It's light, spacious, solidly made, simple to pitch, packs down small, dries quickly, and so far it has easily handled all weather it has encountered. Plus, I find it incredibly aesthetically pleasing - such a tight, lovely, simple geometric shape. In order to give you, dear reader, a better-organized synopsis of my experience with the Vertex, I will return to the concerns I had about this tent six months ago. Setup: After setting the Vertex up twice, I felt that I had more or less mastered the pitching. Pitching is faster with two people, but even on my own I was always able to have it erected in around five minutes. There was one time when the Vertex turned out to be too difficult to pitch, but that was a car-camping trip where the campsite's soil was so unbelievably hard-packed that driving in fourteen aluminum stakes at the appropriate intervals from each other was pretty much impossible. Even for our big car-camping tents we had a devil of a time driving in steel stakes with a mallet! But this would have created a problem for any non-freestanding tent, and so is not a criticism of the Vertex. I was never presented with the opportunity to set up the tent in pouring rain. Construction: No complaints, no worries. I have inspected the Vertex every time I set it up and have never noticed any seams straining or any part that looks weaker than another. The stress seems to be very evenly spread throughout the stake loops & tent body. Materials: The lightweight ripstop used in the Vertex has held up nicely. As the experiences in my Field Report show, the Vertex's fabric is definitely not condensation-proof, but is effective in keeping even very heavy rains at bay. An unexpected benefit to the breathable fabric is its surprisingly quick drying time. Most moisture can be swabbed off with a bandanna, and if the sun was shining the Vertex typically dried in about fifteen minutes. Performance: Excellent. Of all the single-pole shelters that I own, the Vertex has become my favorite. My two complaints are very minor - well, one isn't even a complaint, more a problem with my style of backpacking. The complaint is that the rear vent is difficult to manipulate from inside the tent. I had to get down on my knees & elbows, face almost to the ground, in order to fiddle with the vent. It's not a design flaw or even a serious complaint, just the unfortunate fact of having to briefly assume an uncomfortable pose for a few moments. The other issue, for me anyway, is that the pole sits between the two tent occupants. I know I made light of this in my prior reports, but my husband and I typically share a two-person quilt when we backpack together, and a pole between us makes that impossible. This would also make mated sleeping bags impossible as well. I am so accustomed to floorless shelters that it almost didn't occur to me to write about this aspect of the Vertex. I have always used a modified NeatSheet as a groundcloth with my floorless shelters (mainly to keep my sleeping pad & bag out of the dirt), but this does not take the place of a floor. The Vertex pitches so flush with the ground that I would imagine I'd have to pitch it in a dry streambed in order to get much water seeping under the edges. The rainstorm in Joshua Tree National Park lasted most of the night, and was at times a deafening torrent, but I don't recall any water making its way under the tent's edges. As far as bugs go, we did occasionally get a few inside the Vertex, but once we had either killed them or fanned them out, then closed up for the night, we never seemed to get any more. Again, the tent pitches so tightly against the ground that almost any airborne bug would be shut out. Conclusions: A soild, lightweight, simple and secure shelter. For one adult it is a cavernous, luxurious home, for two it is still comfortable and allows both to sit up, even to rise to their knees. We also had no problem sharing the Vertex with our three-year-old son, although we did need to stow the child carrier outside of the tent. Now that we have a two-month-old child (yes, I had a baby during the test period) as well, we could fit him in, too, but we'd have to keep all the extra gear outside. We would not be able to fit larger children into the Vertex unless they wanted to sleep very close to Mama & Daddy!
I am extremely grateful to both Titanium Goat and BGT for being allowed to participate in this test. Thank you so very much. Tester Name: Colleen Porter Gender: female Age: 30 Height: 5 ft 8 in/1.73 m Weight: 142 lb/68 kg Email address: tarbubble at yahoo dot com Location: Orange County, CA Backpacking Experience: I have been hiking for fifteen years, backpacking for eight. I've only been serious about it in the last two and a half years. I mostly hike on established trails – bushwhacking is rarely planned. I like gear to be simple and light, and I do make some of my own equipment. On my own I pack pretty light (about thirteen lbs/6 kilograms base weight) and am always trying to get lighter, but I am often on family trips with my three-year-old son and the weight usually doubles. My 3-season backpacking haunts are the San Gabriels, The Santa Anas, the Sierra Nevada, and the Grand Canyon, and winters find me in the Mojave and Colorado deserts. Read more reviews of Titanium Goat gear Read more gear reviews by Colleen Porter Reviews > Shelters > Tents > Titanium Goat Vertex 5 > Colleen Porter > Long Term Report | |||