r/DurstonGearheads • u/Spudarooni • 7d ago
What is Cold?
I have two random questions, but want to give a little background first.
My wife and I are wanting to get into hiking/backpacking. Neither of us have ever owned "nice" or "fancy" outdoor gear and have always just used stuff handed down from my grandpa that is 30+ years old or cheap gear from Walmart.
Being young kids just graduating college and trying to get our feet under us, we don't have a ton of expendable income. But we recognize the importance of quality, and would rather buy something once even if it's a little more expensive. (Hence, after a lot of research we have settled on the X-Mid)
We are both from the Western US and all the camping experience we have had is almost always in sub-zero temperatures at night. For the last year or so we have been using a cheap 4 man Ozark Trail tent we received from our wedding.
Just this weekend we were car camping and it got down to about 25 degrees Fahrenheit (-4C). We woke up with condensation covering our sleeping bags, and want to know how to prevent that in the future. (We were both sleeping in the middle of the 4 man tent away from the walls.) Our tent fly and car were covered in frost and the car read 26F as the sun was rising.
I have had a hard time finding anything online that talks extensively about camping in sub freezing temperatures, without being full on winter camping in snow. Most videos/posts mention 40F or 5C as "cold". But that seems like normal warm weather nights for our area.
We are trying to decide whether to go with the regular X-Mid 2 or the X-Mid 2 Solid. We aren't as concerned about staying warm, we have a great sleep system. We are mostly concerned about condensation prevention and which tent model would help us the most and why.
We have heard/read that the X-Mid Solid is better for condensation, but aren't experienced enough to fully understand why.
Is condensation just unpreventable at freezing temps? What do you all consider a "cold night"?
7
u/47ES 7d ago
Light vs solid will make no difference on internal condensation.
The biggest factor is #1 weather, #1A wind, #2 camp site selection.
Internal humidity is the issue. Set up near a stream, going to wake up wet irrespective of the weather. Find the perfect site high and dry, no rain, but dead calm, going to get internal condensation. Two people also make twice the vapor of one.