Slingfin portal. I have a 2p and a 3p.
I mostly use it in the winter in west Texas. Winds are 50+ mph and its bomber. The hiking pole reinforcement keeps the dome from collapsing. The x cords connect the poles to the stakes and give a lot of stability. I’ve frequently ridden out 50+ mph winds in it. One time my big Agnes completely full of gear blew out into the desert. The slingfin had no problems.
Have a slingfin portal and have used it in some wild wind storms. Love it. Most recently had it in a 60+mph gusts with rain and sleet. Tent had no issues.
I did the Edziza and Rainbow traverse at the end of Aug/beginning of September in 2024. I took a MEC Spark 3 person tent for 2 of us. Pole ended up breaking on night 1 of 8, luckily we were able to repair it to functional. It is very windy up in that part of the world with little to no shelter. I was glad to have the extra space as the fly and walls were often collapsing in the wind gusts.
I replaced my mec tent with the Slingfin Portal 3. I mainly hike in the shoulder season, and coastal hiking in the rain. It's on the spendier side but I plan to hike in Scotland in the fall and its windy and rainy there too. The Portal has the ability to add hiking poles as structure stability in the vestibules or even upgrade to burlier poles.
I considered the Dagger but the fly does not come down to the ground and that could be problematic in rain accompanied with strong wind imo.
If Durston x-Dome came in a 3 person I probably would have bought that. I don't have any experience with Durston tents but i like that its a Canadian brand, innovative, and a wind sturdy freestanding design. I do use my 3 person tent for 3 people so a spacious two person tent wasn't in the cards. However your situation sounds different.
I absolutely love my slingfin portal 3. It’s a tank and it is light. There are heavy duty poles available for uses in high winds and snow. I had the BA copper spur before this and the slingfin is so much sturdier for about the same weight. I will say that BA did a better job with the pockets but that isnt a priority for me. The slingfin breathes very well. It also sheds water very well and I have stayed dry in downpours in Kentucky in the summer. Also slingfin is a small independent company and I love supporting that.
I would say the indus would be too warm for summer months. If you want something super beefy, get the crossbow and add the mesh body for it, but I think that’s way overkill for most backpacking trips.
Nemo has always made good products but I have no experience there. I have a tarptent stratospire 1 with the solid body and it’s tough to setup. The durston is supposed to be easier but idk. Im 5’10 and had trouble with my sleeping bag touching the end of the tent and collecting any moisture on the wall. And the durston is the same length so that is not for me, could be something youd like though. I believe the hyperlite is the same length.
Low cost, low weight, high durability…. you only get to pick 2!
I’ve been very happy with my Slingfin Portal. Not the lightest of the ultralights but it’s tough, well engineered, and still pretty darn light. Not cheap though.
I can vouch for the Slingfin Portal too. I’m 6’ 1” and no issues sleeping comfortably. It’s top tier quality, optimal balance of weight and durability.
As a guy who owns two Tarptents and a Slingfin this is the right answer. Only reason I don’t own one is because the others are still great and it would be wasteful to buy another tent
The pad is fine, I have one and when the ground is frozen I put it on a folding pad. The tent is fine but heavy. There’s better options, I use a Slingfin. The bag is meh and heavy, I can’t tell you how much I love my Gryphon. Buy once cry once. Both companies have excellent customer support. If you’re extremely new at this please have navigation figured out.
While I don’t have experience with the specific tents you’re looking at, my advice would be to go with Hilleberg if price isn’t a differentiating factor. I’m sure either would work great for you - beautiful products from both companies.
I have a Slingfun Portal and I absolutely love it, but Hilleberg design is in their own class. I’ve spent probably 40-50 nights in a friend’s Hilleberg, vs. maybe 30 in my newer Slingfin, and the small details of the Hilleberg win the day. Slingfin’s design is top notch and they have great attention to detail, but Hilleberg takes the same care, attention, and no holds barred approach to quality but you know that every detail has been refined through an order of magnitude more cycles of use and abuse in absurd conditions. All the cool details that sound like a great idea on paper but don’t fully pan out in the real world have been weeded out by Hilleberg leaving an absurdly refined design.
A hardware product developer by trade, I can only aspire to that level of design quality.
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The North Face
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Spacious vestibule, strong in storms, but rainfly tricky solo.
Nankoweep
