Zpacks - Hexamid Solo Tent

Do you hike with poles? If so, the single-walled Zpacks Hexamid can be set up with your hiking poles and is USD $499. My Zpacks single-walled tents perform poorly in rainy, humid conditions but making this compromise will save you weight. Tarptent makes several double-walled tents for less than USD $500 that perform well, and there are also some excellent Chinese-made Lanshan tents on Aliexpress. My double-walled Tarptent performs much better than my single-walled Zpacks tents when it's set up, but it's also much heavier to carry.

No. I’ve had 3 zpacks shelters. The duplex after doing the entire pct is still going strong. My favorite solo shelter is the hexamid solo tent. They all are light and awesome. They had some wavy stitches back in the day but not anymore.

Yes they don’t make the Hexamid solo TENT any more. Which is a bummer bc for a UL shelter it’s so perfect. Full, easy bug and weather protection with the option to remove the bathtub floor for cowboy camping. It’s pretty small tho. I’m just over 6’ and it’s a tight fit but I’m fine with it. This year I’ve been doing a solomid xl with bathtub floor bc a lot of my trips had really bad weather and I was held up for a long time so I was liking the more solid design with more guy outs and more room.

Pitch a low A-frame, and throw a shit-ton of rocks on the stakes. I've pitched many, many nights on exposed ridgelines. It sucks.... But works fine, and feels better than my zpacks hexamid in exposed conditions.

Joe, that's great and as I said it's a top tent. But the features you describe are already present in my 16oz DCF tent from your competitor. Had Zpacks continued to innovate with such features I might have bought your offering at the time as I liked my Duplex. And I hike too much to use your 'Lite' Dyneema strength. If you wanted to impress me with durable weight savings and minimalism, bring back the Hexamid Solo tent. It's still my favorite tent for out west @11ish oz. Thinking about it, I'd actually buy a lite version of that as it's a 'just in case' shelter for me anyways - besides cowboy camping for stargazing. What would that weigh? 7oz?

What did you do for a ground sheet when you did the CDT? I was lucky to get a Hexamid Solo tent from the small run you did a few years back (cool old school logo). Hiked the PCT with it up till WA. I paired it with an MLD superlight bivy with DCF and cowboy camped mostly. This wasn't the most efficient set up but modular. So I am right with you regarding removing the bathtub floor. Why didn't I get one vs the bivy? Sometimes the mosquitoes appear suddenly at night or you set up too close to an ant highway without realizing. Being able to zip up the bivy is hence worth it vs pitching a tent or let's face it, suffering all night.  Yet double material for the floor is inefficient.  My idea to pair with the Hexamid tarp: A removable bathtub floor but with an attached mesh screen. Partial zipper along the bathtub floor edge. Something to drape over you and close if necessary when cowboy camping. Bungee attachment on top to tie to Hexamid, trekking pole, tree or whatnot. Bonus points if it can be pre attached with partly open zipper to get unobstructed views while cowboy camping.  The screen doesn't need to be very tall. Just enough to get a happy bubble to eat in peace away from insects. Maybe this can work without a zipper even (but probably not with ants). Basically turn a DCF bathtub floor into a mesh bivy that fits the Hexamid? 

I sprung for one. It's my first 1P tent, and honestly that's the thing I'm not sure about - I miss having the extra room of a 2P. I might swap for one of the 2P Durstons at some point. However, for an UL 1P tent, I can't imagine anything better. The reason I went for it is I wanted to try a 1P tent that didn't put any fly material right next to my face - too claustrophobic. If you sleep with your head at the end with the shorter trekking pole, it does just that. The peak is right above your head which provides about 30 inches of head room, and the mesh wall behind the small pole makes it very feel open. I could hunker down in there comfortably if I had to. Not sure I could say the same for something like the Plex Solo (which I know a lot of you love - not dogging it. Just not my thing.) I've taken it out only once so far, about a month ago in Joshua Tree. It was super dry of course, so it wasn't much of a weather test. That said, ventilation is very good. Looking forward to getting it out again soon. Mine comes in right at the advertised 13.5oz without the sack, 14oz with. I cut down a Tyvek ground sheet to the floor shape - 4.5oz. With 8 of the big Zpacks stakes my shelter all in is at 23oz. My only gripe is that the bathtub floor is very 'floaty'. It lacks corner tensioners (which I guess is true of all Zpacks tents? Anyone have any advice on mitigating this?), and so doesn't retain the nice square shape seen in the manufacturer photos. I'm thinking of slapping on some Zpacks adhesive loops to the corners of the floor and some 1/16" elastic shock cord ties. Nothing too tight - I don't want it crazy taut, but it would be nice if the floor had form. The mesh pocket is very small and easy to knock stuff out of, but it did hold my iPhone 15 and a few other thin items. I'm also adding a couple of Zpacks adhesive magnet toggles at the peaks so I can easily hang my magnetic light(s) and use them as loops if I need to. All in all - it's great!