by Alicia MacLeay
Below is a sample of new tents and shelters from Outdoor Retailer Summer Market that will debut in 2007.
Imagine a tent where you never deal with roots, rocks, puddles, or uneven ground, where it doesn’t matter if you reach camp by a certain time, and that weighs only 24 ounces. For ounce-shaving thru-hikers, adventure racers, and even disaster relief responders, the new Hennessy Hammock Hyperlite Backpacker A-sym (8 ounces less than the Hennessy UltraLite Backpacker) offers a low-impact, lightweight, highly packable shelter. It’s incredibly easy to get in and out of (no awkward floundering). Just duck underneath and through the bottom opening, sit back, and lie down. It even snaps closed (no zippers necessary) on its own and opens up again when you need to get out. And it’s fun. Think of it as your own personal cocoon, without the claustrophobia (thanks to all the mesh).
To make your Hennessey Hammock even more efficient, they've added an “automatic fly tensioner and water collection system,” which funnels rainwater dripping off the rain fly into soda bottles to provide you with clean, drinkable water in the morning. The water weight also automatically lowers the fly during storm conditions.
The MSR Big Daddy is an eight-person, four-door (sounds like an SUV), behemoth of a shelter for groups—large groups. It uses eight poles, 14 stakes, and has a floor area of 196 square feet (18.2 square meters), an interior peak height of 7 feet (2.1 m), and a whopping packaged weight of 64 lbs (29 kg) in a full-featured duffle. Cook, eat, gather, and party inside. It’s not going anywhere. Available January 2007
The MSR Hubba and Hubba Hubba have been updated to be lighter and stronger (thanks to an all-new hub pole combination). The one-person, one-door Hubba now weighs 2 lbs 13 ounces (1.27 kg); the two-person, two-door Hubba Hubba weighs 3 lbs 13.7 ounces (1.74 kg). Available January 2007
The Coleman Exponent expert line now includes the Pro Series X2 extreme tent designed with professional mountaineer and Exponent ambassador Mike Haugen. An extreme, two-person, four-season tent with a combination pole sleeve, pole clip structure, it weighs 6 pounds 11 ounces, is 87 by 52 inches, and is expected to go to Everest in 2007 with Haugen.
In addition to the new Castor X5 (10 x 10 feet) base camp tent, the Coleman Exponent line has added four fly-first hanging tent models, which allow the inner tent to stay dry even when pitched in the rain. The fly containing the pole structure is pitched first and the inner tent is then clipped to the fly. They include the wedge-tunnel solo Avior X1 (4 lbs 3 ounces; 4.1 square feet) and two-person Avior X2 (5 lbs 8 ounces; 8.6 square feet), and the semi-geodesic two-person Phad X2 (7 lbs 11 ounces; 14 square feet) and three-person Phad X3 (8 lbs 10 ounces, 15 square feet).
