Early Draft Review by Mark Verber
January 24, 2009
Review Item:
ZPacks Hexamid
Options: Cuben with Netting
Manufacture Year: 2010
Listed weight: Cuben shelter, guylines, and bag 8.9oz
Weight as delivered: tarp+attached guylines 8.3oz... I will measure the
other pieces later
MSRP: US$259
The Hexamid, especially the Cuben + netting model, is an amazing light solo shelter which is fast and easy to set up with a taut pitch. There is plenty of space for one person and gear. While sharing a Hexamid would be possible, I would only do so under exceptional circumstances because I think the roof slope doesn't leave adequate headroom for the person furthest away from the door. Obviously, Joe found that it could work for couple on the second half of his five month CDT hike.
Things that I liked::
Things I don't like:
My total shelter weight is 17.8oz which includes the Hexamid 8.3oz, optional door 1.5oz, 6 Easton Stakes + 2 Ti stakes, 2.8oz, GG Polycro ground cloth 1.3oz, and 1 GG Lightrek 4 pole 3.9oz.
The combination of the ZPacks Hexamid product page, see Tony's pictures from BPL Pt Reyes Trip (starts at picture #8), and Joe's video about how to set up the shelter gives a pretty good feel for the shelter. I have a first generation which uses three zippers that meet at the top peak. Joe has now switched to a single zipper to save weight and reduce the risk of zipper failure. Mine Hexamid looks just the the Hexamid in the video because it was the shelter in the video. So I didn't have to make the guylines... they came pre-cut and attached.
I have a Cuben Hexamid with netting. There are a four variations:
| Listed Weight | Cuben | Sil Nylon |
| No Netting | 3.1oz | 6.5oz |
| Netting | 8oz | 11.8oz |
There is also an optional "door" that is 1.3oz in cuben, 2.3oz in sil-nylon. I use the Hexamid with a Gossamer Gear Polycro groundsheet (1.3oz) which I place inside the shelter on top of the netting.
So far, the Hexamid has been used for four nights in my back yard with fairly consistent rain and a quick over nighter at Point Reyes. Initial setup was just before a series of winter storms rolled in. The nights time lows of 45-50F and a relative humidity 75-90% with on and off rain with winds betwen 0-20 mph. The days were typically 50-55F with on and off rain. The rain was mostly light to moderate, but there were several hours with rain falling enough it was painful while wearing a rain jacket. There was even a brief period of small hail. Point Reyes had a brief light rain in the evening with almost no wind.
Overall performance is quite good considering this is a extremely light weight three season shelter. The netting floor is a surprising idea. Placing a ground cloth over the netting does indeed seem to work well. The water runs down the netting on the outside of the ground cloth providing good protection. The one issue that needs to be managed is that wind blown rain that can come through the netting and pool on the top of the ground cloth. People who need extra space or regularly face wind driven rain should consider the optional door.
This is a very easy shelter to pitch. Just follow Joe's video of setting up the Hexamid. I found that after three attempts I could set up the Hexamid more quickly that Joe does on the video. The only slightly tricky part was getting the pole properly adjusted. The first two times I went to set up the Hexamid I didn't pull the pole quite forward enough. It's important for the bottom of the pole to be directly under the front corner of the beak.
There are three supplements I would recommend. First, as Joe recommends, you need to leave approximately 8 inches of slack between the front two guylines. Rather that having to approximate this each time, tied a knot at that exact point. This way I pull the shelter tight, and then drive the stake in at the knot location. Second, I often camp places that are extremely rocky which makes placing stakes challenging. Fixed guylines aren't ideal. You can retying the staking loop (or pretie a few loops at different lengths) or purchase a set of mini line locks. I plan to install link lock on 5 of the guylines before going to the sierras. Finally, I would recommend doing a small shock cord loop for the two pullout for the middle of the shelters walls to insure you don't over tension them.
None some far.. but we haven't reached dew point. Time will tell, but previous experience suggests that cuben might be a bit less prone to condensation that sil nylon.
I found the rain protection surprisingly good the first two nights. The first night got some rain, the second night got several hours of hard rain with winds averaging 10mph. While the rain did come through the netting, I found the space from the ridgeline back stay dry. The first night I placed the leading edge of a polycro ground cloth a few inches closer to the door than the top ridge. There was no noticeable moisture accumulation on the ground cloth. The second night the ground cloth was still dry, but the the foot of my quilt did get slightly damp when the wind picked up a bit. The surface dried completely in an hour or so in 50F, 80% humidity so it didn't get that wet. I expect that if I had deployed the optional door, that the foot of my quilt would have been dry. The second day we have some wind gusts than were around 15 mph though the door that drove rain through the netting into the top ground cloth near my head which accumulated a small puddle. Neither me nor my quilt got wet because we were on top of my pad. I believe if the ground cloth's leading edge was was under the ridge line rather than pushing under the beak that I wouldn't have had any accumulation on top of the ground cloth.
I moved the ground cloth so it's leading edge was at the ridgeline. The netting that was formerly under the ground cloth as well as the ground underneath was almost completely dry in a couple of hours. It seems to me that having a netting floor to help manage moisture might work well. The third night we had some good gusts. I don't know wind speed but I am sure it was more than 20mph and some very hard rain for around 20 minutes. The rain reached slightly beyond the ridge line and got the edge of my quilt wet. I wish I would have deployed the door. The forth night and day I deployed the door. We have some very hard rain with wind gusts over 30mphs. I had no problem staying dry. Based on this experience, I would highly recommend the optional door for more severe weather conditions.
After 4 days in the rain I shook the Hexamid out and weighed in. It weighted 15.5oz... nearly doubling it's weight from accumulated water. After hanging two hours in a 55F garage at a 60% humidity the Hexamid was still slightly damp to the touch, weighting 10oz.
We didn't get the typical Point Reyes wind, so the most I have seen was 15-20mph continuous wind, and ~30mph peaks. Hexamid did fine.
Time will tell, but I expect that it will be excellent.
The Hexamid is well construction. All the seams were taped, the sewing was even, I didn't find any frayed edges. While well constructed, the Hexamid was not up to the class leading constructions of the Cuben shelters from Mountain Laurel Designs. When the Hexamid arrived, a piece of the tape for the peak had partially separated from the shelter. A bit of pressure and the tape was re-affixes, apparently no worse for the wear. Ron Bell of MLD has noted that he switched to a special tape that was significantly better than the traditional sealing tape. Besides being more UV resistant, the MLD tape doesn't seem to stick out as much.
I have some concerns about the fabric swatch that you set the tip of the pole into. Joe reports that it did not wear out or get a hole after 5.5 months of use. I am very surprised, and for the time being put a cap on my pole tip to protect the fabric. This might not be needed. Joe also pointed out that putting a small hole wouldn't be a big deal because your ground cloth provides protection from moisture, not the netting floor.
To early to tell long term durability, but Joe did use his for 5.5 months on the CDT so I expect that it should be fine for most people. There is some concern about the tape aging from UV exposure.
Joe has switched from taping the seams to doing a double stitch and letting owns seam seal. Time will tell if this increases durability.
My order was processed quickly, and Joe was able to accommodate a "ship by" date so I could take it on my next scheduled outing.
There are a number of ultralight shelters which might be interesting to someone considering the Hexamid. Additionally, some people will find the combination of a tarp and either a bivy or nest (net tent) effective. The shelters I think are more closely related to the Hexamid with bug netting are listed below.
Gossamer Gear The One: The One has more room to move around and large vestibule which makes it much easier to stay dry in a rain. Entry and exit is also easier. The One is more expensive, requires two poles rather than one, and is harder to get set up with a taut pitch.
MLD SoloMid or MLD DuoMid + MLD Mid Inner Tent. Much better in harsh weather with more room inside the tarp at nearly twice the weight and expense. The solo innernet provides a smaller space than the inside of the Hexamid. I don't have experience with the duo innernet, but expect that it would feel more roomy than the Hexamid sleeping on the diagonal.
SMD Gatewood Cape + Serenity NetTent. Provides rain gear/pack cover in addition to shelter. The NetTent has less space than the Hexamid. The Gatewood Cape/NetTent has an advantage that you can use the items separately. The combination of Gatewood Cape and NetTent is more expensive and heavier than the Hexamid with netting in either silnylon or Cuben.
SMD Wild Oasis: Slightly cheaper than the sil-nylon, netting version of the than the Hexamid. Not as bugproof as the Hexamid since a groundcloth is laid over the netting without being fully sealed. Reports lead me to believe that the Wild Oasis would be more temperamental to set up but I don't have personal experience so I can't say for certain if this is the case.