[at-l] Nomad issues

["W F Thorneloe, MD (Domain will change soon to attglobal.net)" <thornel@ibm.net>]

I think I was a bit harsh on my comments about the tent during last week's 
hike. The weather was very humid, and temperatures constantly changing. I 
had very wet clothing, and little idea whether to bring them inside to dry 
in the warmer air of the tent, or leave them under the vestibule. Even the 
vestibule had a huge amount of condensation, leading me to conclude that 
this was a weather and usage problem, not a design flaw. I know that wet 
clothing in the tent only increased humidity and condensation. I disagree 
with Kurt's advice to use your backpack as a barrier to the back wall. This 
will add to humidity, unless you don't sweat into your backpack padding.

I suspect a better place for wet clothing is between the tent and the 
ground cloth. Your body will heat the clothing, and wind and removing the 
tent in the morning will aid drying.

There is the problem of how to line up the tent for wind, especially when 
the wind patterns are changing (such as when a hurricane and cold front 
merge 100 miles east of your location). I probably would have done as well 
to have clipped the vestibule to the top of the tent, eliminating the sail 
effect. The NoSeeUm seems to hold warmth in fairly well, and little to no 
rain got in, except with some horizontal rain and misting. This tent does 
best when taunt, and the vestibule should either be in fully extended or 
retracted position during wind events. I probably should have rotated the 
tent 90 degrees during the night, even if that led to cold and wet 
initially. I suspect that I would have been more comfortable with a fourth 
tent peg, but there really was no tumbling event (just my fear of that).

I did have one Leki collapse briefly in the wind, but there was no problem 
in straightening it and tightening the tent.

Hence, I think my problems with the Nomad were user error and weather 
related, not a design error. I plan to discuss further with Kurt, 
especially before going out into such cold, humid and wind conditions.

OrangeBug
Atlanta, GA
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