Super Lightweight gear designers and manufacturers do not simply produce stuff out of ultra light materials. They are also true innovators.
Just look at this inner tent from Mountain Laurel.
This is the innovation that really appeals to me. Why has nobody done this before?
The inner tent includes:
• Line Lock Corners- Included 3/32 shock cord wroks in the LineLocks and make adjusting the floor tension and position fast and easy.
Some of the most simple innovations are the best.
This reminds me. It’s time to maintain the tarp if I’m to use it with Bob in a few weeks. I bought some mini line locs over a year ago and still haven’t used them and I need to replace the chords on the tarp. Should keep my busy this weekend.
Andy,
I have been following MLD for sometime now and Ron has really expanded his range from a few items to a whole host of kit. The other thing for me is that I find myself looking at it on the website and thinking to myself….I could buy and would probably use most of the kit for sale on here!
I have over the years bought rucksacks and bivvies from Ron but now I am tempted to get a tarp from him as well because they are made so well. I already have 3 tarps so I do feel a little greedy!
I have a Ron built tarp and I like it a lot. He reallly seems to get the design and geometry spot on.
On innovation – it’s not so far from the Golite hex/shangrila nest but much, much lighter materials.
I really like the bath tub floor that makes it suitable for UK climes.
He’s also produced a half nest – great for solo use and more weight saved!
I’d really like the option of a longer zip or “T” zip arrangement so the front panel could be opened up completely to take full advantage of the height at the centre when not wanting to be ‘zipped in’. Ron didn’t want to do this mod at this stage as they’ve only just gone into production but he’s usually pretty amenable to delivering modifications too.
Great company and ace set of products.
I had been using the Six Moon Designs Serenity NetTent in my Golite Shangri-La 3 in midge season – it’s a similar design though designed for the SMD Gatewood Cape rather than the MLD DuoMid. It’s 200g, so takes the complete Shangri-La 3 package to over 1KG, but the space…. oh the space….