I managed to get out on dartmoor twice the weekend before last; once on the Friday night for a quick getaway, and more seriously on the Sunday night where Jackie and I managed a 12 mile round-trip hike.
I'm excited because a few recent purchases (ThermaRest Prolite, Montane Featherlite) and a slightly more ruthless approach to packing has reduced the weight of my pack by a couple of kilograms, but the best part is that with a cheap compression sack my Eureka Spitfire tent takes up a lot less room and I can now fit back in to my much lighter 45L Osprey pack for one or two-day trips instead of the massive and heavy 65+10L Berghaus beast.
A one-man tent with a decent vestibule is still high on my wishlist so I can drop the tarp I'm currently using to make a verandah, and as Jackie's more enthusiastic about nights away than I thought she might be, I'd really like to find a larger, lighter alternative to the depressingly pokey, cheap, and disproportionately heavy Millets special two-man tent we have to lug around at the moment.
I originally had my sights set on the venerable Terra-Nova Laser Comp, but I've been put off recently by questions about its stability in high-wind, what with nothing to support the tunnel structure and only a single end-guy. But it's still one of the best weight-to-room ratio tents that (my kind of) money can buy.
For a two-man, I'm tempted by a tarptent design. But again, the poor hydrostatic-head of silicon impregnated nylon is a worry - not so much for the fly, but the floor. So you start having to lug about a footprint just to keep the floor dry.
Anyway, I need to move on the one-man tent soon. The Eureka's all-mesh inner won't cut it as the temperature drops.
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