UKC

Do you use a  trekking pole tent for summer mountaineering? Any ideas?

MLD Duomid. I'd get it in silicon, my experience of cuben fibre is that it has poor abrasion resistance and is prone to failure at the zips. The weight difference is negligible. Locus gear do something similar.

I've considered a cuben tent in my drive to reduce weight as I get older!

In what way does cuben have poor abrasion resistance, obviously I know what that means but I wouldn't have thought a tent suffered much from abrasion, what do they rub against?

Also, do you mean that the zips fail by pulling away from the fabric? A lot of cuben stuff tends to be taped (double sided tape) at seams rather than stitched because being a non woven fabric the stitching perforates and weakens it. Is that what you mean by failing?

Genuinely curious, thanks.

Summer mountaineering in the UK hills, or summer mountaineering in bigger places such as the Alps?

Just started using a Tarptent Notch - seriously impressed for weight/size and with the way it pitches it should be pretty robust for shoulder season use. I'm going to test it for four season but with my Nallo2 alongside it just in case

The cuben becomes abraded simply by stuffing the tent into a stuffsac, fibres then begin to delaminate and have to be stuck down with silnet. I now roll up mine rather than just stuffing it in.

The zip detaches from the fibre. I have had to sew and glue mine back on. MLD are a well regarded company, I just think the material has too many limitations and the saving of 150grams over the silnet version not worth the cost.

Ok, thanks for the reply. It's basically just a reinforced plastic sheet I think so repeated creasing must cause some sort of 'plastic fatigue'. I can see that rolling is better than stuffing in that respect.

Define mountaineering! I use my sil MLD Duomid on all 3 season hikes and sometimes in snow up to maybe 3500m but if I am leaving the tent set up somewhere on a summit push I prefer a fully enclosed tent (usually a Bibler style now), just because the structure of the Duomid is wholly dependent on all the ground pegs being solid. In some ways I think a trekking pole tent can be stronger as a trekking pole is a lot stronger than a tent pole. So, I suppose it depends how high and exposed you intend to use it, and whether you will leave it set up while climbing. If you don't have one already, a very useful bit of kit for mid style shelters is something to link the poles simply like this: 

https://www.backpackinglight.co.uk/shelter-accessories/YA111.html

I should say, after many nights (400?) and little maintenance, the zip needs replacing on the Duomid. In general, I think the mid design puts a lot of strain on the zip as it is structural, I think it could be strengthened by recessing the zip and attaching the sides with buckles for a small weight penalty. I mention this as a zip failure in a hooley would be fairly catastrophic compared to in a traditional tent (see here: http://www.tramplite.com/2012/11/mld-duomid-failure.html).

Trekking pole tents a nothing more than hyped old skool A-shaped tents   They have been in existence since before the Bronze Age, and have been used for mountaineering since before Hillary and Tenzimg summited Everest. The problem with the new ones is their flimsy materials and sloppy pitching. 

Trekking pole tents use hiking poles for setup instead of tent poles as a weight-saving measure for backpackers.