Gear Closet: Eureka Midori Solo Tent

Last year, tent-maker Eureka made a splash with a well designed new line of backpacking shelters in the form of the Midori 2 and 3. Those tents were lauded for being lightweight and affordable while still offering plenty of features that campers and backpackers really appreciate. This year they're bringing that same sensibility to the new Eureka Midori Solo, which as the name implies is a lightweight tent built for one.

The Midori Solo has inherited a number of key features from its older, larger siblings that make it an attractive option for anyone looking for a single person tent for their excursions into the backcountry. For starters, I was impressed with how easy it is to set up, even on my first go. It took less than ten minutes to take the tent out of its included bag, assemble it and move inside. Considering the tent is designed for the solo hiker, that ease of set-up is much appreciated.

I was also impressed with the level of ventilation on the Solo. Here in Texas, we're just now starting to cool off from the summer heat and the evenings have continued to be relatively warm. Rain has been at a premium as well, which meant I was able to camp without the rain fly without any issues. Even on warmer nights however, I was comfortable inside the tent with jut a light sleeping bag liner.

One of the most important aspects of any solo tent is how much it weighs, after all you won't be able to split the weight across multiple backpackers on a solo excursion. Eureka has delivered a product that performs relatively well in this aspect, particularly considering the tent's price tag. The Midori Solo tips the scales at 3 pounds, 9 ounces, which is hardly svelte but not especially hefty either. Make no mistake, there are solo tents that  weigh considerably less than this one, but they'll also lighten your wallet too.

Inside, the Midori Solo provides a solid amount a room for a single person although things get a bit tight if you bring too much gear inside. When secured into place, the rain fly provides a secure place for hikers to stash their gear to keep it protected from the elements. Inside their are a couple of gear pockets  for keeping a few small items close at hand such as a headlamp or a multitool. A gear loft across the ceiling provides even more internal storage.

With the fly in place, this is a tent that is rated for three-seasons, making it versatile for just about any outdoor adventure save winter camping. As mentioned, we haven't had much rain in my area, so I can't comment on how well the Midori Solo performs in wet conditions. But if it maintains the same level of performance of the Midori 2 and 3 however, it should do well in adverse conditions.

On more than one occasion in this review I've indicated that Eureka has delivered a great tent at an affordable price. The Midori Solo will sell for just $129.99 when it hits gear shops in January of 2014. That's a great price for a solo tent of this quality and relatively light weight. If you're in the market for a single-person tent for your future excursions, without breaking the bank, this is a tent that I think you'll be very happy with.

(Note: The photo in his story is of the Midori 2. I haven't been able to find a solid image of the Solo yet and I didn't carry a camera with me when I went camping with this tent. While the Solo is smaller and more narrow, the image of the Midori 2 does give you an indication of what the Solo looks like as well.)

The Best Gear Of Outdoor Retailer (Part 2)

A few days ago I shared my thoughts on the best gear that I saw at this year's Outdoor Retailer Summer Market. But the half-dozen items that I spotlighted at the time were just a tiny fraction of the new outdoor equipment that was on display there. Here are a few more items that caught my eye and may of interest to you when they hit store shelves over the next few months.

Kelty TraiLogic
One of the more impressive set of products that I saw at OR this year was the new TraiLogic system from Kelty. The company has gone back to its roots, creating a collection of gear that is designed to work well with one another in a very efficient manner. The TraiLogic product line includes a tent, sleeping pad, Dry-down sleeping bag and a backpack that converts from a 50-liter bag designed for backpacking to a 35-liter day pack in seconds. It is difficult to sum up all of the innovation that I saw in the TraiLogic designs but just know that Kelty is focused on making a complete backpacking system that is lightweight and affordable. How lightweight and affordable you ask? The entire collection weighs less than 10 pounds and will cost just $800-$900 depending on which configuration you select. Expect to hear much more about this product as it gets closer to launch next spring.

Adventure Medical Kits Fire Cubes
I've been a big fan of Adventure Medical Kits for years and absolutely love the products they've designed for travel, adventure racing and backpacking. At OR, the company was showing off another new innovative product in the form of their All Weather Fire Cubes. Somewhat resembling small marshmallows, the cubes are designed to help you easily start a fire in the backcountry. They are designed to ignite easily with the included fire sparker, even when wet and they are capable of generating a flame that burns as hot as 1300ºF (704ºC) for about 10-12 minutes. In other words, they burn long enough for you to get your tinder going so you can build a fire when ever you need one. Available in the spring, a $12 bag will include 48 cubes, which can actually be broken down into 8 smaller pieces should the need arise.

Brunton Hydrogen Reactor
One of the more ambitious projects that I saw at the show this year was the new Hydrogen Reactor from Brunton. The device uses hydrogen fuel cells to power our USB-chargeable gadgets such as headlamps, smartphones, GPS devices and so on. The fuel cells are good for approximately six charges of a typical smartphone and when depleted they can be refilled at a local gear store or swapped out for a fresh cell as needed. There will even be a $250 device available to charge you own fuel cells if you find yourself going through them quickly. The point of the reactor is to provide clean, renewable power to our devices from a lightweight and rugged source. The device works great, but Brunton is still building an infrastructure with retailers to support it. You have to commend them for their efforts at the very least.

Mountain Hardwear Optic 2.5 Tent
I'm a big fan of Mountain Hardwear gear so admittedly they can sway me pretty easily with their new products. That said, it is hard to not like the new Optic 2.5 tent that is designed for two people and features a door on both one side and one end. When both are opened you get a nice panoramic view of the landscapes around you that will make you wonder why someone didn't incorporate this design sooner. With a trail weight of 5 pounds, 13 ounces it is a bit heavier than most of the new two-person tents I saw at the show, but it comes with a pretty sweet price tag to help balance it out. The Optic 2.5 costs just $240, which is a great entry level for anyone who wants to buy a Mountain Hardwear tent.

Jetboil Joule Group Cooking System
Jetboil pretty much set the standard for a lightweight cooking system when they released their original
stove a few years back. Since then the competition in this space has gotten stiffer and the company has continued to improve and expand its product line to meet the needs of its customers. The new Joule stove, due in the spring, is large enough to feed 3-5 people and yet still packs down small enough to easily carry with you in your pack. It features a unique design that puts the fuel canister up-side-down which should improve the consistency of performance even as the canister runs low or the temperature begins to drop. The Joule is a cinch to use, heats up extremely quickly and provides ample space for the backwoods gourmet.

Mio Alpha Fitness Watch
If you've ever been to Outdoor Retailer you probably know that some of the more innovative products are often found tucked away in the pavilions that are located across from the main hall. That's where I came across the new Mio Alpha fitness watch which is designed to help athletes train and race better. The watch is capable of monitoring the heart rate of the wearer without the need for a cumbersome and uncomfortable heartrate strap. The watch can then give visual feedback on how much the athlete is pushing him or herself and help them perform better. The watch itself is comfortable and attractive, and can connect to a smartphone via Bluetooth for use with some of the more popular fitness apps out there.

I have a few more products I'll probably spotlight in the next few days. As you can see, there were a lot of items to checkout and excellent improvements and innovation from a number of sources. All of this gear may make your wallet groan a bit, but we're living in a time where things are continually improving and we get to reap the benefits.

Adventure Tech: Eddie Bauer And Goal Zero Collaborate On Solar Powered Tent

A day before the start of the 2013 Outdoor Retailer convention the Gear Junkie brings us the scoop on yet another interesting new product that should be arriving later this year. This time it is new tent from Eddie Bauer that integrates a solar charging solution from Goal Zero to create a shelter that can also power your outdoor gadgets.

The new tent doesn't have a release day or price just yet, but we do know that it is an update on EB's Katabatic four-sason model. The upgrade comes in the form of a built in solar panel on the roof that links internally to a Goal Zero charging system that uses the company's Sherpa 50 battery pack. The Sherpa 50 is capable of charing a number of devices, including laptops, and is a fantastic mobile power source. So much so that I gave it high marks when I reviewed one earlier this year.

The combination of these products should make for a great mobile base camp for the outdoor adventurer and professional alike. The Katabatic tent weighs in at a little over 10 pounds and the Sherpa will adds another couple of pounds to that, so this isn't exactly an ultra-lightweight option. But if you're setting up camp in a single location for some time and need to keep your satellite phone, GPS, laptop and other gear charged, this is an interesting option.

As mentioned above, there is no release date or price yet, but Eddie Bauer sells the tent at $599 on its own and Goal Zero retail the Sherpa 50 system for $360. A little math will tell you this will be an expensive alternative but potentially a very good one for those who need this kind of set-up. The possibilities look promising anyway.

Eddie Bauer and First Ascent aren't at Outdoor Retailer traditionally but I'm hoping Goal Zero will have one of these on display in their booth. I'll try to drop by and take a peek and see if I can find out a few more details. I'm sure more than a few of you will be wondering how well the solar-tent performs and when you might be able to order one.

Adventure Tech: New Material Could Revolutionize The Tent As We Know It

It seems like every piece of gear we use is getting more high tech and versatile with each passing year. This could include our tents if a press release from a team from Harvard is to be believed. Researchers at the venerable and highly respected university report that they have created a new material that has unique and adaptive qualities that could have a huge impact on a number of products, including our tried and true wilderness shelters.

While the description of the new material sounds like something right out of science fiction, it seems that it is very real and will be coming to the marketplace in the future. The press release says that the "bioinspired material is a continuous liquid film that coats, and is infused in, an elastic porous substrate," which sounds like a lot of buzzwords to me. But those qualities are what gives this material its unusual properties, which will make it very exciting to use in any number of innovative new products.

So, just what will this new fabric bring to our tents? Apparently it will have the ability to shift from being translucent to opaque automatically, as well as shift from being more breathable to completely waterproof, entirely on its own. The material is smart enough to shift with changing conditions as needed, making for more versatile gear. The article says "imagine a tent that blocks light on a dry and sunny day, and becomes transparent and water-repellent on a dim, rainy day." That sounds like a useful feature that could have a big impact on our future adventures into the backcountry.

Obviously it'll be some time before we actually see this new material used in any products, but the potential is certainly there. It should be intriguing to see how this develops into useful gear down the line.

Thanks to my friend Sean McLachlan for sharing this at Gadling.com.

Nat Geo Adventure Shares 2013 Spring/Summer Gear Of The Year

In the market for some great new gear for your upcoming Spring and Summer adventures? Okay, I know! That's a silly question. We're always in the market for new gear right? Just in time to kick off a new season of outdoor run, National Geographic Adventure is presenting their picks for the best new gear for warm weather fun.

All told, there are 29 items that are given the nod for Gear of the Year, including tents, sleeping bags, packs, shells and more. In fact, no matter what you're outdoor passion is, there is likely to be something on this list that you can not only use but will probably want to add to your gear closet. For instance, the new Ultimate Direction PB Adventure Vest is perfect for long trail runs in warmer weather while the Big Agnes Fishhook UL2 tent will provide plenty of shelter for those camping excursions. The GoPro Hero3 Black Edition gets a mention as well, but considering how ubiquitous that device is these days, it's no surprise it showed up here as well. Columbia's Omni-Freeze Zero line of apparel sounds like it is just the thing for keeping us cool on a warm summer day and the new Patagonia Encapsil Down Belay Parka promises to take down jackets to a new level for any upcoming mountaineering adventures.

This is just a taste of some of the great gear that is finding its way into our favorite gear shops at the moment. There are a host of other great products on the list as well. Spring is the perfect time to head back outdoors and new gear is always a good incentive to do just that.

Now if I could just get my hands on one of everything!

Kickstarter Project: SlingFin Honey Badger Pack

While at Outdoor Retailer earlier this month I met with the good folks from SlingFin to checkout some of the products they are currently producing and have in the pipeline. The company has some fantastic tents that are versatile, well designed and the perfect option for those traveling in environments that range from arctic to desert to alpine and beyond. At the time I remarked that they were especially great for adventure guides who needed a single shelter that could operate in a variety of environments.

While chatting with the SlingFin staff I got the clear impression that they were a talented and creative group who have more ideas on how to improve gear than they have hours in the day to actually implement them. One of the products they were showing off at the time was a new backpack that they lovingly named the Honey Badger. It didn't look like anything else I had seen at OR. It was  lightweight, waterproof and incredibly versatile. It is designed to be easily repaired by the owner, can be used in a variety of activities and can quickly go from our backs to being mounted on a bike for a long distance cycling adventure. Like it's namesake, the Honey Badger is also tough and rugged, so it can take whatever punishment we throw at it.

Fast forward a few weeks and SlingFin has launched a  Kickstarter campaign to get the Honey Badger off the ground. The pack is now out of the prototype stage and has moved into pre-production. The company is hoping to raise $175,000 to get the product off the ground and after just a few days they already have 70 backers and have raised a considerable chunk of change. Ultimately they hope to have the HB in production within about six to eight months.

If you're interested in smaller gear companies who are doing innovative things, than I'd definitely invite you take a look at the SlingFin website to see what they have to offer. I'd also encourage you to checkout the Honey Badger Kickstarter page to learn more about that product as well.

Behold The Mojo UFO, Sierra Design's 2-Pound, $1800 Tent

Over the past few weeks I've posted a few times about some of the new gear that was on display at the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market in Salt Lake City. One of the companies that brought a lot of new, innovative gear to the show was Sierra Designs, which not only showed off their waterproof Down options, but also had new gear to keep us warm, called the Cloud Layer System, on display. But perhaps most impressive of all was their new Mojo UFO tent, a 4-season shelter that weighs just 1 pound 11 ounces. (.76kg) including the poles and fly. The kicker? It comes with quite a hefty price tag. When available in the spring, the tent will cost $1800.

Just one glance at the tent tells you exactly where it derives its name. The thing looks otherworldly or at the very least high tech. It is made of Cuben Fiber, a very lightweight but insulating material that has been used in a few other tents in the past. Sierra Designs also outfitted their offering with carbon fiber poles, which helps to reduce the weight even further. That addition will help to make this one of the lightest free-standing, two-person tents on the market when it drops in a few months time.

While $1800 doesn't make this the most expensive tent around (there are mountaineering options that run more) it is definitely on the more expensive end of the spectrum when it comes to backpacking tents. Because of that, SD says they'll only make them in limited quantities, although I'm sure there will be some gear hounds that are obsessed with weight enough to shell out the cash.

I have to say, seeing this tent in person it was impressive. Sierra Designs had it floating in air at the entrance to their booth, which made it nearly impossible to miss. But personally I think I could get by with a tent that weighs a but more and costs a lot less. Think about all the other gear you could purchase with the money you'd save!

Outdoor Retailer 2012 Summer Market Preview

The 2012 Outdoor Retailer Summer Market gets underway later this week and most of the gear manufacturers will be on hand showing off their latest creations. The bi-annual event is a busy and wild  affair featuring more backpacks, boots and jackets than you could ever possibly hope to see. But it is also an opportunity to mean some very interesting people, network and talk outdoor adventure for a few days. In preparation for the oncoming gear-pocolypse, several websites have begun posting previews of what we can expect in the way of new gear.

Over at Trailspace.com there are previews of new climbing equipment and backcountry camping gear. Amongst the items that will be enticing you to spend money when they hit stores is the new Black Diamond Vapor climbing helmet, which weighs in at just 6.6 oz (187 grams) and a new rope bag from Millet that keeps your gear nicely organized. Campers will be interested in new tent lines from both Eureka and Mountain Hardwear, not to mention a new sleeping bag from Therm-a-Rest who enters that market for the first time.

Trailspace always does a great job of reporting OR news directly from the show so be sure to keep an eye on their Outdoor Retailer Summer Market 2012 Coverage page.

The Gear Junkie has also posted an early look at some of the gear that will be on display in Salt Lake City this week with some unique and interesting items catching his attention. For instance in his first preview we get a glimpse at Kelty's new air-pole tent that features an inflatable frame to keep it in place and a minimalist hydration pack from Platypus designed for cyclists. Gerber has a new flashlight powered by a crank, while a company called Biolite introduces a cook-stove that generates power to recharge your cell phone as well. GJ's second preview includes other intriguing gear such as  Mountainsmith's new lightweight, three-season tent that uses trekking poles to keep it suspended. We also get a look at new alpine boots from Scarpa – designed by Ueli Steck no less – that promise to shed bulk and weight while remaining comfortable. Granite Gear introduces a new backpack with a host of features that mountaineers are sure to love which will be available later in the year too.

I'll be headed out to Salt Lake City for the show on Wednesday and I'll be there when the doors open on Thursday morning. Like last year I intend to share as much stuff as I can directly from the show floor, so if you're interested in checking out the new gear as it's announced follow me on Twitter at @KungFuJedi. I promise to include photos of the gear as often as I can so you'll have an idea of what to expect when this stuff hits the market in a few months time.