Crux tents
Technical elements
1. Asymmetric geodesic shape
Most double-skin mountaineering tents are built around a modified/stretched geodesic structure - and quite rightly so. The basic four pole geodesic shape has the advantage of providing the strongest framework as well as a free-standing one.
What separates the crux X2 tents from the competition is the asymmetric nature of their design - nearly all mountaineering geodesic tents are symmetrical in having two small entrances (one at each end). The X2 tents have a single large entrance - much more useful for access and cooking - with a smaller "tail-end" which is lower, stronger and more aerodynamic, and thus ideal for storage.
2. Minimized weight
The X2 is an exceptionally light mountaineering tent. This has not been achieved by using ultra-lightweight fabrics (in fact, quite the contrary, fairly heavy fabrics have been used for strength and durability) but through intelligent design and rigorous questioning of the necessity of many features.
In the first instance, the asymmetric design is not only more efficient in using less fabric, but having only one entrance, it eliminates the door zips on inner and flysheet of standard double-porch geodesics.
The use of mesh panels is kept to a necessary minimum and the amount used is so small that we do not consider it necessary to have fabric panels, complete with zips, to cover them. The area of the mesh panels is also too small to adversely affect the internal temperature of the tent.
A lot of the extra weight on many tents today comes from the plethora of buckles and webbing for adjustable peg-points. This is, in our opinion, over-engineering a tent completely unnecessarily when one can simply move the peg if re-tensioning is required.
3. Venting
The common belief appears to be that the bigger the hole, the better the venting. There are two problems with this. First, the bigger the hole, the more the weather is likely to get in, and secondly, to prevent this, the more the hole has to be covered with a hood and set back from the vent exit to the outside. The air has a long way to travel.
The vents on the crux tent are small, but very close to the outside, so that the warmer moist air has only a very short distance to travel to escape. As the vents of the crux tents are situated at the very top of the flysheet, the warm moist air is more concentrated, increasing the temperature and partial pressure differentials - the mechanisms which move the air - with the outside.
4. Pegs and guylines
All crux tents come supplied with solid aluminium square-section pegs. These pegs are light and very strong - a set of these will last much longer than standard wire pegs. The pegs can be hammered into hard ground or cracks with minimal risk of breaking or bending.
All crux tents come supplied with 1.75mm Dyneema with a simple cleat mechanism for adjustment - easy enough to be done with gloved hands. Dyneema is light, exceptionally strong (180 kg breaking strain), non-stretch, and does not absorb any moisture. Although we've been using Dyneema since 2002, no other brand offers guylines of such quality.
