I realize it's been awhile since my last blog and I wanted to express my appreciation to all those who contacted me to make sure I was alive being that my "weekly" blog wasn't up to par. I had a death in the family, a marriage, two bouts of very sick kids, extensive traveling, many work commitments, more snow than I ever wanted, an on-going bout of food poisoning which I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy, and I also put in a lot of time applying to a Grad School with the hope I could change my career path to something I'm more passionite about (i.e. environment/natural resources, etc.).Although I'm not ready to jump back into my blog at this point, I did want to show everyone a picture of the new prototype Gossamer Gear one-person full coverage tent. It looks a lot like the Lightheart Tent which is a knock-off of quite a few other tents from several vendors which already went through their life-cycle. I talked to Grant with Gossamer Gear about this roughly 8 months ago and it's nice to see it finally coming to fruition. It should be good for tall folks, it looks like it will be cuben and thereby my guess it will be under 24 oz with the fly, and Grant mentioned it only takes two stakes to set up as the trekking poles which helps provide stability and lift will be strapped to the bottom of the tent. I'm guessing the price point will be between $320-$360, but that's just an educated guess.
5 comments:
Sometimes life just gets in the way. Hope you and your fam feel better. Good luck with applications for grad school. Will miss your weekly posts, but again... sometimes life just gets in the way. :)
I went through the same type of happenings last year. The new tent really sounds like it could do the job. I am remodeling my second house and as soon as I am finished I am going to start making my own gear. It seems like no matter how good the design is you can always change it and make it better. You can make it yourself cheaper and even if it lasts only two seasons you will have gotten your money worth. I am retired but I still work as a consultant as a Hydrogeomorphologist. An engineer that helps redisign degraded rivers to their original natural condition to stop flooding and erosion. Keep blogging.
Hey SweetPea, good to see you're still alive!
ChristianHiker, sounds like you had a great career. I took some Geology courses during my undergrad and really liked them, it just wanted in the "parental career path". That more or less set the groundwork for exploring other related areas of study and quite honestly I find all appealling. Good luck with your house.
Congratulations for your blog. Every week I´m anxious to read your new post. I´m learning quite a lot with them.
Do you know if Gossamer Gear is going to offer "The One" made in cuben fiber next spring?
Good Luck and Regards from the Canary Islands.
Hey Ivan, thanks for stopping by.
As far as The One coming out in cuben, I haven't heard anything and I'd actually doubt it. GG stayed away from cuben for quite awhile opting instead to stick with spinn fabric as their go-to choice. I think industry pressure forced them to consider it again which has led them to their current prototype. I've heard there is also a much larger tent in the works too.
One problem with GG is that it takes them quite awhile to bring something to market. They do a lot of testing, but they just don't have the time to do it quickly. They also have jumped around a bit in the past with the manufacturing process. The result is good ideas take time to develop. That's the drawback of small cottage industry manufacturers.
I would further be surprised to see The One in cuben because although it is a great shelter, it has its flaws. Much like SMD did with the old Refuge X, I'm guessing if GG came out with a better shelter, they wouldn't call it The One again. After all, if that was the plan, they wouldn't develop a second one-person shelter as it would take sales away from The One by default. Personally, I'd love to see them develop a cuben Squall Classic.
I'll keep my ear out and post an update if I hear anything new. The only things I heard were indevelopment this year from GG were one tent, a solo and possibly a bigger version, and a pack cover.
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