Delta 3p Karakoram Winter, 2021:
Hello John, below our thoughts. I hope they will be useful.
During the climbing our route on Uli Biaho Gallery we use D4 Delta 3 person Portaledge. We think that it is a really good product for that kind of activites. We have some suggestion :
1. We use it in 2 person with all stuff for worm up (big sleeping bags, extra jacket, big shoes etc). After first night we knew that in 3 person in would be extremly hard to do it. In the space in the middle we have our gear for cooking witch is very importand in winter and we spend a lot of time to do this.
2. Construction is really solid. Setting is simple and quick. Good quality of material, ventilation was enought.
3. Entrence is narrow but still You can easily sneeze inside. Zipper works well even on the freez.
4. Little too small Space for the foot. We have problem with touching sleepingbags with the wall's of tent and then it mostly wet in this area.
5. Place for both sides have small green rope at the end of the zippers,this place collapsed inside during the snowfalls. We attached the skipoles outside and it was little better.
Ideas:
1. We used extra poles from tent to put up the fly. We use it also to attached the jetboil. It would be nice to have it in standard and if it will be a special place for it.
If it will be maybe another poles in the place for foot also. It will reduce the problem with not enough space there, but maybe material should be little longer than?
2. System to get tension for wide, from the zippers. We used trekking poles, it was impovising. Maybe some other idea to get more tension for both sides.
3. It would be nice if on the back sides of tent( there were You have heads) will be some extra pockets with thin material( mesh) for some small stuff.
4. If the coulor will be more bright ( yellow) there will be more light inside and better for the photos😉
5. Maybe some window's with plastic material in the front? I've seen something like thant in mountain hardwear tent eV2,older version and it was very good!
6. If You want to use it in summer but some rainy area ( Greenland we think maybe next time) there should be some extra resistant for stitches.
Best regards, Marcin Tomaszewski and Damian Bielecki
Hi Marcin-
I sent these notes to Marek, hope you can read them too. As I mentioned
to Marek, this is the first time I have ever sent out a portaledge
without having personally testing it first. I am going to test it next
week, but wanted you to have the first ledge in time for your trip! I
am mostly concerned for the fly--we wanted to see how light we could
make it, but for our next ones, we are making it from a slightly
heavier material--I hope it is ok!
Anyway, here are the notes to keep in mind. Thank you!
Also, let's stay in touch as we plan to send a new fly up to Marek in a
couple weeks, and it would be good to hear if it makes it, and also to
get any photos and feedback you might have from using the ledge on
Chinese Wall. Let me know also what you think of setup. cheers
CHANGES CURRENTLY BEING MADE:
The current changes being made are:
1. Bed fabric material will be stiffer and less stretchy.
2. Fly will be of slightly heavier material and will have more
reinforcements, and will have an improved fit. Also, we are developing
a new fly tie-down system which will make it easier to tension the fly,
and will replace the two underneath straps.
3. Haul sack will be smaller and have zipper flap and made of more
durable material.
4. Longer term, we are also planning factory seam taping (I sealed most
of the seams on your fly), as well as the metal fly clip-in.
TIPS FOR SETTING UP:
A tip when setting up and taking down--push the bed fabric at least
35cm down the long tubes toward the center of the ledge--it makes
putting the frame together and taking apart quite simple. Also make
sure the tubes are all the way in the joints--I plan to put some color
coding to make this obvious, but you should hear a solid "click" when
the frame tubes are fully inserted.
HAULSACK SYSTEM:
Also note how it is packed in the haulsack when you get it, it is the
most compact fold and note how the end tubes are stored in the blue
sleeves to keep organized. Also note that you can pack it all up with
the fly attached to the ledge for quick deployment (you probably want
to replace the quick link I used to connect the fly and ledge with a
carabiner). I am interested also to hear what you think about the
haulsack system, and how it helps setup in windy conditions.
