Companion forum thread to:

Coming Soon - Backpacking Light Coverage of the Summer 2009 Outdoor Retailer Show (Outdoor Retailer Summer Market 2009)

If you have time I would appreciate it if you could check out C.A.M.P. USA's booth.

Photos and lots of them please :)

Edited by markmclauchlin on 07/18/2009 06:06:54 MDT.

If someone (as me) can´t wait

Here you can find some (very good) info

http://lighthiker.wordpress.com/

Wow...how is the new Vaude Scutum Ultralight so light? A doublewall, 2 person tent with aluminum poles and a 10,000mm floor for just 37oz??? Unreal....how did they save all that weight.

As usual, the primary ways of dropping weight are to use less fabric and/or user lighter fabric.

In this case they've used 20D fabric instead of 30D fabric, and less of it too. Single door, one vestibule. No doubt the usable space is quite limited inside.

Will be interesting to see some detailed reports from BPL on just how much space there is inside. It's nice to see some more double skin light weight tents.

[EDITED typo... I meant quite limited, not quite a bit!]

Edited by ashleyb on 07/21/2009 06:26:13 MDT.

I keep seeing comments about the spacious inside of the Scutum, but if I read the floor chart correctly it looks that in the middle (irregular floor shape) is as narrow as the MSR CR2 (40") or even an inch or so narrower. For a double wall shelter 1 kg is very impressive for even a single but it does not look that much like a standard double to me.
Franco

Both the MSR Carbon Reflex 2 and the Scutum use 20D fabrics, have a 10,000mm floor, single door and minimal interior room. I guess the Vaude does only have one vestibule, but the Carbon Reflex uses Carbon Fibre poles, so it's impressive the Scutum comes in so much lighter. It'll be interesting to see if it weighs as little as claimed. The Scutum is almost a pound lighter....

If it is using the same fabric weight, then there are only two places to really save weight. Firstly, use less fabric. This usually means the tent is less roomy (no surprise there). Secondly, use shorter poles. Clearly they're only using one pole here so are saving weight there. But I suspect that only accounts for half a pound at most (compared to the Reflex CF poles). The rest probably comes from less fabric / smaller dimensions.

One other possibility is that the inner fabric is lighter than noseeum mesh, but I doubt it.

While we still waiting for backpackinlight coverage here we can find some advances to 2010 products

Here there is some updates about the European OutDoor trade show including news about petzl (headlamps) scarpa, osprey gregory an podsacs

http://www.outdoorsmagic.com/

And a new update about packs here

http://lighthiker.wordpress.com/

;-)