Tent choice

[MrFaulty]

Hi, I'm in the market for a new tent - simply because my old fairy down duo is not freestanding. I am looking at either:
- north face talus 2, or
- marmot tungsten 2p

I am looking at a 2 person as the 1 person tents feel too much like a coffin. I am 66'2 in height and don't walk in super cold areas - coldest would be the Barrington tops in winter so maybe a few degrees below. I am looking at doing the GR20 this year, hence the need for a free standing. Can anyone tell me if either of these tents is an integral pitch? Any experience with either?

Thanks in advance advance

[weeds]

Would you mind explaining 'integral pitch'?? I'm a newbie and not up with the terms

We just did seven nights on the overland track, selected a goondie 2 and a goondie 3 based on them being free standing. We were happy with its performance complete with one night in the snow.

They look competitive weight wise.

Pretty sure Marmot was on our short list.

On three different occasions people asked about our tents and had a bit of a closer look as they said they are not often in shops to look at.

[jdeks]

http://bushwalk.com/wiki/index.php/Integral_Pitch

Can be a double-edged sword - limits your capacity to just have a nice cool bug-dome.

As far as I know neither the Talus or the Tungsten are integral pitch - both look like they use clip-hangers from the hoops

[weeds]

http://bushwalk.com/wiki/index.php/Integral_Pitch

Can be a double-edged sword - limits your capacity to just have a nice cool bug-dome.

As far as I know neither the Talus or the Tungsten are integral pitch - both look like they use clip-hangers from the hoops

Thanks........agree I don't think they would be integral pitch along with the one plant.

We did have to set up in the rain twice on the OLT and needed to use a towel to dry the floor on once.

[Franco]

There are not all that many integral pitch tents because they are more difficult to design and some, in particular Americans, like the idea of having just a bug net up (inner mesh tent) for views and that cowboy like experience.
Tarptent and Hilleberg are two of the brands that do integral pitch.
Freestanding.
The GR20 is indeed a rocky area (not that I have been there but do know what it looks like) but as much as having a freestanding tent lets you move it around once set up, you still need to anchor it down so in the end you have to peg it down if you don't want to see it flying away.
Many will use stones over the pegs given that stones are everywhere there.
Given that you have been looking at two person tents for the extra space , a lighter (about 1400g all up) but still large enough shelter could be the Tarptent Scarp 1 (I am part of Tarptent...)
That is an integral pitch shelter, two doors and symmetrical so that you could pitch it right against rocks or close to another tent on one side and get out of the other and still have the choice inside of where to have head and feet. (some tents force you to sleep one direction)
The tent needs a minimum of 4 pegs, works best with 8 but only 4 need to be in a particular spot.
Easy to pile rocks on top of those 4 corner points and or use an extension to wrap the cord around larger rocks.
Can take two mats , so more than large enough for one. (a 6'4" person will fit in on top of a large thick mat ...)
This is a photo of one I was seam sealing in my bedroom :

should illustrate the point about rocks instead of or on top of pegs (note : best to carry some small Chux for that so that you don't damage the cordage when smooth rocks are not about. Chux are very good for drying things, like a wet tent and I use a Super Chux as a towel)

[MrFaulty]

Thanks,from what I have since found, I think the marmot is an integral but requires an extra part. Definitely prefer the free standing tents though. I'll post when I've made up my mind and what I think.
Cheers
Ben

[Franco]

Integral pitch means that the fly and the inner go up together. because of that you can also erect the fly by itself but you may or may not set up the inner by itself.
You can't erect that Marmot fly and inner together.
What you can do is to use the groundsheet to set up fly only and then clip the inner on to it.
How easy that is to do on this particular tent I don't know because I could not find a video clip showing that.