Stable Pitch

Most tents under a pound are pretty wobbly. Not the DCF One — it’s solid! This tent has wide, low walls which help buffer the wind. Fully guyed out, it’s incredibly storm worthy, and the angled trekking pole setup puts enough opposing pressure to prevent them from caving in. It comes with additional tie-out lines for more stability. You can use larger stakes for ridgeline tie outs in a less protected campsite for more stability. The catenary cut also helps this fast, taut setup.

Full storm & bug protection with bathtub floor

The taut, waterproof tent body with factory-taped seams, the extended bathtub floor, and fully enclosed bug net mesh is as much protection as you can hope for with an ultralight trekking pole shelter. The 45-inch vestibule zipper also locks tight against blowing rain, though you’ll want to leave the vestibule open when possible to help aid in ventilation.

Condensation Management

The DCF One does well managing condensation. The pole-sloping-outward-overhanging door allows you to leave a portion of the front of the tent vented (re. door cracked a bit) and still stay dry but keep condensation low. The mistake that most hikers make is sealing the tent up like a drum at the first drop of light rain, or worse when there is no rain. As long as you have the front door cracked a bit and/or a largish clearance above the ground at the bottom of the door, you’ll get decent cross ventilation and convective ventilation to reduce reduce humidity and condensation in the tent.  But yes, if is a hard rain being blown in from the front of the tent, you’d likely nead to seal things up and would have some condensation. No free lunches — sub 15-oz single walled shelters are what they are. And in this case, we think The DCF One does commendably with condensation.

Top-of-the-line DCF fabric

DCF is the gold standard for tent materials now. Though it comes at a premium, it’s the most lightweight, waterproof, durable material you can find right now. And an astonishing amount of ultralight tents sold are made with DCF fabric. Some manufactures that offer both nylon and DCF versions report over 50% of their sales are DCF tents even with the much high price tag.

Large vestibule:

The 10-foot vestibule is plenty spacious — it even has room for a visitor to hang out with you (pictured is Alan in the vestibule). So sure it has plenty of room for shoes and a pack. That’s good. While there is plenty of sleeping space and room for some miscellaneous gear — most people won’t be able to fit their entire pack into the tent with them — or it would be quite a tight fit!

Small packed size (a rarity for a DCF tent!)

DCF is not the most foldable and compact fabric. As such, DCF tents usually stuff to a significantly larger size than their nylon counterparts. The Gossamer Gear the DCF One beats this trend with  a small packed size, unusual for a DCF tent. Two things are responsible. 1) The 7D Silnylon floor compacts much smaller than the more usual DCF floor. 2) The smaller overall size and minimal, “hiker’s tent” focus of the DCF One means less fabric overall which of course means a smaller packed size.

Stakes, tensioners & reflective guylines

The adjustments, cord knots, and reflective lines make it easy to perfect your pitch. Using the burlier stakes (Toaks Tite-Lite UL VF Tent Stakes) for the ridgelines frees up two of the smaller stakes for the additional guylines that come with the tent package.