The Sigma s10 tent is a four season, one person, single skin hybrid tent with two poles that cross over in the middle. Lightwave claim that the special lining of the tent called X-Tex eliminates the condensation issues that generally make single skin tents useless in this country. Are their claims true? Read on.
I bought my Sigma in late 2021 and have been using it for many of my outdoor trips since which have covered most weather types from dry and warm to cold and wet as well as below freezing. It's a hybrid tent in that it has a porch which is made from a more traditional silnylon fabric and not the X-Tex breathable fabric which is only used in the main sleeping portion of the tent.
The first thing that is obvious on unpacking and then using the tent, is the quality of construction and the attention to detail. This is a high spec product and is very well designed and produced. The two pole crossing design creates both strength and simplicity - there has not been a single occasion when I didn't get the tent up super fast and with a perfect pitch first time. I think it's actually impossible to pitch it badly because the two poles create the shape and there is no flysheet that needs pegged, positioned and tensioned. The tent is semi freestanding with only the porch needing pegged out but I have always pegged it fully for strength in the wind and to ensure maximum internal space. There is a dyneema guyline with double attachment points on each of the four pole sides as well as one for the large back panel and one for the front of the tent. All of the attachment points are strong and well made. Overall, it has quite a small footprint which is really handy in spots where the space for pitching is limited.
The internal space and headroom is excellent (bearing in mind that I am just over 5 feet!). I love that there is no sagging inner as with other tents so the full covered area is available as living space. The porch is spacious enough for backpack and boots in one half then cooking/coming and going space in the other half. The inner has two small pockets at each end and a loop on the ceiling for a torch or lantern. Two nice tie-backs hold the door open in good weather. These are on one side only and it would have been nice if both halves of the porch had tie-backs to fully open up the tent on nice evenings. This is a small point as it's easy enough to make it work this way but tie-backs on both sides would have helped. The tent is advertised at a touch over 1.1 kg and that's roughly what I found it to be on my scales. This is incredibly light for the strength of the tent and one of its major attractions in my opinion.
Turning to performance, the windiest weather in which I have used the tent was, I think, wind gusts of 45mph. The tent stood strong and secure with minimal flapping and I was very confident that it was easily handling this weather. In cool to warm dry weather, the X-Tex fabric works really well and transports condensation to the outside of the fabric to evaporate. Sometimes it feels damp to the touch but is never dripping in these conditions. In below freezing weather, this dampness turned to frost and was easily brushed off in the morning before I packed up. However, in cold and wet conditions, I found the X-Tex fabric didn't work so well. The rain prevented the fabric from moving moisture to the outside and of course, in the cold there is a lot more condensation in the tent from atmospheric dampness, cooking and breathing. The night I discovered this, I was constantly wiping up pools of water from the tent floor and it was a pretty miserable experience.
That night was quite early days in my ownership of the tent and I was ready to send it back to get a refund. However, I didn't do that because I'd found that on the other nights when the X-Tex fabric worked, I had absolutely loved using this tent and it had become a real favourite. The simplicity, the strength, the internal space, being able to fully open the doors. So it has become my go-to tent for hillwalking when the weather is forecast to be mostly dry and not cold. I find it's the perfect tent for a high level pitch in the warmer months because it's strong but not too heavy to lug up a hill.
When I bought my Sigma in 2021, it retailed at £475. It looks like it now costs closer to £600. I think it's worth this money given the quality, strength and what I expect to be good durability. However, I wouldn't buy it if it was to be the only tent I owned given the poorer performance of the fabric in cold, wet weather.
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