Also, good point about the front zipper vs. the side doors. Bit of history.
The A5 Expedition Fly (once TM'ed) made for the A5 Cliff Cabana and later, an option for the A5 Alpine Double were the first portaledge fly made with doors and zippers.
Before 1993, the state of the art was the drape-over fly with drawcords around the bottom to cinch the fly to the ledge. Although we had invented the single-seam fly and the integrated "ready-to-deploy" rainfly stuffsack system, the fly technology was pretty basic at the time.
Then I made the first "Diamond Fly" made for Patagonia winds, that was the first fully enclosed portaledge fly ever made. Of course being fully enclosed we needed a way to get the ledge in.
We experimented with a few different zippered doors and vent systems, and eventually came up with the two side doors, each with two zippers, and large vent hood at the top of the door on each side. This is the same system widely used today on other brands. It all seems obvious now, but knowing all the iterations we went through, talking will all the best big wall practicioners at the time, some of whom had lots of ideas like Jay Smith, Jim Bridwell, and 100's of other big wallers of that era, and all the ideas that did not work, the current standard double door design wasn't obvious. All design is like that, I guess, obvious once you know the answer.
Anyway, the downside of the double door and enclosed floor on the fly is that you need to put the ledge inside the fly when initially setting up. Luke made a few custom Expedition flys for folks getting the D4 Alpine Double recently.
One new thing we've done with the D4 is eliminate the need for a drawcord on the bottom for the Standard fly, by making the corners of the fly with deep corner pockets, similar to a custom fitted bed sheet. Another thing that seems obvious, but for the past 40 years of portaledge design, no one was doing it that way. The deep corner pockets necessitate the need for the fly to open up completely.
Long winded here. Anyway, those times between storms I suspect was nice when you were able to fully open up the fly. I can assure you that the Expedition Fly would have felt more claustrophic during the nice weather spell.
There is probably a variation of our new D4 design--floorless and with deep corner pockets--that would ease the side access, just a matter of time before we offer that option if it indeed has overall advantages.
Cheers
