Bivy Sacks

“TT will have a floor, but it looks more OPEN than the traditional tent. I will use it when bugs are a factor...I still like the tarp and bivy thing. I enjoy cooking in the rain when others are sitting there looking at me in their tents.”

“crazypace and pennsy have integral designs that have the event fabric. I am not sure which one they have. Thy both love their bivies. Theirs have the hoop.”

“i sometimes use a tarp with my bivy and sometimes i do not. depends on where i am going and the weather i expect. my tarp is so light, however, that the weight penalty is so low to carry it with.”

“not to be an idiot on this subject, but what are the attractions of a bivy or a little tent plus bivvy like baume66 shows? Do you not take a sleeping bag? Is this setup lighter than a light tent and sleeping bag? More compact? With a Tarp tent weighing 1.5 pounds, and a light sleeping bag weighing about the same, is this setup any lighter or less bulky?

Tarptent: http://patentpending.blogs.com/patent_pending_blog/2006/10/the_contrail_si.html

Please edjimicate me.”

“my tarp + bivy = 14 oz

tarptent virga = 21 oz

i can use the bivy on it's own (and frequently do). I can use the tarp on it's own (and frequently do). I love my Tarptent Virga but it's not as light or flexible a shelter as my tarp + bivy combo.
last edited: 12/29/06 12:51:17 PM”

“the set up i have showing is on the heavy end of the spectrum, close to 3 pounds and takes up almost as much room as a small tent. it is rock solid weather proof and would work in any conditions. if you carried the tarp i have showing and the oware bivy jimmysan has it would come in under 1 pound and you be able to carry it all in your pants pocket. i've seen a number of the tarp tents, and they just don't float my boat. i would just as soon carry my 7 ounce tarp and sling it low with no bivy. i've done that many times.

the attraction? i don't know. to each their own i guess. i like laying out with nothing over my head. i set the tarp up if i'm expecting rain.
last edited: 12/29/06 1:04:29 PM”

“and what jimmysan said too. lol.”

“Do you use these in country where it can rain pretty heavily, and where it can be windy and exposed? The weight savings sounds great. The older I get the more I like to save a few ounces.”

“one more thing, the bivy can be set up anywhere, no staking required.
last edited: 12/29/06 1:15:34 PM”

“When I use the tarp-bivy, many times the tarp is for a wind brake and the bivy is staked down to contain the quilt and myself. A couple cups of sand in the bivy isn't unusual, but that's the desert.”

“i've used it in pouring, blowing rain, i've used it in snow, i've used it in warmer sand blowing times. it's a good bivy, just heavy as far as bivies go. if i leave the pole home, it shaves off 4 ounces. i'm thinking of trying one of those oware bivies to see how i like them. maybe the bibler winter bivy, not sure.”

“The head hoop? That was cool, but it is pretty skinny. I'll probably be going with the Bugaboo, just becasue I can and I lust for gear. It is heavier than most but roomier than some. It still saves a ton of weight over carrying a tent and it can keep the bugs out.”

“I know the bivy that Jim purchaced weighs only 10 or 11 ounces. Right there he is saving 15 to 20 ounces on me. I currently use a Six Moons Designs Lunar Solo that checks in at 23 ounces (without stakes, groundcloth or seam seal).

The bivy is nice in that you don't need to add stakes or poles to the weight.”

“I have done the tarp/bivy thing for so long...I have set the tarp up and gone through a driving rainstorm. The neat thing is if you can set it up to where you can relax under it, cook under it etc.”

“I have the Bibler Hoop bivy and I like it alot! Good breathable material, it's warm and the hoop keeps the fabric of my face.”

“There is a hoop on the Bugaboo too, Comrade. If it does not work out I can exchange it for another of their gear choices.”

“I just started to use tarps while backpacking with smokygirl. Got to say I did really enjoy it. NO better feeling then waking up because a mouse or frog jumped/crawled on your face.
or get soacked during a monsoom like rain.

No really though, even though all this happend I did enjoy the hell out of it and will most likey tarp again. I will not give up my tarptent though.”

“last year i camped with the boy scouts and i used my tarp. they laughed at me, said i was sleeping under a hankie. well it was a deluge that night, really rained hard. of course i got a little damp from spray but no big deal. i slept through most of the storm. everyone else was soaked. the tents they had were not up to that amount of rain. some had puddles in their tents. i was the only dry one in the group. now the troop brags about me being a tarp camper... but not a single tarp convert among them yet.

a lot has to do with how you pitch the tarp and make use of existing shelter/wind breaks. then a lot has to do with how you pitch it... how low to the ground in particular.

still, for the most part i sleep much better 3 seasons in the tarp. in the winter anything goes but i prefer snow caves when i can get them. i know people will think i am nuts but i have no problems tarp/bivy camping in the winter. careful placement and well piled snow can make for a very wind-free night... not as warm as a 3 season tent or a snow cave but still quite up to most winters here in the midwest.”

“yeah, that tarp had holes though, and well, it really WAS raining HARD. The whole campsite was flooded. Not sure how we would've kept dry.

Prolly do have to practice how to set up a tarp too, but I don't think that was the problem that night.”

“one important thing with a tarp is to seam seal the ridgeline well and to not go too nuts with the seam seal in other places (or you make the tarp heavy). i just seal the ridgeline with McNett Seamgrip -or- silicone caulk thinned with mineral spirits. Frankly, the McNett Seamgrip produces a stronger seam and works the best, IMO, but i think painting on the silicone caulk is lighter. i switched to McNett Seamgrip pretty much for everything now. it's just good stuff.
last edited: 12/29/06 11:03:43 PM”

“

this is my bivy. Not the most flattering picture of it though. I have done an A-Frame Tarp set up over it and that's nice too. Most of the time, I go right under the stars, or I use it as an extra barrier when I camp in lean-tos or shelters.

My favorite night in the bivy was on the Link Trail in central PA. Pennsy and I did the central section of the Link from the Juniata to Three Springs and we couldn't find a decent legal campsite.

We were in state game lands near the Butler Fire Tower. We had to camp and it was incredibly windy that day/night, this was this passed february. It was a cool 20 degrees that night, but no snow and the night sky was crystal clear.

Pennsy and I found this spot that was protected from the wind due to these little pine trees that were in rows. They must have been planted there. That night I went to sleep listening to the wind howling through the trees along the top of Jack's Mountain and looking straight up at the stars, which were too numerous to even guestimate, never seen so many stars. It's hard to get a night sky like that in Pennsylvania. Before I fell asleep, I saw a few shooting stars.

Pennsy was bummed he didn't take his bivy.

this is the Pennsy set up (integral design bivy that he has and loves, crazypace uses the same one: taken below Giant Ledge in the Catskills.

last edited: 12/29/06 11:21:50 PM”

“Sveet. I see he has the ID bivy with the hoop/hood. Pretty nice. I think I am going to opt for a sil tarp and bivy without the hood. I have seen the combinaiton of the two where you can sit up and cook under it and I'm liking that option.”

“Thats what I go with. The tarp and a bivy, lol I was in my tarp one night and a storm from Hades blew in. I reached down in the middle of the night and felt mosture on the bivy...my first thought was..."OH Crack...gonna be wet." then I woke up enought to remember I was in a bivy.

I like to be able to roll over or sit up and set up the stove to cook in the morning.”

“I use the Bibler Bivy Sack, or big yeller bernaner, 22 ozes. Very nice, I love it, but ya kind of gotta be smallish to easily slip in and out of it w/ no difficulty. Been in snow, wicked downpoors, all weather, fantastic for ultraliting. I do like my pack inside however, so when I can use stakes, the Eureka Gossamer is the way I likes to go.”