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Posted by Bill S on May 7, 2007 at 12:54:07 pm EDT
In reply to bivvy sack posted by calamitybrook on May 7, 2007 at 12:26:47 am EDT

I'm not sure how you want to use your bivy sack. But you might want to look at Integral Designs' line of bivies. They use a proprietary material they call "Tegraltex" (very similar to "Toddtex" that Todd Bibler used in his tents and bivies and Black Diamond still uses in the Bibler line of tents and bivies since they took over Bibler). It breathes pretty well and is waterproof. The bivy I use most is one of IDs. I also have one of ID's bivie/VLB liner that I use a lot for winter and polar trips. It is not breathable, since it is made of silcoat, but is useful as an half-pound emergency bivy that stuffs into a fist-sized stuff sack. It isn't a substitute for a tent, of course.

I am guessing that what you are looking for is more like a small 1-person tent. The original intention of a bivy sack was exactly that - a waterproof, windproof sack that you carried on a climb in case of a planned or forced bivuoac. Therefore, they are all designed to be basically just a sack into which you could climb to provide shelter from rain, wind, and snow, and would thus provide a bit of warmth while tied into a ledge somewhere on a climb. They are a step up from the cagoule+footsack (as someone noted here a while back, cagoules are hard to find anymore). My old Cairn climbing rucksack has a fold-out inner liner that works well as a footsack, coming up to my waist, while a cagoule would come down to my knees, providing a reasonable overlap. Insulation was provided by a down parka and down-filled elephant foot (a half-bag). The only extra weight you were carrying was the elephant foot, since you carried the down parka for belay stances, gear in the pack, and the cagoule for rain and wind protection.

So bivy sacks really are intended for just you and your sleeping bag, and maybe a narrow 3/4 length ensolite pad, basically just a sleeping bag cover. They aren't intended as a tent substitute. There are small 1-person tents like my SierraWest tent that aren't a lot bigger than a bivy. I can take my boots inside the SierraWest and some of the other gear. But the main pack stays outside.

Since bivies are intended only for a bivouac, they are only big enough for a person, with the pack staying outside. You don't sit up or stand inside one, but sit up wearing it like your sleeping bag. One bivy I have, a heavy one that REI sold for a while called the Cyclops, has arm holes for you to sit up while you cook (problem is it lets the mosquitoes in at the face and arm holes, plus it is way too heavy). Maybe what you are looking for is one of the Integral Designs guide shelters. These are larger than the SierraWest 1-person "tent/bivy", but still small and light.

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