User Review: Outdoor Research Advanced Bivy

Outdoor Research Advanced Bivy
Above: The current Advanced Bivy, which may differ slightly from the version reviewed.

Reviewed February 3, 1998 by Jerry Beckwith

Rating:
Design: Bivy Sac
Sleeps: 1
Ease of Setup: 5 on a scale 1 - 10
Weight: Less than 2 lbs
Price Paid: about $250

I've used this bivy sac for about four years (when they first became available) about 5-10 nights/year.

Setup: The hoop poles are difficult to snap in place with cold hands. The pole sleeve seams have separated (I've had to resew them).

Water shedding qualities: The gore-tex top half works well. The "coated nylon" basin (bottom half) leaks badly due to the coating rubbing off when encountering friction from sleeping pad, flashlight, or even simply being stuffed. This coating is definately inferior material -- you folks that use this bivy for a couple of seasons will find out like I did.

Miscellaneous: When zipped up inside using the mosquito netting, the zipper can only be accessed from the OUTSIDE. This engineering oversight makes getting out a pain. This sounds picky, but I guess paying $250 for a bivy sac should entitle me to near perfection.

Would I buy another?: Why should I have to? I'm sending this one back and I'll find out whether OR stands behind their products. If not, the Bibler Todd-Tex bivy seems like a good investment...