Bivouac sack, bivy, bivvy, bivi bags and bloody bivvying

Lightweight tent recommendations >>>>>>>>>

There's a predator above them that's more of a concern...

Wild camping Australians.

Unlike with bears, you're better off covering yourself with your food stash. This will at least buy you some time to mount your escape.

£352 860g
vs.
£200 470g (Rab Alpine) smaller packsize, stealthier so better for wild camping and faster setup times. But tents are a nicer sleep, warmer and more practical if you're going to be spending more time in them, cleaning boots, cooking, whatever. So there's that.

£204, 1066g (excl pegs & bags)

I guess stuff has moved on a bit. I'm pretty sure my 1-man Macpac tent from Oz I toured with is pretty porky compared to all this lot.

Have you tested the bivvy outside yet? I had been considering that OEX one (as well as an ex army goretex and the karrimor one).

After the weight penalty, the army bivi’s are amazing. I really rate them if you can deal with the bulk. Slept outdoors in them a bunch of times, and even on a very windy hilltop I felt nothing.

Lifted an OEX one stuffed in its sack in Go Outdoors and its size and weight was negligible. Felt great but not sure how effective it is.

Not yet, I'll most likely be waiting until camping is allowed again. Of course I've been in it in my living room - seemed like plenty of room for a 178cm average build male with mat and sleeping bag in there too.

Thanks both. Ex army would probably do me as it'll get light usage but as with most things on a bike, less weight helps!

plus one to all this, bivvy bags are pretty shit and useless unless you're racing with a superlight one
tarp and groundsheet is lighter, not a coffin, more water resistant and breathable
that alpkit thing is just a copy of the rab ridge raider, I had one, it was as shit as this will be

more water resistant

How can something with no sides be more water resistant?

because it's not touching you and your sleeping bag
so breathability isn't an issue
so it can be 100% water proof

if you pitch it even half-decently not having sides is no disadvantage

I must be missing something. I can lie in mine in the rain and be dry. What happens if it's windy and raining with tarp? Rain comes around the sides, no?

if it's windy and raining with a tarp, you either:
pitch it low, aka "storm pitch"
pitch it side on to the wind and rain, going over you, aka "lean-to"

bivvy bags can be good cos they're very light in cuben, and fairly water resistant
but being in one in the rain is really hell

Or just use a bivvy so you don't care. If want to faff about with 'pitching' I'd bring a tent.

get woke to the benefits of #tarplife

that video on the first page should be banned from the forum, it is snobbish, poverty shaming and needlessly stigmatising, it is an obnoxious display of privilege wrapped up as moral superiority.

I've got a tyvek tarp I use on occasion but still prefer the ease of rolling out a bivvy bag and jumping in.

Yeah, on paper I don't get it. It must have advantages or people would just bivvy/tent camp but looking at it, it seems the worst of both worlds.

Seconded + a Tyvek ground sheet

A tarp/ground sheet combo can be fun, and you feel like a seasoned explorer + get to take lovely gramable photos, but when you're really knackered, being able to just mindlessly put a little tent up, rather than having to think about how you might pitch your tarp for optimum comfort given the conditions is something I can do without.

Also, where are you all camping where there are no midges? I've been bitten to smithereens everywhere from Exmoor to the Highlands and having a tent you can get in to properly to escape is is something I'd now class as essential.

We're supposed to be off for a trip round Torridon and the Fisherfield Forest (not actually a forest) in July and I'm already worried about the midges.

midges

Still don't know what these are but fuck me the USA has some bugs!

So glad I had a fully zipper enclosed bivvy for TABRs instead of the drawstring-closure ones I was using in TCRs.

I have had some awful nights under a tarp with being bitten, once in france sharing with @Hulsroy. I sinched my bag down as tight as i could round my face, rolled my wooly hat as low as i could go, and then covered my remaining exposed face with my hand. Woke up with zero bites on my face but 15 on my hand...

The thing about a tarp for me is its versility, @platypus and I have used one in front of a fire to bounce the heat back at us on a dry night, but also used one to create a low and tight wind proof shelter when, in a ditch (which would have been too narrow for a tent prob), on the side of a bare hillside (which, btw should have been a forest, but had had been logged days before!)

all that being said, I do like a tent a lot and if i was on a longer trip I would use one.

Still don't know what these are

Come up to Scotland and they'll make you regret your existence

Last time I bivvied I got >20 ticks on me. If you're crawling around on the ground where there might be ticks (which you will surely be doing if you're under any kind of fly/tarp) then a groundsheet is 200% essential. Now I know.

We have had some lovely trips together ❤️