[pct-l] Tent vs Bivy Sack

[Guthrie Nutter]

Tim -

May I recommend the Western Mountaineering HotSac VBL?  Pricey, but it's
lightweight and metallic.  I had my coldest night of the Sierra right
before Forrester Pass.  Shoes/socks frozen solid outside.  But inside my 3
season Big Agnes, I was toasty, almost sweating.  Great stuff.

On Mon, Jan 16, 2012 at 11:14 PM, Tim Gustafson <tjg at tgustafson.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> So I went for a "training" trip this weekend at Henry Coe park with my
> Eureka Solitaire tent.  The tent was woefully inadequate for the cold
> temperatures overnight - I'm not sure exactly, but I would say it got
> down to perhaps 25 degrees or so.  There was a significant
> accumulation of ice crystals inside and outside the tent.  Since it is
> a 3-season tent, it doesn't ever "seal shut" - the tent is no-see-um
> mesh covered with a second layer that is essentially a rain fly, but
> since the rain fly doesn't zip shut (it stakes to the ground
> separately from the rest of the tent), there was no good seal around
> the perimeter of the tent and I got a constant draft through the tent
> all night.  I wound up "cocooning" myself into my sleeping bag and
> holding closed the top as I slept.
>
> So I'm thinking about perhaps purchasing something that would be more
> suitable for 4-season use, and I was wondering if I should get a
> 4-season backpacker tent, or maybe go for the bivy sack option.  The
> bivy sacks are way lighter than the 4-season tents I'm finding, they
> pack smaller, and they're a lot cheaper too.
>
> I'm not thrilled with the prospect of my pack and boots getting rained
> on, but I suppose I could fix that with a waterproof pack sack, or
> perhaps a tarp that I could erect a simple shelter for them in the
> event of rain.
>
> Does anyone have any wisdom related to using a bivy sack rather than a
> tent?
>
> --
>
> Tim Gustafson
> tjg at tgustafson.com
> http://tgustafson.com/
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