In rain? SOL Escape Bivvy or equivalent

[wildwanderer]

Anyone used the SOL escape bivvy during rain? (without a tarp) Did it keep you dry?
I was thinking cinching up the bivvy hood and then putting a rain jacket over my head.

Considering ditching the tent for trips where I’ll be hutting but there is a risk I could get stuck outside due to a rain swollen creek etc eg in NZ.

At 249 grams the SOL Escape Bivvy seems like a decent emergency solution and it could work in alpine areas as well. (where a packed for emergency’s UL tent or tarp setup could be a chore in any substantial wind).

Ive read a number of reviews but there is little feedback on how it performs in rain.

Any other recommendations for rain worthy bivys in the same (or slightly heavier) weight range?

[slparker]

I haven’t used one personally but a good review of its properties can be found here:

https://backpackinglight.com/forums/topic/90852/

[Franco]

How it performs in rain.
Visualise this :
You walk in the rain, you arrive at a place you need to camp. Take the pack off , get the bivvy out and then what ?
Do you strip off in the rain and then get in or do you get inside the bivvy with your wet clothes ?
Once inside , how do you remove your clothes ?
How do you get your sleeping bag out and get inside ?
(if you do it will be tight because they are designed not to be used with a sleeping bag and if you do your bag will wet out)
What about eating ?
How do you get your food out and prepare dinner ?
I think that the key element here is the word EMERGENCY .

42277167-fe68-4f74-be3e-2c631f9202ee.jpg (30.24 KiB) Viewed 22131 times

[Zapruda]

I agree with Franco. Using one of those in the rain would be absolutely miserable.

If you are looking at an emergency rain shelter its hard to beat a small mid. Just stake out the 4 corners and pop it up with a stick or your trekking pole.

Or better yet, jut carry a tent. I know the huts are different in NZ but they are for emergency use only here and shouldn't be your sole means of shelter.

[Gadgetgeek]

In the rain any sort of mylar thermal blanket is going to loose a lot of heat through thermal conduction as the water cools the outside of it. You gain back the heat lost via radiation and convection, but it would still suck. A better option would be a tarp and lightweight bivy cover for your sleeping bag if you were looking at the lightest weight possible. Or at least I think so.

[Franco]

For years I have suggested the "why don't you try it at home?" way of doing things.
(that of course is if the "solution" hasn't already been eliminated)
Generally nobody ever does and I am still not any wiser why.
In this case that would be to buy the SOL , wait for a rainy day , put a pack together, walk around in the rain for a while and then set up camp (pretend...) on your lawn or nearest park.

[wildwanderer]

Thanks all.

How it performs in rain.
Visualise this...

Very good points. It would be for emergency use only. However not the kind of emergency I would need to evac the next day for. So factors: (what happens for next 3+ nights when most of your stuff is very damp/wet due to the emergency campout) is a valid consideration.

If you are looking at an emergency rain shelter its hard to beat a small mid. Just stake out the 4 corners and pop it up with a stick or your trekking pole.
Or better yet, jut carry a tent. I know the huts are different in NZ but they are for emergency use only here and shouldn't be your sole means of shelter.

It was going to be exclusively for NZ where its normal to stay in huts each night. I’m fortunate that I will be heading there 3x a year for the foreseeable future.

Any recommendations for a light weight relatively inexpensive mid? Another factor is diminishing returns. As my 1 person tent is 1.1kg.

[Zapruda]

I’m fortunate that I will be heading there 3x a year for the foreseeable future.

Nice one! South island?

Any recommendations for a light weight relatively inexpensive mid? Another factor is diminishing returns. As my 1 person tent is 1.1kg.

Cant go past a Locus Gear Khufu IMO - https://locusgear.com/items/khufu-sil/?lang=en

Or

I have heard that One Planet are releasing a 2 person version of their 4midable. The 2midable? I own the 4midable and use it for fair weather spring ski tours. Its a great piece of kit.

[slparker]

If I was planning to stay every night in a hut and there was a statistically unlikely chance of having to camp outside, but a good chance of being hypothermic if I had to do so, than the SOL bivy is exactly what i would take.

You can just-in-case your way to all kinds of redundant equipment that will sit in the bottom of your pack.

If your risk assessment makes a forced bivy unlikely it seems prudent to take an emergency shelter. If you plan to bivy in inclement weather in this thing, or consider it quite likely that more than one night would be spent in it, your tent seems like a good idea to me.

[Moondog55]

In the rain you need shelter above you. These are emergency shelters and they are sold as such. I have one and I use it as a sleeping bag liner. I have a superb Goretex bivvy bag but as described above it is a totally miserable experience trying to use one for camping.
You need a small tarp at a minimum and bigger is better where tarps are concerned.
The SOL are good but relatively fragile so you need some sort of groundsheet although a CCF pad works there also.
I like bivvy bags, I think they are an essential tool in my kit but I use them as an adjunct to my shelters and not as a shelter substitute. The Tyvek sleeping bag cover from Evan at TerraRosa is cheaper.
In your scenario it works but miserably so, add in a poncho tarp above your head and it gets a bit better but a very small mid might be a better solution. I have no experience with very small mids but perhaps something like the Gatewood cape?
I do very little warm weather camping but when I did I used a tarp & bivvy combination because I used to like sleeping in the open. A while ago somebody here gifted me a Macpac Minaret with no inner, that is a surprisingly lightweight and bad weather worthy summer tent

[Mark F]

I believe waterproof bivvies are an acquired taste and not particularly adaptable. For emergency shelter I would take a small (monk) tarp - see AlistairB's myog monk tarp http://bushwalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=28677 at 131 grams, half the weight of the SOL bivvy. Good for shelter when raining and if the conditions are dire just wrap yourself up in it and it will be just like sleeping in a bivvy bag.

On these sorts of trips where huts are likely and/or the weather amenable, I often take my Gatewood Cape as combination shelter and rain gear.

[wildwanderer]

That gatewood cape/shelter looks very good. Could be what im looking for as I only use one trekking pole.
2018 version is 284 grams.

[flingebunt]

A tarp as an emergency shelter is probably a better idea than a bivvy sack and can be more versatile.

With the right sized tarp, a trekking pole and a few pegs, you can set up a fully enclosed shelter with a floor. The monk tarp (poncho tarp) that other people have posted creates a similar shelter, but you need a separate floor, and is a good option.

If you pack some guy lines you can also set it up as a lean two or even a classic fly. This is good if you are hiking along and get caught in a rain storm and you want to take shelter while waiting for it to pass. Or if you are the type of hiker who takes a break at lunch time and wants to have a nap, the tarp provides either a shelter from the sun or a something to lay on the ground.

But a bivvy sack can work well as an emergency shelter. Your sleeping bag, and possibly your sleeping mat goes inside. Locked up in one during a rain storm is going to be dry but not exactly pleasant. If you are setting one up in the rain, you stuff your sleeping bag, a hiking towel and change of clothes inside, strip down naked and crawl inside. Yes you will bring some water with you, but less than if you got in with wet clothes.

Alternatives include hiking pole tents which can be very light as you have no weight from tent poles and tube/coffin/bivvy tents which can also be small and light but with room for your gear inside and a vestibule for cooking.

[wildwanderer]

I’m fortunate that I will be heading there 3x a year for the foreseeable future.

Nice one! South island?

Not that lucky.
Work is sending me to the North Island so il have to fly and accommodate myself in Queenstown for a couple of nights. But still a great saving compared to flying from Australia. Im looking at one or two North Island trips also for when I'l be in NZ during wintertime.

A tarp as an emergency shelter is probably a better idea than a bivvy sack and can be more versatile.

Purchased the six moon design gatewood cape/mid with a polycro ground sheet. $A300 inluding $50! delivery. The polycro is 34 grams which is crazy!

The updated 2018 model gatewood cape changes from 30D silnylon to 20D silnylon which brings the weight down to 284 grams and 40% more compact than the older 340 g version. (Its now about the same weight as the SOL escape bivy). The reviews of the old model have people using theirs in howling wind, significant rain events and large dumps of snow. So hopefully the new materials they claim are more advanced from their old 30D can hold up to similar conditions!

The only negative with using a mid with no inner is there is no sandfly protection. I have a head net. Anyway Im hutting so the cape is just for unplanned events. Plus i learnt last time that as soon as it gets dark most of the sandflies go to bed. So maybe il just pace around my campsite until night fall

i'l do a review once ive had it for a few months.

[Mark F]

Another advantage of the Gatewood is when lunching in the rain. You can just sit down with your pack in front of you but under the cape, open up the pack and enjoy your lunch while others are coping with soggy sandwiches.

[keithy]

Purchased the six moon design gatewood cape/mid with a polycro ground sheet. $A300 inluding $50! delivery. The polycro is 34 grams which is crazy!

Reckon you made the right decision.

I don't have the SOL bivvy, but I used the Karrimor xlite bivvy I bought in Europe while I was there. It weighed about 320g, and was well received on some French mountaineering/hiking forums, so I got it as emergency shelter if I couldn't make it to the huts/shelters I planned. I ended up using it twice, in drizzly weather. Not my most comfortable sleeps. The inner seams were sealed and I had my sleeping bag wrapped in a diy half tyvek cover.

I rigged up my rain skirt over my head and slept with a mesh bag over my face but I ended up damp in the upper body. Didn't work out whether the damp was from rain ingress or condensation or generally dripping through the opening.

[wildwanderer]

My 2018 model Gatewood Cape arrived in the post.

I've only put it up at home so far, the new lighter silnylon feels plenty robust and I've been quite pleased with ease of pitching and interior room.

I'm going to team it up with the sea to summit 80 gram nano suspended mosquito net which should make any campouts in sandfly territory less bothersome.

[havanainthebush]

Ive used a SOL Escape Bivvy, if you can call it that. More like a piece of foil for a large taco!
It ripped after 3 uses for the following reasons:

1. It's pretty snug in there, you don't get much room so if you wiggle in your sleep, it'll feel the tension and rip.
2. Thin foil that needs a footprint underneath as it got holes the first time I put it on the ground.

I don't use it as an emergency bag, I used to have it to keep me warm in my winter bag on subzero nights as an UL option. It builds a lot of condensation inside so I put it inside my bag so I don't soak my feather bag with sweat. Then I used it between my sleeping liner and sleeping bag as the liner soaks up any sweat, stopping me from freezing when I get out of it. I have since stopped using it as it's pretty useless as an emergency bivvy and it doesn't really work for increasing warmth in a bag - I just bought a warmer bag.

I would go with a tarp set up - think how the military do it. They train themselves to build a temporary shelter, they don't sit in a taco foil bag. If you don't have a sleeping bag with you, stuff your clothes and socks with leaves after building a shelter - you don't want to be wet! Stuff your shelter with leaves and cover yourself in as much foliage as possible. Wear thermals and bring extra ones if you're cold weather hiking. Wear all your clothes and hope you don't freeze! I always carry a tarp with me and with a few sticks, can make a sufficient emergency shelter when you have nothing else.

A dedicated bivvy bag is more comfortable of course.