By Dave Wilkes
http://www.brooks-range.com/StoreBox/slpbag/bivysack.htm
A box arrived in the mail, and its size and weight had me totally at a loss as to what was inside it. I opened it to find a bright red water bottle size package weighing a measly 15oz, with a label stating it was an alpine bivy sack?!?! I have windbreakers that don’t pack this small.
A little background on the reviewer: I do much of my hiking/backpacking alone. I also snore, so being able to sleep away from others is good for overall morale. I prefer to use a Bivy as my shelter due to their lightweight and versatility. Also, I have taken to packing my sleeping bag inside my bivy. This makes setting up camp quick and easy as well as keeps my bag dry no matter how wet my backpack might get. It also helps to keep my bag clean. Finally, I have found no matter how careful I am, every snow shelter I make ends up with a drip directly over my head, so having a Bivy inside the snow shelter makes for a much more restful sleep. This will be my third bivy. My first was a super cheep one purchased for a single trip but ended up surviving heavy use for about 3 years. My second (and current) is an Integral Designs Bugaboo. I love the Bugaboo, but at 23oz it is a monster when compared to the Alpini.
Opening the Alpini Bivi for the first time was a bit difficult. It was packed tight in it’s built in stuff sack and the material is so thin I worried I would tear it. I got the hook-n-loop closure open and gently coerced the Bivy out of its pouch. It was like some sort of trick you might see from a birthday party magician…bright red and yellow material just kept coming out of this tiny little pouch until I had quite a pile in my lap. At this point I could not help but think that there was no way I was ever going to get this all back in to that little stuff sack, but more on that later.
I laid the sack out on the floor and examined it. The Bivi consists of two main components. First the red Bivi proper; the stuff sack is built into the foot of the bag and when deployed ends up inside out (or maybe it is inside out when the Bivy is packed into it?!?!). Along the Right side (from the perspective of laying on your back inside the bag) is a short zipper that has a hook-n-loop closure at the top to ensure it does not open on its own, and around the opening is a draw cord with the pull/lock on the left side (took me a bit before I noticed that). The material is a deep red and very thin. According to the documentation “the Alpini is constructed in an ultralight, waterproof/breathable ripstop outer fabric specially designed and fabricated for Brooks-Range”. The manufacturer goes on to say the material is water-resistant to withstand more pressure than generated by a driving rain, but also states this product is intended for ‘sub-zero’ conditions and not for use in sustained rainfall or wet conditions. The floor of the bag is water proof, and the entire bag while not fire-proof (there are plenty of warnings about keeping heat and flames away from it), it is fire-retardant treated.
The second major part of the Alpini Bivy is the bright yellow cowl. The cowl is attached to the top of the bag and completely covers the top section of the bag (down to just below the bottom of the side entry zipper (about the bottom of my ribs when I am in it). The cowl has a non adjustable elastic cord along the bottom.
I found no obvious signs of defects during my inspection. I was actually rather impressed with the quality of the construction. No loose ends or threads, no crooked or improperly finished stitching, no flaws of any kind that I could see.
The documentation states that the Bivi is sized to accommodate most standard sized sleeping bags. It was obvious that my 15 year old mummy bag would fit in the Alpini Bivy, but I was not quite sure about my Big Agnes Encampment bag (and Air Core pad) would fit. I stuffed the Encampment bag into the Bivy and inflated the pad. It is a tight fit but looks like it will work. When I got into the bag I noticed with the pad fully inflated the Bivy was compressing the sleeping bag insulation and I had very little moving room. I drained some of the air out of the pad to my normal sleeping pressure and this reduced the compression of the insulation, and gives me a bit more room to move.
Getting into the sleeping bag when inside the Bivy is a bit of a challenge. The side entry zip is quite short (however luckily on the same side as my sleeping bag) and even when unzipped there is not much room. Once inside the bag getting the zip closed was also difficult due to the limited moving room and interference from the cowl. The cowl is attached to the bag right next to the zipper and on my first attempt to zip it kept getting in the way. Once inside I found the cowl under the Bivy and could not get my arms out and around in such a way that I could pull it over the bag and my head (at this point I was still worried I might rip the thin material). I had to unzip, pull the cowl over so that it was over me and then reclose the zipper. Once fully inside I was pleased to see how much light the yellow cowl let through, but found it difficult to zip my sleeping bag due to the limited room. After a few more tries getting in and out, the process is a bit easer, and I am not as concerned about ripping the material (this stuff appears quite strong, as do the seams).
The material used is advertized as being breathable, but there are warnings about maintaining proper ventilation to avoid suffocation?!?! However since there are no actual vents and the cowl elastic closure is not adjustable, there does not seem to be many options with this. After a few minutes in the bag (being inside a 15F bag, inside a bivy, inside a 70F room…a few minutes is all it takes to turn the entire system into a sauna) I found I was having no trouble breathing, however at altitude, this may be another story entirely.
Remember how I mentioned the stuff sack in built into the foot of the bag? When I went to repack the Bivy into the pocket, it looked even smaller than it did when I first opened it. I could not help to think that there is no way I would be able to get the bivy back into that, but tried anyway. Picture the magic scarf trick in reverse. I started pushing the material into the little pocket. It appeared to fill up rather quickly but then it seemed no matter how much more I stuffed in, it never seemed to get full, at least not until I reached the end. I am not sure what I am more amazed by; how thin and packable this material is or how strong it must be to withstand all this pulling and the strain the little pocket must be under with it being stuffed so full.
I am impressed with the weight and quality of construction of this product. After reviewing it, my areas of interest are primarily as to its durability. There is nothing about the construction of the product that makes me suspect it will fail, I simply have a hard time believing any material this thin and light could possibly be strong enough. However if this Bivy can withstand the rigors of backpacking, then it should help to lighten my load considerably for snow camping, and allow me the freedom of a much larger and/or heaver tarp for warmer trips.
Please follow along with me over the next 3 months as I report on my experiences with the Brooks-Range Alpini Bivi
Update May 17 2010
Well…so far I have carried the Bivy on a few day hikes, a day snowshoe trip and used it for an overnight in a snow cave.
Nice bivy...lousy snow cave
The Bivy is light and small enough that I have no problem with tossing it into my daypack as an emergency shelter.
The Bivy is light and small enough that I have no problem with tossing it into my daypack as an emergency shelter.
This was not a great winter for me. Poor weather, lack of snow, and business/personal commitments limited my outings. I finally managed to swing time to do a quick overnight where I was sure to have good snow, by waiting for the White Pass ski area to close down for the season. So on Saturday morning I tossed my gear into my truck and headed for the mountain, this time I was not going to let a little bad weather stop me (the prediction was for rain at the base of the hill). I got out of the rain and into some light snow just prior to reaching the base of the hill…that was the good news. The bad news was the high winds. Soon after starting up, I took out my Kestrel 2500 weather meter (see my review of this fine product http://4alloutdoors.org/reviews/accessories/kestrel-2500-weather-meter/) and measured temperatures just under freezing and 15mph winds. By the time I reached the summit, the wind was gusting to over 30mph and the wind chill was in the single digits (F).
I found a sheltered spot in some trees that had a mound of snow just about ideal for a snow cave. As it turns out, I am a bit rusty when it comes to making snow caves and so I was unable to get the door opening below the floor of the cave as I should. As a result even with a tarp over the door and a candle in the cave, I was unable to get the temps above 34 F (I know, I should have closed off the opening with snow blocks, but I was confidant the combination of my bag & bivy should have been more than warm enough for that temperature).
I was using my 15F (synthetic) bag/mat inside the bivy. I have slept comfortably in this bag in below freezing temperatures on other trips so I expected a warm cozy night…but that was not to be. I shivered most of the night and awoke to find an alarming amount of moisture inside the bivy?!?!
Update July 20 2010
During the first 2 months I did not feel I used the bag enough to get a good idea of how well it performed, and I had a few questions still to answer. Since then I have carried the bag with me on a few more day trips and used it during my climb of Mt Adams.
On the Mt. Adams trip I used the bag for one night at the trail head (Cold Creek Campground) where it was warm and clear all night, and one night at “Lunch Counter” (a little over 9k ft) where it was clear and cold (below freezing most of the night).
During this trip, I made a point of changing into clean dry clothes before bed, but in both cases I awoke in the morning with the inside of the bivy and the outside of my sleeping bag quite wet. Both nights I slept with the bivy unzipped and the hood fully open and I did not breathe into the bag. The moisture inside of the bivy must have come from perspiration during the night and the volume tells me that this bag is not breathable at all.
The other thing I realized is that my Big Agnes Encampment bag and inflatable mat are too large for the bivy. As such the insulation is compressed and so its insulation value is greatly diminished. This is not a problem with the bivy but it is in my selection of a large bag with integrated air mat. In the future I would use a different bag or try putting my air mat under the bivy (in place of insulation, the Encampment has an integrated air mat pouch built into the bag).
Overall I am impressed with the light weight and durability of the material used for this product. The construction also seems top quality; despite some less than gentle use it has shown no signs of strain or damage. The only real down side I can see for this bivy is its total lack of breathability. Even in dry cold conditions there was considerable condensation on my bag by morning. With some sun and a little time I found that it dries rather quickly (e.g. it took less than 1hr in the bright morning sun on Mt Adams). In humid conditions or when having the time to allow the bivy and sleeping bag to dry is unlikely, this could be a real problem. In addition, except for temperatures well below freezing, I would not consider using a down bag inside of this bivy, as the trapped moisture would compromise the insulation value of the bag.
In the future I expect to use this as an emergency bivy, and for an ultra light shelter. As far as I can tell the material and construction make this a far more durable bag than the thin light weight materials would seem possible, so I anticipate having this for quite some time.
I would like to thank 4AllOutdoors.org and the manufacturer for the opportunity to review this product. I also encourage readers to contact me via the 4AllOutdoors.org Forums to post any questions and/or comments you may have regarding this product or my review of it.
Thank you,
David (the turtle) Wilkes
