Truth About Using a Bivy - When, Where, Why and Why Not

everyone thank you very much for tuning in for this episode my name is Luke this is the outdoor gear review today I'm discussing with you all vivy sacks what they are when to use them why to use them why not to pros and cons and more this is a topic of conversation that I've received a lot of questions about and in this episode I should be able to answer most of them if not all of them and to start off we might as well talk about what exactly a bivy is in my opinion a bivy is a tool just like any tool a bivy has a place and a time to use it with a bivy being a tool and there being a right time and a right place to use it that is true with most pieces of gear but when it comes to a bivy it's especially true as these are very polarizing in terms of use they can be amazing in certain situations or absolutely terrible in others vivy SEC also known as bivouac sack these were invented to serve climbers who wanted and needed ultralight emergency protection for their sleep systems when they were out for an ascent originally bivy sacks were nothing more than a nylon shell that was essentially waterproof but it really offered nothing more than that it was quick protection from a quick rain or snow event that allowed you to essentially make camp anywhere in places that you couldn't even imagine doing so that were impossible with the tent since their creation babies have evolved the technology has changed and people are using them for all sorts of reasons including military forces all around the world think of a bivy as a single wall tent because that is what they are there are many different types they have different types of opening different materials and I will discuss that with you here in just a minute here on the outdoor gear review you all have seen me use babies over the years in numerous types of situations my experiences with Vivi's go back decades and originally I was taking trash bags and I was pulling them up over my feet over my sleep system and tearing a hole in the bottom and pulling them down to overlap I've used them in freezing rain and sleet and snow very very cold conditions down below zero you all have to see me using them on hot summer nights and so on I have used Vivi's in just about every condition imaginable and I have quite a bit of information to share with you all here on this tarp we have three different types of bivvy we have full protection babies partial protection and limited protection biddies this right here is a simple nylon shell and this is really to protect you from like splashing right you have this underneath the tarp maybe it's raining the wind's blowing a little bit and water splashing up on your Biddy this protects your sleep system then we have something here that's a little bit more robust this is a military sleep system this is made from gore-tex it's quite a bit heavier than this nylon and this will offer you a lot more protection than a nylon bivvy now the thing is this zips up it can be cinched up but it's not 100% secure and that's because bugs can crawl in with this type of Miffy then we have the Black Diamond Bibby which offers you 100% protection it's waterproof and also it can be zipped up 100% to prevent bugs from getting in and whatnot with these three biddies we have structured and non-structured biddies you're asking yourself what does that mean with the yellow Black Diamond bidding that one has a metal wire in it right it's a little bit bigger than the others and with that metal wire you can pull that material away from your face right it has a structure to it the other two are simple bivy sacks they are non structured the material if your inside of this thing will simply lay on you another difference when it comes to Vivi's is fabric we've touched upon this already just a little bit you have nylon you have gore-tex and you have other materials out there gore-tex tends to be the most expensive and also the heaviest and also the most breathable the next thing that we need to talk about when it comes to a biti are the openings because they are different on every single model some are easy to get into some are not some you can hop in from the side some you have to crawl in from the front with this man move divvy you have to crawl in this way with the military gore-tex biti it has a side zipper which allows you to get in from the side and then of course there are Vivi's which you can access from the side or you can crawl in now let's talk about wait here for a second because it's very important this man movie weighs less than a pound it's ultra light the yellow Black Diamond biggie is around 2 pounds this gore-tex movie I don't remember specifically but I want to say it's over 2 two and a half pounds maybe three pounds something like that that is heavier than an ultra-light tink and that brings us to our next point when babies came along the selling point was that they were ultralight well since then things have changed the materials have changed you have tents that are ultralight that are the same weight as many of these Vivi's so that selling point is no longer a key factor the most important benefit to a pity is that it allows you to set up very quickly in places where you couldn't set up a tent you could do it on a rocky face you could do it next to a wall you could do it in a place where tent stakes would not be able to penetrate the ground and so on as I mentioned at the beginning of this episode there's a time and a place to use a bivy there are pros and cons to using a bivy and I would like to discuss those with you now starting with the pros first off in the winter time a bivy can add as much as ten degrees to your sleep system which is awesome in the winter time you can go out for a zero degree trip you can bring a zero Degree bag you put this over your sleeping bag and now you have a negative ten sleeping bag in other words you are going to stay warmer also they block the wind extremely well and as I mentioned before they are super easy to set up if you see weather coming in you can hop in in a matter of seconds another huge Pro which I mentioned before is that you can set them up anywhere and those my friends primarily are the pros for using a bidding what about the cons now with this type of tool with this type of gear there are many cons associated with it so you have to keep these in mind when planning your adventure first off for rainy conditions these are not very good you will have to use a tarp with these why is that that's because as soon as you open this thing up everything inside is going to get wet there's no way to crawl out of a bivy without everything on the inside getting wet next up Vivi's can add ten degrees to your sleep system in the summertime is a good thing is that something that you want you have to plan for this what happens if you get hot you sweat with a bivy this is a single wall tent that is essentially laying on top of you so condensation is a major problem with a bivy it doesn't really matter what type of material that you have because no material is one percent breathable if you are going to sleep in a bivy it doesn't matter if it's in the wintertime or if it's in the summertime the odds are you are going to wake up damn your sleeping bag is going to be damned the bivi itself is going to be damned this presents unique problems that you have to address if this is a quick overnight trip no big deal go home dry everything out if this is a multi-day trip you have to take time you have to dry your bag you have to drive the bivvy sack as well all of this takes time this takes time away from your adventure and what your plans are next you have to think about bugs if your bivy sack zips up 100% awesome no bugs but that means that your head is inside of the bivi and when you are inside of a shelter you're breathing you are releasing moisture and that moisture will collect on the bivi itself if your baby sack doesn't zip up 100% then you have to contend with bugs what's your solution next up you have to talk about space babies are very very confined there are some larger ones out there there are some that are more of tints I'm not talking about those in this episode because they really are more tent than bivvy when you put in your sleeping bag inside of your bivy you crawl in you will realize and you will see just how tight and confined it is generally with a bivy there's not enough room to put your gear inside of there you will have enough room in there for your cell phone a battery pack if you love being confined and having limited space you will love a bivy most people don't like feeling that way and with that being said make sure to consider that before you go out and purchase one if you're somebody who has always spent their time sleeping in a tent having plenty of room it can take quite a bit of time to get accustomed to sleeping in one of these the next thing that you need to think about in regards to a bivy is price some can be very inexpensive or some could be very expensive some Vivi's to $300 or you could go very cheap I bought this one used off of ebay and I paid like twenty dollars for it something like that these military ones they used to be very inexpensive I'm not really sure what they are now I have it looked in a while to wrap up this video let's talk about my experiences my thoughts when use them when I don't I love using Vivi's in the wintertime it makes my sleep system warmer it blocks the wind and if snow is flying around if snows making it underneath my tarp no big deal I'm staying dry in the summertime they're too hot I tell you your body is releasing heat it's releasing moisture you have your sleeping pad you probably won't even have a blanket or a sleeping bag because that's just too hot and if you sweat your sweat will gather on the inside of that vivvy and make you even more damaged there's a place and a time to use them for very very quick trips in dry arid environments sure for through hikes I wouldn't recommend them for areas that receive a lot of rain I wouldn't recommend them for humid areas in the summertime and the spring I would not recommend it if you take these out with you and there's a chance of rain bring a good tarp with you you can use some of these without a tarp some are 100 percent waterproof but they are designed to be used with like short duration rain events not prolonged ones and as I discussed earlier if you have to get out and it's raining what are you going to do Vivi's can truly put your skills to the test in regards to the elements so you need to plan ahead and folks that pretty much wraps it up I've gone over what Vivi's are what they are for how to use them when I don't recommend using them when I do I would love to hear from you all do you like using Bibby's and if you do when do you personally use them and when do you not everyone take care strengthen honor see you all around [Music] [Music] [Music] you [Music]

Channel: TheOutdoorGearReview

Views: 256,171

Rating: 4.938756 out of 5

Keywords: Gear review, Bushcraft, Survival gear, hiking, hike, gear, Camping, bug out gear, backpacking gear, backpacking stove, best military bivy, military bivy, ultralight backpacking gear, ultralight bivy sack, Best backpacking bivy, best ultralight bivy, bivy sack review, waterproof bivy

Id: JVkPz4gn0QY

Length: 11min 1sec (661 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 19 2020