Originally Posted by
bmike
i can snag a lightly used black diamond tripod bivy for reasonable coin... what do you think about those?
heavier than my contrail, but would work better in the snow i think.
of course, the contrail could work - it would just need me to setup under trees or something in case there was chance of heavy overnight snow.
but i don't know how that bivy would perform with a big dump of snow either.
i have a 30d bag, and a Big Agnes insulated air core pad, rated to 15d. i've used that to sleep in a lean to down into the 20s with minimal extra clothing, and nothing over my bag to block any wind. pretty sure i could go colder. guess i could test out in the backyard.
should i snag that bivy? it would create a micro climate around me. but with a down bag, not so sure that is a good thing.
the tripod bivy, you could read a book in, but it will still wet out the down unless you use a vapor barrier liner inside the bag. When the Tripod bivy came out I was working at Marmot Marmot Works so had a chance to check the BD tripod system out pretty thoroughly.
I think bivies have a place in a climbers groveling arsenal for overnight blitzes in any weather, above treeline. Although it can be used in a lot of milder conditions, the tripod bivy is a pretty specialized shelter in my opinion.
If you see yourself going in that direction, though - fast, high and light, by all means you should get it. it's an excellent bivy, but a little heavy. i like the standard Bibler bivy myself, and used one for many years.
I really like Todd-Tex BTW, i think it is a very good bivy material. The tripod design was a little heavy and bulky for the limited extra room it provided.
but it would be doable for a night maybe two or more if you really worked on airing and drying your bag out in the sun on the nice days. I've used down for over a week in the winter, but used a VBL and took extreme care.
I'd go for a black diamond betalite, or a similar circus tent, pyramid or half pyramid shelter. the integral designs Sildome is another winner in the UL winter category. WAY better single wall shelters, you can dig into the snow and have standup room underneath, for about the same weight as a bivy.
I'm a big fan of
Oware out of Washington state, he makes up a wicked, light half pyramid shelter. check them out.
Integral designs used to make the Svarksy sil-tarp, but have since discontinued it. that one was the bomb, but it needs to be strung up as it is not freestanding.