Projects

3/18/2012

1 Comment

 
After attending Andrew Skurka's presentation and reading his book about lightweight adventure equipment I became curious about the bivy/tarp shelter system. The bivy sack that he uses costs about $170 and the manufacturer takes 8-10 weeks to make them because they are a small company. So I made my own for about $35 worth of materials. It's not a professional sewing job, but I'm proud of the result. Oh and it only weighs 6.35 oz.

I'm also working on a rain skirt. A rain skirt is a waterproof skirt that one wears while hiking in the rain. The ventilation is superior to that of rain pants and the weight is less.
1 Comment
Marion Weiler
4/25/2012 09:14:19 am

Be careful on the bivy if you don't also have good mosquito netting integrated with bivy, or backup lightweight tent with mosquito netting. I can’t tell if you have one from your equipment list/photos. Several years ago my wife and I tried skipping the tent and went with a sleeping bag & tarp approach similar to the Andrew Skurka bivy. We did this after hearing about that approach at an REI lightweight backpacking seminar. Hike was to Thousand Island Lake near Devils Postpile on the PCT, in early August. Major problem: mosquitoes about killed us, we were miserable, as we had no real protection (netting) for our faces/body other than some headnets, and could get no sleep for several nights. When it was warm at night, it was too hot to stay in the cover of the sleeping bag, and we had to expose more flesh to the mosquitoes. So, we suffered from heat if we tried to stay covered up in sleeping bag, and we suffered from mosquitoes if we tried to cool off by opening up the sleeping bag. No win. If you go with bivy, be sure to also bring plenty of mosquito netting to give you space you need to protect face and body without being eaten up. Not sure if using mosquito repellent a total solution, but may help if you’re willing to use it. Mosquito concentration varies by location and time of year, so may not be a problem everywhere.

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