Bivvy or “bivy” is just a nickname for bivouac sack. It is a kind of shelter that looks like a loose sleeping bag. They’re quick to rig up, smaller than any other type of tent, very light and waterproof. They’re favored by solo backpackers, mountaineers and soldiers.

Design

A simple bivvy is made of one layer of waterproof material. Early versions of the bivvy bag employ silnylon as the outer shell. It is a very light fabric that provide about another 10 degree fahrenheit extra protection from weather.

One big problem with the earlier versions of the bivy is the humidity that condenses on the inside renders sleeping bags to be wet. This still happens in some tents today. The use of the waterproof/breathable fabric, Gore-Tex, helps to remove some of the humidity while keeping out water from the outside.

Another way that this problem is addressed is by using an inner vapor barrier liner bag or VBL. VBLs prevent body moisture from entering the condensing in the sleeping bag.

In the past, bivvy bags come with a small hole above the user’s face for breathing. Thanks to Gore-Tex Exchange Lite, an air permeable version of the fabric, the bivvy can be safely zipped up to cover the whole body including the head thus shutting out the elements completely. This new fabric allows both carbon dioxide exhaled by the user and moisture to escape.

Bivvy shelters

In biological terms, the bivy is a macroinvertebrate, meaning it has no spine or rigid structure. Bivouac shelters on the other hand employs hoops over the head and feet so that the fabric is kept off the user resulting in more breathing room around the head. This also prevents the condensation from soaking into the sleeping bag.

Bivvy shelters are a bit heavier than bivvy sacks but the increased comfort justifies the additional weight. However, bivvy sacks are still favored among mountain climbers and backpackers or adventurers on dangerous expeditions as a compact emergeny shelter.

Popularity

Improvement in bivvy shelters have given rise to the number of experienced hikers who favor them. Some like the Outdoor Research Deluxe Bivy have anticlaustrophobic features like a white interior with a shock-corded Delrin hoop for breathing room and 5-foot zippers that allow you to ventilate while keeping you dry.

Bivvies are also popular among carp fishermen who fish the whole night. This solo shelter is becoming more advanced and user friendly as manufacturers scramble to make better bivvies in response to the increasing demands.

One thing you need to be careful of is packing your camping gear because you wouldn’t like to leave what is essential and weigh up you pack with unnecessary gear.

What you need on a camping trip would largely depend on the terrain and weather and whether there are some special requirements. Experience will make packing a little bit easier the next time.

Every camping trip will bring insights to whether your backpacking equipment were sufficient or whether you need something more. In the end it’ll be easier to pack to the bare minimum and enjoy some ultralight backpacking.

To keep your supplies from getting wet, a good idea would be to use 3 plastics inside your internal frame back pack. You can also use 3 large stuff sacks. The first bag at the bottom should be for clothes, fuel, camping stove and other heavy gear or stuff that don’t get used very often. The plastic bag in the middle should be for food and the one on top for electronics like your phone, GPS and PDAs.

Putting your wallet in your pocket may not be such a great idea as I one day found out. It took the whole day to dry the cash. Exterior pockets are great for organizing your gear.

Use ziploc bags to further organize your gear. You can separate your breakfast from your soap, socks, electronics, and more with this useful plastic bag. A must-have if you want to ensure that your gear stays dry.

Don’t forget the first aid kit. Anything can happen in the outdoors. A mess kit, bugspray, waterproof matches and whistle are important items to have. Put the items that you might need quick access to in the outer side pockets. You must know where you put important items and try not change where you put them. Losing things is not fun especially when it happens on a camping trip.

It is very important that you have enough food and snacks. Your body will need more food on a backpacking trip than normal because you will burn a ton of calories. You would only truly know how much food you need through trial and error and to be on the safe side it’s better to have too much food than not to have enough. This goes for water too. Carrying too much water won’t hurt as much as not having any. Don’t forget to bring some kind of water treatment system like a water filter or iodine tablets so that you can refill when the opportunity arises.

The best thing you can have on a hiking trip is a trail mix. The dried fruits provide fiber and nutrition while the nuts provide you a vital source of energy, natural fats. Energy bars and gels can also give you a boost. Chocolate will melt when it’s hot so avoid it in the hot summer.

If you can, try to avoid canned foods because they’re too heavy. You need to carry your rubbish until you can dispose of it properly.

Dehydrated foods are great for backpacking because they’re very light yet a very good source of nutrition and they taste great. For cooking, you need a camp stove. If you want to use less fuel but won’t sacrifice on performance then use a liquid fuel camping stove. They also work great in extremely cold weather unlike propane stoves that can freeze at a certain temperature and you may have to warm up the stove with your body heat first before you can light it up.

Your clothing should contain no cotton because cotton absorbs your sweat and being in wet clothes in cold weather is really bad. Synthetic or nylon fiber or wool clothing including socks, underwear,shirt and fleeces are quick drying.

If you don’t want to miss out anything, prepare a checklist. First brainstorm what you might need then look at other references on the internet or from hiking clubs. Then you decide which ones you really need and which ones you can be without.

Over the last 15 years there has been a consistent rise in new backpacking tent designs. The range of choices is overwhelming and that makes it confusing at first but life has been much easier since it was sorted in two ways.

Camping tents are sorted by function and by structure. An example of this is backpacking tents being categorized by season where tents are either 4-season or 3-season tents. This can then be further categorized by the number of people it can fit.

The “3-man” and “4-man” tent came to be known as “3-person” and “4-person” and even to solo, duo, trio, quartet and so on. But this demands a much more cynical way of looking at the tags.

This is because what manufacturers mean by a 3-man backpacking tent is a tent that can accommodate 3 small human bodies laid out like corpses. If it were live breathing people the space would be too small.

If you were to hike solo, some people prefer to carry a 2-man tent so that you can also keep your camping gear and yet be comfortable and spacious enough for you to cook if you really have to. It’s so much more comfortable to be stuck in a 2-person tent for days in a blizzard than to be stuck in a small bivvy tent.

Some backpacking tent producers make allowances for camping equipment and cooking. Cooking in your tent without ventilation is not a recommended practice. It can even spell death for you. Be sure the backpacking tent is well ventilated when you cook in it. backpacking tents that allow for such matters are tagged as “2-plus”, “3-plus” and so on.

Going back to take the example of “4-season” backpacking tent models we see that they are designs that could withstand the heaviest snow and rain and strong winds. A tent that can be both a 3 season and a 4-season tent are called “convertible” tents. This type of tent can save weight by removing some parts of the tent including poles, sections and zip-out roof panel.

However, most new hiking tents are 3-season tents that do well in all types of weather except for the worst of winter. The lightweight version is sufficient for camping in late spring and early fall also known as the 2-season backpacking tent.

Keep in mind that this type of categorization is based on estimations of the average guy. The problem is not everyone has the same amount of body insulation. An experienced mountaineer might survive a blizzard with the lightest of 3-season tents or even a small bivvy and yet still sleep well at night.

The camping cook stove is both powerful and lightweight and designed to make cooking easier while in the outdoors.

The camping cook stove can be found in a variety of sizes and designs. Gas camping stoves come in basically three different categories: multi-burner family camping stoves, single burner backpacking , and expedition stoves.

Most have the same basic design of a burner or burners attached to a fuel source. Your intended use will determine which stove and fuel type is the best choice. If you have only little room extra and need to heat up a can of corned beef from time to time then a single burner expedition stove may be the way to go.

Different Fuel Types

There are pros and cons of using different types of fuel. One is liquid fuel white gas and the other pressurized gas canisters with several different styles of canisters available. I personally recommend only two fuel types- Coleman style screw on gas canisters or white gas -Coleman liquid fuel-.

The most popular fuel source is white gas, which performs very well. White gas is readily available all over but may not be outside the U.S.

White Gas Stoves

May favorite is the white gas camping cook stove The white gas stoves will produce the most heat of any camping cook stove . The white gas stoves are available in “dual fuel” versions. This allows you to use unleaded pump gas in addition to the white gas. A lot of people use the pump gas and are happy with it. I find it is smelly and if you spill it or get it on your hands, it’s hard to get rid of the odor. Stick with the white gas.

I use only the white gas in the dual fuel stoves. If you run out and can’t buy any white gas - then use the unleaded gasoline. The main advantage of using unleaded gasoline over white gas is the cost. This is the only real advantage to the dual fuel stoves, that and being able to find fuel whenever you need it. I feel the extra cost for the few gallons of white gas used each year is worth paying so you get the cleanliness of this fuel. The dual fuel stoves do cost more.

Liquid white gas burns hotter than the “propane - butane” gas and works better in windy, cold and low atmospheric conditions therefore it is the primary fuel for most expedition stoves. Most often it is lighter and cheaper to use liquid fuel than gas fuel due to the gas canister being heavier and has to be purchased each time. Liquid fuel does not burn as cleanly as gas and is more difficult to regulate the temperature. As for as transporting it’s somewhat safer to carry a gas canister in the trunk of your car than a bottle of white gas.

Pressurized Gas - Propane, Butane

The next most popular fuel are propane gas canisters. If ease of use use is your main concern use a pressurized gas camping cook stove. The fuels are made from blends of butane and other gases. Gas canisters are not refillable and must be thrown away when empty which ads to the landfills. You cannot check to see how much fuel is left in the canister when using pressurized gas. When using white gas, it is easy to check remaining fuel.

Pressurized gas camping cook stove can be lit as soon as the fuel canister is in place. No pumping, priming or preheating the burner.

One last note: Make sure you know how to use your camping cook stove before going camping, use it at home instead of waiting until your in the field.

A backpacking bag is great for backpacking as it keeps your hands free for more important things like eating a snack or to hold a trekking pole. Carrying a duffel while hiking in the woods would be inconvenient and would make a man tire very fast.

Backpacks generally fall into two categories for outdoor activities like hiking. Traditionally external frame bags were commonly used but since mountaineers made it cool internal frame packs are more common.

The frame of an external frame backpack is usually made of tough and lightweight aluminum. The way the load is placed in an external frame backpack makes it difficult to keep balanced. You’ll find that it’s not easy to climb and incline or up hills but manufacturers came up with the obvious solution, the internal frame backpack, was born.

But some still choose external frame backpacks because you can carry some essentials by securing it to the external frame. Most people like to tie essentials that they may need easy access to the external frame. Be careful not to have too much hanging on the frame that it turns into something like a bus in India. It can make moving around difficult or make you lose your balance too easily.

Some still use external frame backpacks because they’re cooler. I’m not talking about “cool” in a sense that your friends would think it’s cool but because the pack is not close to the body, ventilation is good so it is cooler to wear.

In this modern day external frame hiking backpacks have almost been completely replaced by internal frame hiking backpacks. Overall they are simply much more convenient and carrying a heavy weight is so much easier because the center of gravity is much lower and since the weight is much more closer to the body, it is also more balanced.

Internal frame hiking backpacks compensates for the lack of external lashing points with a big holding capacity. Some have straps so that you can carry your other backpacking equipment like tent, mummy bag or poles on the outside. The close proximity of the pack to your back also makes it less bulky in a way, giving you more freedom to move. A higher level of comfort is achieved even when they tend to make your back sweat. Some makers are sharp enough to improve the overall ventilation of the hiking backpack by having minimal surface area in contact with the back.

Whether you choose external frame or internal frame hiking backpacks it is important that you get the right fit for you because it makes a really big difference in the comfort you feel especially if you carry a heavy weight. Also remember that expensive doesn’t always imply better quality. You can still get a cheap hiking backpack that’s of high quality.

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