LW Shelter/Bivy?

Hello all,
I'm in a tough pocket right now and I am abandoning my tent and going for something a bit more lightweight but extremely durable I would use it Spring-Fall. I can't decide between a tarp or bivy because they both have their pros and cons. I'm going to see what you all have throw at me.I have a budget of around $150. Thanks!
-Nate

I'd go with the tarp. With your budget you should be able to get a nice one and you can configure them in so many ways that I don't see any advantage you'd have with a bivvy.

If bugs are an issue where you'll be camping then I'd look into suspending a bug net under the tarp.

Depending on the weather you may need both!

I'm not a bivy person. I have spent enough days (a handful really, but that was enough) in a tent in the rain or snow (as in pelting down snow) to appreciate the space and comfort. For $150, you could find a nice small used tent that would keep you and your gear dry in bad weather. I do have a very lightweight bivy and have slept in just it on clear nights, but as a shelter? No way.

I agree. With a minimalist tarp anyway, you still need protection from windblown rain, mist and snow. Plus, a bivy adds a bit of warmth and keeps your pad/mattress corralled.

My $0.02 anyway.

Cheers,

Just to clarify: There are two kinds of bivy.

One is a stand-alone bivy which is waterproof. It may have problems with condensation and certainly it will be difficult to get into and out of when it's raining without letting water inside. They are used primarily by mountaineers who will be out only one night but need to be able to curl up in a small space.

The other type of bivy is a durable water repellent (not waterproof) sleeping bag cover which protects your sleeping bag from splash, drip, and windblown rain/snow when you're sleeping under a tarp. Being more breathable than the stand-alone type, it's less apt to have condensation inside. It's also a lot lighter than the stand-alone type. It usually has a bug net over the face and a waterproof underside so can substitute for the ground sheet and bug net needed with just a tarp.

With a large enough tarp that you can stake close to the ground in rain storms, you really don't need the bivy. However, you do need a ground sheet and (in bug season) a bug net if you don't have a bivy.

I agree with Tom. Kelty Salida sells for $150 and weighs 5#. That's a 2 person model. They are incredibly easy to set up and tear down, double walled, have a vestibule and high wind guy lines. A quality tarp of the right size can get towards $100.

In my mind, a bivy alone would be very confining and uncomfortable for any kind of wet or snowy weather of the sort you'd get in Spring/Fall. As another poster said, it isn't a shelter. It's only a bag you can crawl into.

The idea of a used tent is attractive to me as a 'tent guy', but it may not be lighter than the tent you say you are abandoning, so unless your current tent is somewhat heavy, there's no point in duplicating what you already have.

So, for the criteria you've mentioned, ($150 or less for everything, shoulder seasons, lightweight) I'd say a tarp/groundcloth combo you could set up with trekking poles (assuming you have them) would probably meet your needs best. If you go this route, learn several pitches for the tarp and practice them in your yard. Tarps are not tents and require some skills to use properly in bad weather, especially wind.

There are several very light tents that weigh as little as a heavy duty hooped bivy, but offer more space. Tarptent, Lightheart, Six Moon Designs come to mind.
Something like these -
Tarptent Contrail
SMD Lunar Solo
Lightheart Solo

Granted, finding a used one may be a challenge, but well worth looking for compared to a bivy, in my opinion.

If you are not abandoning your tent because it's worn out, you might see if there's a fly/footprint option for it. That might give you a taste of tarp idea, but at the cost of a footprint.

I use a Mountain Laurel Designs Monk tarp. It was $170 with a carbon fiber pole, and it's cuben fiber. SUPER light, and even I haven't managed to tear it... Yet.

For years I used the lightest bivy I could find with a tube tent for the rain...:)

For solo trips I usually carry a SOL Escape Lite Bivvy just in case... it costs $40.00 and tips the scale at 5.1oz. I rarely use it, I find that a well pitched tarp takes care of most stuff - but it is nice to have if the monsoon comes.

If you are looking for a well made, inexpensive tarp I'd consider Picharpak Workshop. I have a buddy who has one and he loves it. Stick (from Sticks Blog) has an Unboxing Review on one. They range in price from $125 to $165 and listed weight on the 1P is 273g.

Welcome to the forums!

We were discussing the SOL Escape Lite Bivvy on another thread recently. I don't think anyone here has used one yet. You said you've not used yours much, but I'd still like to hear about how it worked for you when you have.

In my opinion, anything more than a "basic bivy" is not worth it since many 1-person tents now weigh the same. By the time you get a fancy hoop bivy you may as well do a tent. A good bivy is NOT cheap. You could find a "basic" bivy on sale for $150. I have done many 10+ day trips with only a bivy, in the Sierra. If you anticipate lots of rain, I would not use a bivy alone. Under the right conditions, a bivy is great! I LOVE being able to just plop down anywhere, see the stars and still have good protection in case of a change of weather. It takes a while to get accustomed to sleeping in a bivy. And if you are pinned down in weather, a bivy is like being confined to a coffin. A good, basic, mountaineering bivy will protect you from the weather. At 1 pound, 5 ounces, it is less than an equivalent one-person tent. Tarps are fine if always backpacking in trees. I do a lot at higher altitudes. In fact, in a high wind, a bivy is more secure than a tent. I do think, that you need to be an experienced backpacker to be mentally comfortable in a bivy. Most beginners would be freaked out.

I agree with Daisy. I used a bivy and tarp combo that weighed about 3 pounds, and loved it for the same reasons she did: it was lighter than any tent available at the time, I could use the bivy alone on nice nights and fall asleep watching the stars, and combined with the tarp in the rain, I had bombproof protection.

I quit using it when solo tents (specifically, the MSR Hubba) came out. For the same 3 pound weight, I had just as much floor space, more headroom, and (since the tent wallls were nearly 100% mesh) could still fall asleep looking at stars on a nice night. The vestibule created by the fly gave me the same amount of extra living space in the rain as the tarp did - enough to cook in, and keep my gear dry.

The tent cost less, actually, than the Integral Designs bivy and tarp I had been using - so, faced with the choice today, a mesh-walled solo tent wins on nearly all counts.

Hiking buddy's son has a WPB-fabric Mountain Hardware bivy/tent conglomeration that's probably not much of a weight savings, but does let him sleep in seemingly impossibly small, level spaces. That's probably the main advantage it has over a stripped-down 1-man tent; okay, it's pretty wind-immune too. He's in his 20s so the weight just means he's not so far ahead of us on the trail.

Cheers,

My tarp bivy combo weighs just a fuzz over 1 lb. 8.5 feet x 8.5 tarp and a bora gear bivy.

Bill,
Thanks for the welcome.
The bivvy is about what you'd expect just looking at it... It's pretty crinkly but sized pretty well for me (6'0", 195-ish). I've only used it in real world applications twice... started off under the tarp alone and got a real good downpour. It seemed like less hassle to just throw the bivvy on instead of adjusting my pitch. It kept me dry from the rain, although it doesn't breath so the down quilt got damp.
If you have any specific questions let me know and I'll try to answer.
Best,
H2oBoy