bivy sack in a mountain environment

In Episode 130 of the Backpacking Light Podcast, I discussed when I think bivy sacks are an optimal choice of shelter:

  1. When you want maximum flexibility in where you pitch – bivy sacks can be pitched in so many more places than tents.
  2. When you want maximum simplicity with as little pitching fuss as possible – maybe you are time-limited, or just lazy, and don’t want to fiddle around with a bunch of stakes, guylines, and panel tension (see How to Pitch an Ultralight Tent to learn more).
  3. When you don’t want to be seen.

These use case scenarios don’t consider one of the key soft-side benefits of using a bivy sack – a benefit that is personally very satisfying to me, but not necessarily practical from an efficiency standpoint (e.g., livable space-to-weight ratio):

Bivy sacks cultivate a more intimate psychological relationship with your environment, simply because of their ability to afford open-sky views and the feeling that you’re cowboy camping rather than confined in a fabric room with walls and a ceiling.

(Unlike cowboy camping, i.e., not using any type of shelter, the bivy sack gives me enough protection from some rain and bugs if needed.)

It is for these four reasons – pitch flexibility, pitch simplicity, stealth, and intimacy with the open sky – that I find myself choosing a bivy sack over a tent for many trips.

But the trip style I like to do the most dictates that I choose a bivy sack over a more traditional shelter.

I like to get up before dawn, make coffee while still in bed, and then pack up and start walking. After a few hours, I may stop to cook some breakfast, or otherwise just start snacking. Maybe a mid-day nap, or some tenkara fishing as I pass by a lake or cross a trout-filled stream. Often, a longer break in the late afternoon or early evening to cook dinner en route. Then, more walking – until the light goes away.

Finally, wherever I end up at dusk is where I want to camp, like this little gravel pitch amongst towering trees in the Stanislaus National Forest:

man cooking dinner on a small stove next to a bivy sack in a mountain forest

Sometimes, it’s near a brushy creek. Other times, on a hillside during a bushwhack, or after scrambling up to a ridge or summit. Occasionally, I may land near an established campsite and call that spot home for the night.

But a bivy sack gives me the pitch flexibility I want to do a trip like this.

And a bivy sack gives me the pitch simplicity to pitch and strike camp quickly.

And a bivy sack helps me stay less visible. That’s just plain, good old-fashioned LNT.

And finally, a bivy sack gives me the opportunity to get out of the house (tent) and sleep under an open sky.

What makes you bivy?