Best emergency bivy/shelter for 3-season day use

Large contractor bag or flat tarp to wrap up in.

The ZPacks Hexamid Pocket could do the trick for down there. Will be around-about 5.6 ounces with stakes. I got one, love it. If you will be at the GGG in a week or two you can see mine.

I have spent a night out in a blizzard bag this past summer. It got down to about 0C. With tights, and base layer shirt it was quite effective though a little cold. It is a legitamate 40 F bag. It certainly doesn't repack as well as the brick it comes in. I used it for a 2 night trail run.

I think it is well worth the 13oz for 3 season mountain survival, It is cheap and works albeit somewhat disposable. The other much more expensive option is what John is using. A zpacks pocket tarp plus an 10-12 oz quilt.

A bothy bag really warms up fast, and keeps the wind off. But you'd need to stay in a sitting position all night. Still, lots warmer than a bivy. This is why I take a bothy for a winter emergency shelter: but I've never had to use one overnight, so who knows?!

I couple this with a 15% down jacket and a pad.

Assuming you carry a windshell already for use in most precip, I'd ditch everything else in favor of a poncho-tarp. Golite is still the best balance of weight, quality, and cost.

Emergency blankets and bothys work. Condensation getting you damp is an issue. A skillfully deployed tarp will keep precip and wind off, and reflect heat from the fire, all while not trapping moisture around you.

I was pinned down by lightening during a day-long mountain bike ride years ago, and by the time the storm moved on it was dark and I was drenched. Already being off route (read: a bit lost) I elected to build a fire and curl up in my emergency bivvy around it. For one night this worked fine, though it was clammy. During the Wilderness Classic several years ago my partner and I used mylar bivvys and a fire for shelter, including an 18 hour stretch waiting out a storm. We bivvied three times, and moisture retention within the system definitly impeded comfort the second and third times. Two years ago during the Bob Open I bivvied around a fire under the Golite poncho-tarp during a snowstorm. I had fairly modest insulating clothing and no sleeping bag. So long as the fire was burning well I was quite comfortable, and most importantly the next morning all my clothing was dry, thus allowing me to keep moving safely.

Use like this will put pinholes in your poncho-tarp, but that's easy to repair.

Food for thought.

Ask yourself if you will ever be in a situation where you cant start a fire due to injury or environment

Start from there

The military and some SAR use blizzard bags

;)

I hate that my last 3 conversations have been inserting the Gatewood Cape haha, but I was wondering what was being said for this. I think a great emergency shelter/bivy that is weight conscious is a poncho tarp. With as many options as there are for poncho tarps, the weight benefits outweigh the negatives. A poncho tarp would cover your emergency rain gear and shelter 2 in 1. Check out the video I linked below to check out what sort of weather the Gatewood can handle.

I'd also recommend the blizzard bag. It's compact, waterproof, lightweight and above all, warm. A standard emergency blanket or bivy sac has little to no thermal resistance. I've never used mine, but always carry it on day hikes.

If you are with one other person, or more, a correctly-sized bothy bag such as the offerings from Terra Nova or Integral Designs will be warm enough to sleep reasonably in mild winter weather wearing whatever clothing you've brought. You'll sleep sitting up, but you can rely on tension and lean back and it is not so bad.

We've used them for lunch breaks when the wind made a rest stop unpalatable and find them indispensable for cold weather use. The best part is they are meant to be used over and over again so you'll never try to "save it" — this is something you'll actually use time and time again.

As a solo shelter, I think it's a bit lacking. It only provides wind and rain protection, and does serve to create a protective bubble that gets warm but I feel it doesn't get warm enough to make it a worthwhile choice over the Blizzard Bag which is better suited to the solo user in an emergency. However, a bothy would be handy consideration even then as it serves as a safe and comfortable rest area and can also boost the weather protection of a Blizzard Bag.