BPL community trip – Fall ’25 – RMNP

[Ryan Jordan]

Trip report from our community trip Oct 31 – Nov 2, 2025.

• Locale: Colorado, Southeastern RMNP
• Route overview: a mostly off-trail circumnavigation of several alpine lake basins; our route stayed in the 10,600 ft to 12,000 ft elevation bands – near and above treeline; distance around 20 miles, total elevation gain about 5 to 6k.
• Terrain: about 5 miles of trail at the beginning, 8 miles of trail at the end, a mile or so of trail in the middle, some “unmaintained use paths” near treeline, and a bit of forest bushwhacking, alpine meadows/tundra, talus, and a couple of high elevation passes.
• Weather: low temps down to 19 °F, high temps in the 30s and 40s; steady winds (20 to 30 mph) with stronger gusts, almost continuously for our first two days, then it abated a bit by the morning of day 3.

The group L to R: Ryan, Jeff, Ian, Scott, Tyler (Leo not shown)

Vignettes:

[Kevin L]

Ryan, What bivy did you use?

[Ryan Jordan]

That’s a Samaya Nano bivy.

[Link .]

Samaya had their bivy during the holidays for 50% off so I got one, it’s very nice.

[Ryan Jordan]

The Samaya’s fabric is impressively breathable, and based on field observation, the condensation in it has been minimal, on par with my 3L event bivies. I picked up an XL MLD Provent FKT this year as well, so I had a bivy I could use with a winter bag and thicker pad. The “Provent” fabric has good “paper specs” for MVTR, but poorer field performance in terms of condensation than the Samaya. It’s really interesting to see two fabrics perform the same on paper but so different in the field.

[Author]

Posts