Lightest WP Bivy ???

Dirtbag… thank for all the great info and photos… I like your MLD eVent Soul bivy. Questions:

1) did you seam seal it? and how much weight did that add? (one thing I don’t like about MLD is you have to seam seal everything yourself… and it adds weight)

2) how slippery is that silnylon floor? And will it hold up to the angular gravels of the high mountains?

3) when  you said you had plenty of room when using a “large size neoair X-Therm with it”, was that air mattress inside the bivy our outside???

thanks,

DWR

1. Yes i did seam seal it myself.  Its so easy. If you take a few minutes and take your time, seam sealing is simple and you get the satisfaction of , “I did it myself “. Lol, and I could never DYI things.. so seam sealing is really bottom of totem pole.. but I do get satisfaction of doing at least that on my own. It really is simple! The weight added is negligible in my opinion.. honestly if you have your kit dialed in and you not packing any unnecessary crap.. seam sealing adds no weight that you would ever notice carrying.. true story!! The floor is not slippery.  Not that i have noticed. I usually put my air mattress inside the bivy with me and my Gossamer Gear thinlite or thermarest pad outside underneathe it. No problem ever.

Seam sealing one of my Tarptent tents added 2 ounces !

And I think factory seam sealing is more reliable… and doesn’t peal away and need to be redone like home sealing does eventually.

My home seam sealing has never peeled or leaked. If my pack full out loaded weighs 12 lbs, the 2 ounces of seam sealing would not make a difference for me, and I would not notice that 2 ounces of weight if it was seam sealed or not…

“pack full out weighing 12 lbs… ”

Well… dirtbag… you live in a different universe than me… my daypacks weigh more that that… my backpacks 2x or more…

In any case, I am not interested in philosophy… just the lightest wp bivy bag suggestions… and thanks for that…

DWR

Yeah. Not sure if its the lightest or the best, but it works great and for me.. It checks all the boxes…

Another EDIT I just noticed. The 3rd picture I posted is my Borah solo tarp.. On the scale.. NOT Borah bivy..

Thanks Dirtbag (hat calling someone that… but your choice…)

Have you spend a rainy night in it? How did that go?

Nope. Always have had my borah gear solo tarp with me for rain covering..

so never had a scenario where you just had your eVent out without tarp and it rained overnight?

Other then my backyard.. leaving it out in the rain without cover.. nope. It was fine in my backyard testing.. but I have never put myself in that situation in the mountains.. though I am close to 100% confident I would be just fine, safe, ( if not a bit miserable) using it in rain without my small tarp.

alpkit kloke bivi 10oz, large enough for a mat but not a winter quilt/bag aswell. top entry🙄 but a small zip could be added, great breathability.

I spent 45 days on the Montana/Idaho CDT and was rained on many days and I used a Gossamer Gear Twin tarp with no bivy or bathtub and a polycryo ground sheet. I was always dry. The tarp weighs 9.25 oz and packs up very small. It’s made for 2 people but it was just me alone so it provided tons of dry space. I really think giving yourself a large ceiling is a better solution than putting yourself inside a small bag.

“I spent 45 days on the Montana/Idaho CDT and was rained on many days and I used a Gossamer Gear Twin tarp with no bivy or bathtub and a polycryo ground sheet. I was always dry.”….. Sure…. thanks for that… but… the question I am asking is for names/links to the lightest WP Bivy bags; not interested in traps or the philosophy of  which is best. Apologies, but as the OP, hoping this thread does not drift off into other things than bivies as I am need of this information right now… lots of other postings from years back about the philosophies of which shelters people like and don’t like… I just want a lightweight WP bivy…

thanks,

DWR

Mr Dirtbag…

do you think that zipper that goes down one side is water proof? Or do you think it might leak in a multi hour rain? with rain blowing up under the storm flap???

I once did a three week backpack with a gortex bivy… no tent, no tarp. It had no zipper… just top entry where the hood overlapped the body by a significant amount… like maybe 4 inches… the idea being that if were in that in the rain you would sit up against a rock or a log and the rain would run off the hood and down to the body of the bivy. To me, that seems like a better solution than a zipper that might leak and only maybe 1 inch of a storm flap that wind could blow the rain up under and onto the zipper. Also, with a zipper completely closed you would start to build up CO2 and might be unhealthy to go that way for long…

Daniel, that alpkit kloke bivi 10oz looks very interesting. Do you happen to own one? Have experience with one of these in weather?

The web page does not indicate a different material for the bottom of this bag… their stated material for the bag sounds like some kind of generic Gortex-like material… but very thin… it that is also used on the bottom, getting it dirty could make it leak…

DWR

If your not satisfied with bivvy offerings available you could contact Borah gear and see if they will make you a custom one. They did for me when I bought like my 5th bivvy…went on a bit of a gear journey with them.

Good luck!

I think.. THINK.. the zipper is fine. Like I said, i left it out in my yard in the rain and it was bone dry. However… if u have to open it to get in or out.. well.. obviously its gonna get wet in there to some degree. Leaving it completely closed though.. I THINK it should be ok. I also dont think you will die or get co2 poisoning if you left it closed completely.. you could leave it opend a tiny wee bit.. i have no idea.. I always carry my solo tarp with me so I wont have to worry about death by bivy!

I am assuming you are planning on a lengthy trip carrying just the bivy? If thats the case, and you are really going that lightweight.. it does not necessarily have to be the lightest weight waterproof bivy.. you could probably afford a few ounces on a desired bivy and not really need the lightest one possible..

yeah the kloke is 7d all-over, im on my 2nd. my 1st one has some seam tape coming loose so i got a warranty replacement. i use a zpacks single groundsheet as extra protection. not sure id trust the specs enough to use it in full anger.

“…to use it in full anger.”

Anger????

“I am assuming you are planning on a lengthy trip carrying just the bivy?”

Not on a lengthy trip… would likely take a light weight tarp of some type… but.. want a bivy that can stand on it’s own as I have had tarps blow down (or had to take it down before it blew down)… and had to depend on my bivy in a rain… My trips for this would be above tree line in the High Sierra where things can get interesting, fast…

DWR

Check out Tony Hobbs on You tube. He has been posting a bunch of videos using the MLD eVent bivy.. under small minimal tarp.. and also just using it in heavy rain.. getting the bivy exposed and rained on.. he has good things to say about it.. and video to prove it..

Sounds like a good application for an emergency bivy. They are the lightest of all.

“Check out Tony Hobbs on You tube”

Tony Hobbs is an odd fellow. I suffered thru two of his videos… his Brit accent, odd words for things, and numerous babblings about things that didn’t seem to be relevant to the topic… odd fellow. The one video that was said to have ‘rain’ in it seemed like a hand full of droplets; not a downpour. But one thing bothered me about the zipper was the sound. It sounded like a regular zipper; not one with rubberized shields like on a good rain jacket (the kind that takes some force to move) And I think MLD states the zipper is rain ‘resistant’; not waterproof. Maybe using the word ‘resistant’ is just a hedge against potential failure complaints, but that combined with the zipper sound in the video makes me wonder. Maybe I will email Ron…

Well… looks like the MLD Soul Bivy is not happening this hiking season. Just email Ron and they are all off hiking until Sept 7 and this for delivery times:

“1:  ESTIMATED WAIT / SHIP TIMES
No packs, quilts or shelters in stock.

Large sewn gear over     $100    10  BIZ Weeks”

TEN WEEKS !!! … .(mid November!)

Now I remember why I have not ordered things from them in the past… I rarely think that far ahead :)))

DWR