Look.. Six Moon Designs Gatewood Cape with Katabatic Gear Bristlecone bivy

Edit that about Katabatic Gear.. Just looked at website and the Bristlecone bivy is there!!

I was sorry to see Enlightened Equipment stopped selling their Recon bivy, I am glad I have one, I really like it. Sorry to distract from your post I enjoyed your video.

@ Link.. All good. Thanks!!!

The Bristlecone looks a really good design.

I’m going to make something similar I think. The zip both sides is better for my use than one in the centre like some other designs.

Regarding the Gatewood.  I have one. Be aware, it has a design flaw that leads to damage if not rectified. Myself and others I know have suffered damaged Gatewoods after use in strongish winds.

It is this: Look at the lower end of the zip on the left hand side- the zip continues to the attachment point for the guy connection, so pull is transferred up the zip.  On mine, the bottom end of the right zip, the zip stops, the right  tie out to the guy is only connected to the Silnylon hem.  No transfer up the zip.  After a windy night, I had small tears occurring in the Silnylon between hem and zip end  and the zip tape had laddered too.  It was only its third use.   I repaired with ¼ grosgrain from the tie out to up the whole zip length.    A friend ended up replacing his whole zip because of it.

The Deschutes has a similar catastrophic error built in on the lineloc attachment point for main front guy. ( At top of main zip- pull is transferred to plain Silnylon rather than the seam through to the pole top. ) I have one for repair right now. Shockingly poor design.

The Deschutes has a similar catastrophic error built in on the lineloc attachment point for main front guy.

I know this post is about the Gatewood, but since the comment above has been made, I thought I would corroborate it here.

@mole is correct. I have the dcf Deschutes, and the front guy is attached the same way, in my case directly to the dcf above the zip. This is reinforced with seam tape, but nonetheless the dcf has torn at that point. I have patched the hole with tape to stop water getting in, and now run the front guy up through the vent and attach it directly to the top of my pole.

Hmmmm.. interesting.  Im going to have to pitch it in my yard this week and check out what you saying…

For anyone interested..

I just ordered a new bivy from Katabatic Gear.. the Pinon. It has more mesh bug netting then the Bristlecone bivy. It looks very interesting so I figured give it a go. Not sure if it is a new bivy or just an updated version..

@mole is correct. I have the dcf Deschutes, and the front guy is attached the same way, in my case directly to the dcf above the zip. This is reinforced with seam tape, but nonetheless the dcf has torn at that point. I have patched the hole with tape to stop water getting in, and now run the front guy up through the vent and attach it directly to the top of my pole.

I now have the same problem.  So the bottom of the door still slides up and down the same guy line, correct?  Can you share a pic of your setup?

I am looking at my Gatewood and I am not sure what the issue is. The guyline that runs parallel to the zipper is its own thing, from the harness to the ground.

Both the tie outs at the bottom of each of the halves of the zipper seem to be attached to the zipper, so maybe it was a SNAFU in production? Or maybe I am missing what you are talking about?

Am I missing something?

Michael

Both tieouts on your Cape are attached to the bottom of the zip tapes.  On mine which is a 2019 Olive green model, only one side is like this. The other side the zipper stops before the hem, so there is no direct transfer from hem to zipper. The pull was transferred by a short span of single layer Silnylon. This is what split on my Cape. And was repaired and reinforced.

The main guy attachment issue described applies only to the Deschutes design.

• here is mine…

Mole must have got one that was made on a Friday afternoon.

@michael.. Are those snap rings attached on ends of yours? And what is that clip?

Yes. And it is a mitten hook to hook into the Prussik on the guyline. The rings came with the cape, I bought it secondhand.