How to Setup a Bivy Sack – Real Camping Tips

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International Mountain Guide Erica Engle shows you how to setup an Outdoor Research Advanced bivy sack. The video, produced by Outdoor Research, was filmed in Ashfod, WA at the International Mountain Guide’s headquarters.

Video Transcription:

Hi, my name is Erika Engle and I’m a guide here at International Mountain Guides and today I’m going to talk to you a little bit about bivy sacks. Bivy sacks are great, solo, lightweight shelters that can also be carried as backup emergency shelters.

Today we’re going to talk about setting up the O.R. advanced bivy which includes two poles, it’s a two-pole system designed to keep the bivy sack material off of your face.

So, as you’re thinking about setting up your bivy, first off you want to choose an appropriate site, making sure that the area is clear of sharp rocks or other debris that might puncture the fabric of your bivy sack.

And once you’ve done so, you go ahead and pull the sack out of this pack and go ahead and set up the poles. So, you’ve got two different poles, one longer than the other. The longer one has five lengths and that pole is going to go on the inside white sleeve, you see here. Go ahead and get the poles through the sleeve and then you’re going to take the end piece, put
it on each end, find the corresponding snap with the white backing that goes with the white sleeve, snap that into place.

And then you’re going to take your four length pole, the shorter one, find the grey sleeve here on the outside, the little pole arrow indicator. Again, taking the end pieces, attaching them to the end of the pole and then looking for the corresponding snap here on the outside.

So, now you’ve got the sack itself set up. Go ahead and take a look inside and you’ll see that there are two straps that can be utilized to keep your pad in place. So, once you find those, go ahead and undo the Velcro, find your pad, and put it in the sack, and that will give your bivy sack a little bit more structure. And then, to hold the pad in place, go ahead and
put the strap together like so.

So, now with the two pole design, you have a variety of configurations that you can choose from. Starting out, you can go ahead and go for maximum ventilation, have the bivy sack wide open just like so.

The next set up would be to then utilize the bug netting. So, again, you’re going to be zipping that up from the inside. Nice and easy. And then you can fold back the fabric like so, so that the bivy sack, the poles are set straight up.

The next configuration that you can go ahead and go with is to tilt the overhead pole just slightly forward, give you a little bit more protection from precipitation while still getting a lot of airflow and keeping the bugs out.

Lastly, in a real storm, if it’s raining very hard, you can go ahead and tilt the overhead pole all the way over and zip the outermost zipper. Now, even in this configuration you’re going to want to leave the outside zipper open about six or seven inches just to allow for some ventilation for
yourself to breathe fresh air and also just to keep the air flow in general going on throughout the sack.

All right, so there you have it. Your basic bivy set up. if you have any questions or would like to find out more information about OR’s bivy line, go ahead to the website at outdoorresearch.com.

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