Cold weather bivvy

  • Hey Guest, Early bird pricing on the Summer Moot (29th July - 10th August) available until April 6th, we'd love you to come. PLEASE CLICK HERE to early bird price and get more information.

Gray

Full Member
Sep 18, 2008
2,091
10
Scouser living in Salford South UK
What a fantastic weekend, loved every minute (including the 10 hrs or so I spent toasty in my bivvy lol) A big thanks to Matt, Andy and Kit for making it possible, especially Andy and his 4x4 truck.

With regards to the competition for best bivvy, we said we would post pics and a description and let the members of the forum decide on a winner...so....once the pics and descriptions are uploaded we will arrange a vote.

yzu3uqu5.jpg


2yzagysu.jpg


a3upy5ev.jpg


a3a8a5ud.jpg


6y4e9e7e.jpg


9evumynu.jpg
 

copper_head

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Feb 22, 2006
4,261
1
Hull
Ha I got to laugh too, although not so much at 2 this morning :D. Had a great time, really good first meet and big thanks to Gray, Andy and Matt :)

So here's some piccies;

Getting off the train at Ribblehead the scenery was fantastic,

001_zpsf971c947.jpg


Andy's awesome 4WD

004_zps3a1519e8.jpg


Quite an imposing structure the Viaduct, looming over the campsite

003_zps4ea63f08.jpg


Here's my bivvy, a simple tarp tent but should do the job.... Right?

009_zps0759314f.jpg

008_zpsa56b2ada.jpg


Weather really closed in as dark fell, driving sleet and rain. But the fire was on and dinner cooked before retreating to Gray's shelter tent for a whisky and a woodgas stove :)

023_zps0294428b.jpg



And now the fun part :rolleyes:, after crawling into my bed roll I was pretty snug and warm and quickly dropped off to sleep. Sometime around 1am I woke to a damp feeling in the footbox of the bag, decided I was too tired to worry about it right now and fell back to sleep. About half an hour later I had this same dampness all the way to my chest!
Turning the my torch and dreading what I would see I was greeted by what looked like an impromptu lake had appeared around my shelter :(! After saying 'Oh bother' or words to that effect I made a hasty exit to the group tent. Now soaking wet and having had to abandon my tarp and groundsheet I made the best of it. Putting whatever spare layers I had on I spent the rest of the night sat on a pile of logs huddled in a wet sleeping bag trying to stop the shelter tent blowing off across the moorland.

My 'sleeping area' the next day

DSC_0712_zps0fbc5719.jpg


Everyone's shelters

012_zps0add85b9.jpg


Quite a thaw ovenight!

026_zps88d613d8.jpg


Wet as I was, had a great time!
 

Gray

Full Member
Sep 18, 2008
2,091
10
Scouser living in Salford South UK
Very nice trip.
Two questions, which range temperature at the night, and which sleeping bag used?
We didnt actually record the temperature although I estimate it to have been about +3c although it felt colder because of the wind. Myself and Matt used army issue arctic bags. I also had a bivvy bag and a really good sleeping mat and was toasty warm all night.
 

Mick w.

Nomad
Aug 20, 2011
261
0
west yorkshire, uk
I know the area pretty well, but can't quite make out where you camped. Was it beyond the viaduct (from the road) and then along the track towards the bridge, on the ground to the left of there?
 

Phaestos

Full Member
Sep 8, 2012
374
0
Manchester
My version of events now :p

Yup, exactly the same as the other guys.

Excuse the pics. My phone's crap, and I dont really compliment it too well. We got there about 10am to a beautiful stillness in the skies and breathtaking views. And that is one imposing viaduct.

wp000113x.jpg

wp000115j.jpg

wp000116t.jpg

wp000118n.jpg


Was a truly stunning area, but knowing Gray's advice that "when it's bleak, it's f***ing bleak," I decided to have my shelter up as soon as possible. Now with the idea of the competition for that lovely knife, I'd spent bloody ages thinking of what setup to have. Lo and behold, and soon as I got there, all those ideas went clean out of my head. For some reason that eludes me, I figured camping on a slope, with my head at the bottom, to be a great idea! That said, I did flatten it down as much as possible and pulled to tap up over it, forming a snow wall and battening down the corners with heaps of snow that were sure to stay there all night... :/

wp000119p.jpg

wp000121u.jpg

wp000122x.jpg


I made few mods after a cuppa, such as making a space for my pack, and pegging down the ground sheet. By this time, the sheet was beginning to act like a pond liner, collecting all the snow I'd knocked down into it during construction. But never fear, my Alpkit Hunka XL (No affiliation! Especially after they figured that only a drawstring was going to grace the bag! How difficult is it to put a ruddy zip on the things?!) shunned such prospects of moisture and held my mini-lake at bay throughout the night. My amazing accidental construction plans had placed my gear on a higher elevation than my bag, so that all stayed dry.

wp000123z.jpg


After a few hours there, the wind started to pick up, and it was then that I figured some better protection was needed for my shelter. With Andy's suggestions and help, which up to this point I'd been shunning in favour of my own sense of self-ability, I hooked up an A frame tripod, with a log at the back to keep the back end of the tripod stuck in tight. Without the frame, there is no doubt my shelter would have upped and left for greener patures. I do believe the wind was strong enough that night to have taken it that far! I didn't grab any pics of my final shelter, but Andy did, so you can see the change.

The wind picked up after that, and the rain followed soon after, belting us without any mercy. Our fire turned into a blast furnace and lasted up until bedtime, by which point we had retreated inside the godsend of Gray's pop-up shelter with only each other and Andy's Wood/Gas burner as company. At this point I got really cold. My wet jacket and feet really hit me and with a hot pink hot water bottle in hand, I climbed into my bag. With about an inch clearance above me, I had all the grace of an inebriated elephant, but I did it!

Throughout the knight the wind kept waking me, and after discovering that on a slope the human body tends to move downwards, i resorted to curling into a fetal position to keep the rain from the few small inches of my face poking out my bivi. I was never once cold, and any chill I might have felt was masked by the awesomeness of my wool blanket, which in my opinion is always worth the effort to bring now!

Come morning, I was woken at 8 by a gunshot as my tent peg for one of the shelter's front size fired off into the rain. Suddenly, the A-frame came to the rescue once more, and I quickly tied that side down to the deeply entrenched legs and decided it was time to get up. It's at this point that I have to say, that as funny as it was, Kit (Copperhead) is a proper trooper. Anyone who could still be cracking a smile after the impromptu cold water swimming lesson he had is a ruddy hero to me.

The entire landscape had changed. I've never seen such thawing.

wp000131.jpg

wp000128v.jpg


After shaking Gray from his slumber, and then coaxing him out the warm confines of a bag i swear he could have spent all day in, we packed up and were off, somehow still smiling.

I had an awesome time. After only getting out 4 times before, this was by far the most extreme conditions I've camped it. Truly a great lesson, with great people. As for my shelter, I'm really quite impressed by it. When morning came, my clothes were dry,and despite the wind picking up, it kept in place until all my gear was safely stowed in Andy's pickup. The little snow wall I'd made probably did nothing against the wind and rain, but it stop my body sliding out into the rain :p

Cheers again fellas!
 

Gray

Full Member
Sep 18, 2008
2,091
10
Scouser living in Salford South UK
Well done Matt, great write up. Ok fellas...here we go. Vote for the best bivvy, charliefoxtrots, copper-heads or Phaestos. Voting open to everyone and doent include me( I think I had the best bivvy seeing that I'm the only one who slept all night without having to get out haha lol) voting closes midnight Friday and the winner recieves the knife pictured earlier. I would have set up a poll but it seems this has to be done at the beginning of the thread, unless anyone can help me with that as I'm not up to much IT wise :)
Do you think I should set up a separate post for this with a poll
 
Last edited:

BCUK Shop

We have a a number of knives, T-Shirts and other items for sale.

SHOP HERE