The Hilleberg Bivanorak is an interesting garment. It functions both as a bivy and as a one piece anorak style rain garment (thus the name).
As a bivy it is reasonably spacious, and will do a decent job of protecting you and your sleeping bag from rain, wind and sleet. As a garment if is long, and you need to fold it up and cinch the bottom draw-cord around your waist in order to have any freedom of movement (it is almost 2.5 m long, in order to function well as a bivy). The sleeves are loose and spacious, and it is easy to retract your arms while wearing it. The hood is quite generous, and will accommodate most conceivable headwear and many sleeping bags hoods as well. The material (ripstop nylon with a PU coating) is quite breathable but will keep rain on the outside: if you are damp when getting into it there will be condensation, but that will eventually evaporate to the outside.
Use experience
I have used it as a bivy, both in survival training situations and with a sleeping bag, and as a rain garment. In the first application it is pretty close to perfect (not the ideal bivy for sleeping bags, but very nice in a survival shelter), and as a grain-garment it works best in fairly open terrain, but is also despite my initial misgivings eminently functional in the woods, at least if some minimal care is taken (I slept on a pile of dry spruce and pine inside a tight shelter for a fortnight, and collected a large portion of the building materials for said shelter while wearing it, with no damage). In a survival shelter it comes to its right: you can easily add or remove layers while wearing it, and once you are in your shelter is is spacious enough to retract your arms, remove your boots (assuming that your shelter allows this...) and adjust the hood, all from the inside. You can pull the lower draw-cord tight and still stretch out as much as you need to for a good nights sleep.
Ideal use situations
Minimalists in open terrain, one-man windsack/bothy bag for mountain travel, and in emergency packs (it was developed for Swedish Air Force pilots), etc. Probably a bit too thin for long term durability in the woods, but will stand up to more abuse than one may suspect.
Specifications
Weight: 545 g
Size: 240 cm long, 86 cm wide
Link: http://se.hilleberg.com/EN/shelters/bivanorak/
(Disclosure: I received it at a rebate in return for testing under forest survival conditions)
As a bivy it is reasonably spacious, and will do a decent job of protecting you and your sleeping bag from rain, wind and sleet. As a garment if is long, and you need to fold it up and cinch the bottom draw-cord around your waist in order to have any freedom of movement (it is almost 2.5 m long, in order to function well as a bivy). The sleeves are loose and spacious, and it is easy to retract your arms while wearing it. The hood is quite generous, and will accommodate most conceivable headwear and many sleeping bags hoods as well. The material (ripstop nylon with a PU coating) is quite breathable but will keep rain on the outside: if you are damp when getting into it there will be condensation, but that will eventually evaporate to the outside.
Use experience
I have used it as a bivy, both in survival training situations and with a sleeping bag, and as a rain garment. In the first application it is pretty close to perfect (not the ideal bivy for sleeping bags, but very nice in a survival shelter), and as a grain-garment it works best in fairly open terrain, but is also despite my initial misgivings eminently functional in the woods, at least if some minimal care is taken (I slept on a pile of dry spruce and pine inside a tight shelter for a fortnight, and collected a large portion of the building materials for said shelter while wearing it, with no damage). In a survival shelter it comes to its right: you can easily add or remove layers while wearing it, and once you are in your shelter is is spacious enough to retract your arms, remove your boots (assuming that your shelter allows this...) and adjust the hood, all from the inside. You can pull the lower draw-cord tight and still stretch out as much as you need to for a good nights sleep.
Ideal use situations
Minimalists in open terrain, one-man windsack/bothy bag for mountain travel, and in emergency packs (it was developed for Swedish Air Force pilots), etc. Probably a bit too thin for long term durability in the woods, but will stand up to more abuse than one may suspect.
Specifications
Weight: 545 g
Size: 240 cm long, 86 cm wide
Link: http://se.hilleberg.com/EN/shelters/bivanorak/
(Disclosure: I received it at a rebate in return for testing under forest survival conditions)
