SOL - Escape Bivvy?

[packdaddy]

My Idea is to use two. One inside the other. I'm hoping this dose not effect the breath-ability. I should get them tomorrow but will have to wait to test in cold.

[Cali]

At $80, I think I would save up a few more bucks and get an IX UQ and use a poncho liner on top, Nice and cozy warm. I would also keep an eye on the for sale thread for a reasonably price synthetic UQ. Just my $.02, HYOH

[packdaddy]

At $80, I think I would save up a few more bucks and get an IX UQ and use a poncho liner on top, Nice and cozy warm. I would also keep an eye on the for sale thread for a reasonably price synthetic UQ. Just my $.02, HYOH

It's not for bottom Insulation. Just for top. There's no way it would work for bottom. I'm just looking for an Ultra lite replacement for my current sleeping bag without having to rob a bank.

I don't like down. I don't like the idea of if it gets wet you have to go home or loose a day trying to dry it out. With the recent invention of "Dri-Down", I may become a supporter, and put it on mt X-Mas list. But as far as I know, no one is making Quilts with Dri-Down yet.

[TheCoyote]

You could always buy a poncho liner and make it a top quilt and cut a short seam and layer in a SOL bivey.

[phatpacker]

I think this would be cool to drape over a warbonnet to trap heat and reflect it back. not on the bottom. Kind of like a 1\2 sock

[Cookie]

I just received my SOL Escape bivy from REI and will use it for the first time this weekend on a hike in the Pisgah Shining Rock area. I will report my findings. Good thing about REI is if I don't like it I can return it

[timdgsr]

But as far as I know, no one is making Quilts with Dri-Down yet.

http://www.hammockforums.net/forum/s...ad.php?t=57575

if others aren't yet, i'm sure they will be soon

[Bosman]

How did the sol bivy do pacdaddy and others? I am kinda excited about this. maybe throw thinsulate in one and put some grommets and shock cord on and make an underquilt too.

[PineMartyn]

I don't like down. I don't like the idea of if it gets wet you have to go home or loose a day trying to dry it out. With the recent invention of "Dri-Down", I may become a supporter, and put it on mt X-Mas list. But as far as I know, no one is making Quilts with Dri-Down yet.

packdaddy,
I wanted to toss in my two cents about sleeping bags filled with hydrophobic down, such as Dri-Down, because there is a common misconception about under what conditions it helps compared to down or synthetic fills.

The point of hydrophobic down is not that it will retain it's insulative properties if wetted by a rain or a spilled water bottle or the like. No bag, be it filled with down or synthetic, will retain it's loft and keep you warm when it's been hit by rain or a spilled water bottle. Any bag that's wet through like that will have a matted, flattened fill where it's gotten wet and the water will conduct your heat where your body touches the wet parts of the bag. Synthetics can be dried out faster, but while wet, they are all equally worthless. Unless you can build a big fire and dry your bag over it for hours and hours, your synthetic bag won't dry out in cold-camping conditions by evaporation or hanging outside as it would in summer.

The relevant difference between synthetics, down, and hydrophobic down, is in how well they perform in cold-camping conditions on longer trips. When cold-camping (as opposed to hot-tenting), sleeping bags gradually lose their insulative properties because they absorb body moisture each night. Sleeping bags are made so that this body moisture will evaporate out through the bag, being forced out by your own body heat (like a heat pump) and by your movement in the bag (like a bellows). This is why you shouldn't put a waterproof material directly on your bag, as this will ensure the escaping moisture stays trapped in your bag, leaving it wet. But overnight venting doesn't evaporate off all the moisture and, once you're out of the bag, that remaining moisture stays in there and it accumulates in your bag with every day that you're out cold-camping.

Synthetic fills don't lose as much loft as down fills do from this moisture because the fibres don't collapse and flatten as readily in response to accumulating moisture, so they will retain more of their insulative quality after many nights of cold camping. This is why many winter campers favour synthetic fills over regular down: The accumulated moisture has less effect on the insulation on long trips than it does in down bags. Down bags, when cold-camping, lose a bit more of their insulative properties with every passing night than do synthetic bags.

So, if you were hot-tenting, it wouldn't matter, as your bag would vent its nightly moisture load out into the heat of the heated tent all day long and so there'd be no accumulation of moisture and hence the insulative capacity would remains constant. If you're hammocking in cold temperatures for just a few nights, the moisture buildup won't be great enough to collapse enough of the fibres of the down to make any great difference. Where hydrophobic down is supposed to make a difference is if you're cold-camping for many days where body moisture accumulates in your bag, night after night, but can't vent off or dry out during the day. Hydrophobic down behaves more like synthetic fill in this respect, and so on long cold-camping trips, it should retain more of it's insulative quality, as would a synthetic bag.

If you're a hammocker, but your not going on long trips where moisture accumulation will make a difference, hydrophobic down is a waste of money. On long cold-camping hammocking trips, it could mean the difference between sleeping warm every night or sleeping colder with every passing night.

Hope this helps,
-Martin

[Mikeinajeep]

+1 what pinemartyn said. A sleeping bag liner that you can completely dry will help as well.