done a quick bivvi last night and frank from Bloody Bridge campsite let me park at his house for a small fee, was planning on staying the night at mourne wall but chickened out due to the strong gusts and the fact i knew the snow was on its way,i set up camp at the quarry and climbed into my bivvi bag and got ready .
i will try and add somemore info laters like how i was well impressed with my alpkit headtorch (cheers suspectmonkey) and played with the green and red lights as i walked in snow
some photos here http://www.flickr.com/photos/dougiewilson/sets/72157625618030992/
Cool - nicely done.
I'm going for a back-garden bivi tonight to test my new sleeping bag. It should hit its limit so will be a good test!
Looks awesome, very jealous. Haven't had a proper snow bivvy yet.
Nice.
Fair play mate looks cool.
Nice one Andy, looks like a pretty awesome bivvy, respect for heading up!
How did you find the sleep mat? I see you had it under the bivvy in one of your photos, did you sleep with it like that? If you are using the standard Alpkit Hunka bivvy I don't think it will fit inside, although it might fit in the Hunka XL. Mind you, I've discovered that I just can't sleep inside a bivvy with the mat on the inside. Feel far too restricted, so prefer to sleep with the mat on the outside.
Hi suspect ;D I used the mat underneath as I used Dowsers idea and put a tescos mummy sleeping bag inside my vango supernova 3000 for extra warmth which I think I could of done with out as I had to strip off my top layers as I was too warm , I was super cautious and went and bought an outwell foam mat to put under the alpkit mat which again I reckon I could of done with out as I never felt the cold and I was really pleased at how comfy I was so much so I was a sleep before 11 , my bivvi I used was a Rab ranger and I was taught a very good lesson shake before opening as I got a face full off snow that also soaked my bag so I decided to pack up and head home about 4 , I think this was a sign from above as it took me 2hrs to get home to banbridge as the roads where a nightmare , I was very happy with mat but the headtorch kept me entertained with it's green and red beam in the snow , if your having another clearout pm me as I am sure I won't be disappointed ;D thanks again
Andy
Definitely the comfiest sleep I've had has been on a self inflating mat on a foam mat. Definitely worth the few hundred extra grams.
Was the snow not really deep on the walk back down considering how much fell at sea level?
this is me taking off my hat to you sir ;D
Cheers Lenny :)
Redleader the snow was not too bad but trying to drive home I was hitting drifts but thankfully the hedges kept me going in the tight direction