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How much would your setup weigh?
I various set-ups, the lightest would come in at 490g for tarp (proper full coverage not a micro affair), midge proof bivvy bag, pole, lines and pegs.
A few of us are planning on walking the Haute Route from Cham to Zermatt. We are hoping to bivvy for the full 10-12 days barring maybe a refuge stop half way to get clean etc.
Has anyone ever done this or similar? I realise wild camping is illegal in France but we'd only be camping there for one night anyway, and i doubt the gendarmerie patrol the high hills.
My main concern about bivvying now is midgy protection in the later months. What's your thoughts on that? Rig up some kind of mesh for your head?Actually that's one place where the gelert is good. I have just used the mesh inner alone on good nights. Great for midgy protection.
You could try suspending the tent inner underneath a tarp in place of the bivi bag? Might be best of both worlds.
seosamh77, a hunka and a large basic silnylon tarp and lines will be around 700-750g, maybe a bit more. Poles can help, or just use the bike. So not a lot lighter than a tent, but on the nights you don't need a tarp it's quicker and as people mention above, more open, better views etc.
I didn't know that .. we spent 10 nights bivvying out during a French Alps trip. One night was in a hut where the food smelled really good. I've used huts on other Alps trip but the food is usually much better than the sleep I get there ) The Haute Route looks fantastic.Has anyone ever done this or similar? I realise wild camping is illegal in France but we'd only be camping there for one night anyway, and i doubt the gendarmerie patrol the high hills.
[quote=seosamh77 ]
My main concern about bivvying now is midgy protection in the later months. What's your thoughts on that? Rig up some kind of mesh for your head?
Actually that's one place where the gelert is good. I have just used the mesh inner alone on good nights. Great for midgy protection.
There are bivvy bags with midge netting at the "open" end. I've also had excellent results using Smidge these last two summers. In fact, it was only after managing to camp in a midge-infested Glen Feshie with the tent door wide-open and not being eaten alive due to the Smidge that I really considered bivvy-ing an option.
If you're worried about midges, put your midge net over your head before closing the bag. You then get the net over the opening in the bag instead of worrying about a bivi bag with an integrated net.
mate and i were out for six days a few years back.... just a tarp, a ground sheet, mats and sleeping bags.
this was, however, in the alps and the height of summer.
don't know how long i would have held out in Scotland with the midges.
reckon you'll chuck it in after the first rainfall....