My kit list so far:

Sleeping bag
Bivi
Mat
Tarp
Silk liner
Stove
Gas
2 pan set
Pillow

Weighs 2450g. Still need:

Tent pegs
Cord
Headtorch
Battery to recharge lights

And then food etc obvs. It’s going in a rucksack (yeah, fight me) that weighs 840g.

One year on the Jen ride I took an alpkit hunka.

I was persuaded to camp in a valley. Qué midges crawling up my nose at 3am until I cracked and rode up a pass to let some non bug infested sleep.

This year on the Jen ride I bough the elan hooped bivy. And we camped up high in the dry . It was fine although the roof a handspan from my nose all nigh made me a bit claustrophobic.

I also bough a soloist as I couldn’t decide between the soloist and elan.

I camped in the soloist on a soaking wet night and had a great nights sleep.

I’m 6″4 and the xl versions of all three fit me with space.

In summary, get a soloist. Trade a bit of extra weight for a better night’s sleep. On the other hand going from a.2.?kg tent to 500g bivy made the ride much nicer.

And that’s why I still have all three!

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Still really rate this set up for non midge areas. Did me well for 6 days going from Southampton to Prestwick.

Alpkit Kloke
Rab siltarp2
Criterion 200 bag
Thermarest neo air

Slept like a log even when chucking it down.

I have a hunka, elan and a Vango helium 2 man. For not much of a weight penalty I’d go tent. packed size it’s not much bigger than the elan. I’m 6’2″ and elan can be a bit claustrophobic when zipped up. Plus if weather turns it’s nice getting sorted inside.

I’ve spent plenty of nights in a variety of tents. I’m trying the tarp idea. Yes, you could get a tent that’s nearly as light, but not for that sort of money.

Plus finding a flat decent spot to pitch a tent isn’t ways easy, I think it’ll be easier with a tarp.

Well the Kloke was actually pretty good, really pleased with it. The hood arrangement was great. It was a bit windy Saturday night so I put the hood over my head without zipping it up much, so there was plenty of air, but it kept the wind off. I felt really cosy. I slept badly though but that’s because the ground wasn’t very flat and my head was too low, but that’s not Alpkit’s fault.

And as I feared, we struggled to find anywhere to sleep on our route, and we would never have pitched a tent where we ended up bivying. On the other hand, in an enclosed tent we’d have been looking for different options – there was flatter ground we discounted on grounds of exposure.