1. Must be 4 season.
2. Must be able to fit in ALICE pack.
3. Must be able to accomodate my long legs (I'm 6'4").
4. MUST NOT BE TOO EXPENSIVE.

This is what I'm looking at right now:

Outdoor Research Alpine Bivy
MEC Hybrid Sleeping Bag -20C

Combined price of both is $371. This is roughly the price range I'm trying to stay within. I'm willing to go a little higher if the benefits are worth it, but not too much higher.

Let's hear your input!

And you are just getting around to telling us this NOW?!

-Blast

I've never had a major problem using them in Vermont, can't comment on Florida. :P But my bivy is little more than a bag cover, it is nothing fancy- a nylon body bag would work just as well, probably.

You have to remember ventilation, a decent sleeping bag for the temperature, and to have something between you and the ground.

Someday...

Nice hammock. I would feel like a punching bag for a bear.

looks like a very cold night to me.

I never much liked tents. Too confining. If I wanted to stay indoors I would stay home.

Down here in the SE possibly the ultimate shelter is IMHO a 8' by 10' tarp and a few pieces of mosquito netting. In rain and hail it makes a decent shelter set up as lean-to or any of a half-dozen other shapes. When the wind gets strong or there is nothing to support a conventional shelter, or your simply too tired, I simply roll up in it forming a 'burrito roll'.

I once slept through a good part of a hurricane snug in my roll on top of a sand hill and away from trees. The roll has nothing to catch the wind and rain just rolled off. My pack and bots were stuffed into a large garbage bag.

After the storm passed, it took most of six hours for the worse to clear, I hiked out through so many downed trees it was like a bomb went off. A huge area was without power and the normally small streams had jumped their banks.

I would recommend that you at least evaluate an ultralight single wall tent as an alternative to the bivy. Outdoor Research makes one, the NightHaven Pocket Shelter, that is cheaper than the bivy and provides more protection against both the elements and small critters. It is essentially floorless, but a fitted floor is available. Try MoabSports.com and their $0.01 (US) buyer's club membership for good prices. The NightHaven appears to be out of stock at the moment, but they will honor their current prices on a backorder. I have had very good luck with them. +1 on the sleeping pad - more comfort and insulation.

Is this shelter for living in or surviving in?

If its for living, I don't know of anything that compact that is 4-season.

If its for surviving, then I might suggest two large orange trash bags and a mylar emergency blanket. One bag for the top (with a hole for your face), one for the bottom, and sit on the mylar blanket w/ leaves & debris for insulation.

Unfortunately, we can't pick and choose what time of the year a disaster might happen. If you had to bug-out in the middle of a freezing winter, do you think some garbage bags and a mylar blanket would be good enough? Personally, I would like something more than that.

It's true that I can't fit the best tent in the world in a backpack, but some kind of tent is infinitely better than no tent at all, IMHO.

Hi CityBoyGoneCountry,

A lightweight 4 season shelter is a tall order to achieve in the design compromise as the very lightest geodesic shelters will be around 2.8 to 3.2 Kg and are pretty bulky. A very specialist lightweight tent such as the RAB Summit Extreme Tent at 1.6Kg are only really usefull in cold to very cold conditions being constructed from a single skinned breathable material.

If you could specifiy what conditions you are likely to encounter e.g. Temperature and Wind speed, this would make a recommendation a lot easier.

If you wanted to reduce bulk then an equivalent full Down bag compared to the MEC Hybrid Sleeping bag would cut the bulk size down by at least 40 percent but again the pros and cons of using a full Down bag will depend on the conditions you are likely to encounter.

I am about to use a Alpkit Down Jacket in conjuction with 460 gms Pipedream Elephants foot design Sleeping bag.



Hopefully this should be useable to -5C to -10C Degrees.

Last year the temp here got as low as 6 degrees F. Don't know about wind speed, but if I can tuck away in the woods, that will break a lot of wind.

Here's a pic from last winter. No, that is not running water coming out of the garden hose. It is solid ice.

I like the pyramid floorless shelters for winters.
You can get a shelter that will sleep up to six that
weighs less than 3 pounds (not including the pole).

Disclosure -- (I make some kinds of them for sale to schools)

Here is a discussion on their use at another site.

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/...ost=80229#80229

Having used Wiggy's bags instructing at Outward Bound, we found
they were not worth the extra money or weight. They lost loft just
as fast as the the $60 slumberjacks, and proved no warmer.

Hot
temperatures in particular are hard on the silicone coating on the
high lofting synthetic fibers. So wash em in cool water and do not
use heat when drying.

My wife owns an REI down bag from the 50's that still has
extraordinary loft. Down lasts a long time.

Tough criteria...

I'd think of having two sleeping bags, one lighter weight for summer, one heavier weight for spring and fall, and both for winter. Of course, you'll need a good sleeping pad too. Actually, a lightweight quilt and a sleeping bag might be better.

I'd also go with a large (8x10 ft) lightweight tarp and ground cloth instead of a bivy sack for luxurious space as well as flexibility. Learn how to pitch a tarp and you can use it under any conditions, winter or summer. It avoids most of the condensation problems and claustrophobia of bivy sacks.

In the winter, I'd also think about using a vapor barrier liner to eliminate condensation from destroying the insulating value of your sleeping bags.

So, my list includes:

1 8x10 silnylon tarp (or lighter but more expensive material).
1 lightweight quilt
1 good three season sleeping bag (most expensive item)
1 vapor barrier liner (inexpensive and lightweight)
1 ground cloth (inexpensive and lightweight)
1 or 2 sleeping pads

If you shop around some of the ultra-lightweight backpacking sites, you'll find stuff that meets your size and price criteria. A good 3 season sleeping bag, however, will be the most expensive item and the one you'll have to make compromises on.

Hi CityBoyGoneCountry

The Vaude Hogan Ultralight 2 Person Tent would make a good single man tent. Its a double walled 3/4 season tent and weighs around the 1.7Kg mark.



http://www.buckscountyoutfitters.com/store/product/47444/Vaude-Hogan-Ultralight-Tent---Orange/

http://www.greatoutdoorsdepot.com/vaude-hogan-ultralight.html

The MEC Hybrid Sleeping Bag -20C looks good value for money and the 2.1Kg weight is very good for the specification and price. The very best Down bags will weigh in around 1.5Kg for the same specification but will cost hundreds of dollars more.

That Vaude Hogan Ultralight looks promising. I searched around for reviews and everyone who has one seems to love it.

This is very similar to what I pack now but without the quilt (good idea though. I may add one!) and I use a Bivy bag.

Total cost for everything (including the treking poles, paracord, and tent pegs I use to prop up the silnylon tarp) ran aprox. $350. No single piece is very expensive which to me means they're easily replaced if something happens (I shudder at the thought of having to replace a 400 dollar sleeping bag) and nearly every item is a multitasker. For me that's the key. For example if I were to add the quilt, I'd modify it like I used to do with scout blankets when I was a kid and cut a slot in the middle so I could use it as a poncho liner.