It's been spring all winter here.

HJ

Until today. It looks like winter finally arrived....

It was in the 70's here today- in South Dakota! In all my years I can't ever recall a St. Patrick's Day parade where no one wore so much as a sweater!

So here in sunny SoCal, our local St Pats parade was rained out - cold (for us), and windy. I even saw some hail, briefly - first time ever down here at sea level.

BTW, I am already looking forward to coming to South Dakota in July, a trip I have made annually for the last ten years. I will be digging for mammoth in the Black Hills, one of the nicer places in the universe. You are fortunate.

You overlooked the fore runner of the bivy bag hiker. The cagoule was what the alpinists used first. I myself don't have a problem with carrying a two pound mummy rated to 23 degrees and a cabellas bivy which wieghs under a pound. It's a warm combo. I also have a kelty down mummy that's rated to 25 degrees and is extremely compact. Once I had to put the kelty in a space bag but used forest duff as insulation to lie on.

what about insulation beneath you? And the cold air sinking into the trench. I believe izzy mentioned making a cold air trench.