UKH

hello all,

I am going to Sweden this summer to do some wild camping and climbing with a friend. We plan on sleeping in hooped bivys that can keep us dry if it rains and keep insects away with decent breath ability to stop nasty condensation build ups. So far I have found

1. Dutch ex military goretex bivy at £90

2. Chinook summit bivy at £90

3. Rab eVent Ridge Raider £180 (I have Ellis Brigham staff discount)

4. Outdoor research helium bivy £140

5. Ditch the idea of bivys and get a north face Heyderdahl 2 man pod tent for £100 (staff discount again) 

what do you think would be the best option?

Split between two people a tent wins  on all factors.  Weight comfort protection cost.

A bivy is a miserable place to be if you are stuck inside it because of rain or insects. I'd go with the tent. 

I'd rather carry the extra weight of a tent any day. 

Plus 1 for tent

I've been using a bivy bag (no hood) a bit over the last year or so and the rain and insect aspect can be a right pain. I started putting a super light tarp up to keep the rain off but this doesn't help with the insects, not so bad if midges aren't a worry.

The midges are kind of ok if you are happy to lie in the bag and not do anything except lie there. As soon you decide you want to sit up for a cup of tea/ stretch legs/ stop pretending to be a corpse there will probably be a part of you that wishes you'd brought a tent. I can't imagine a hood would make too much difference with this. 

It's been great but if you're going to be out for more than a few nights the bivy offers you little in the way of comfortable shelter. There's a real satisfaction in sleeping in the bivy bag but it can feel a bit like you're roughing it. 

I'd like a decent light weight tent but just haven't been able to afford one yet. If you want to be out for any period of time a tent is a safer bet. 

Forests or open terrain?

Bivis quick to set up, never blow down. However a tent is far superior for changing clothing inside, and storing or cooking in bell or equivalent if weather/insects bad. Some modern tents compare favourably weightwise with two goretex bivi bags. 

A tent is superior for some things, but so is a house. The bivi experience is a beautiful one, and being warm with cold air blowing over your face, and waking up periodically to a field of stars easily outweighs the creature comforts of a tent if you're still young and tough. Next you'll be advised to do your trips car-to-car. It misses the point. And bivvying is legal in many places that camping isn't, and there are plenty of spots that dont provide for the footprint of a tent and guylines, but are fine for a bivi. Swedish forests probably aren't one, admittedly, and wild-camping is legal there.

To get at your question, eVent trumps the other fabrics for breathability and preventing condensation build-up, in my experience. Gore-Tex flo2 is good too, although rarely used any more. Better to have an eVent bottom too, rather than polyurethane, which is cheaper but results in much more condensation. A different route is pertex quantum-type fabric, which is very light and breathable, but gives very little weather resistance. One you have to combine that with a tarp to stay dry, so blocking your view, you may as well go with a tent (unless you can profit from the versatility of a tarp, which is a lot).

I've spent a lot of time bivvying and travelling in Sweden. In my experience, they will not keep you dry if the rain is heavy. I've used all sorts (including a few that you mention) and eventually they wet out. Combined with a tarp they work well but for the same weight (or less), you could get something like a Duomid and have much better weather protection. The bugs in Sweden can be intense in summer and being stuck in a bivvy with mosquitoes buzzing next to your face is never fun. That North Face tent is very heavy for a summer 2-man, I would strongly advise you to look into a lighter tent. 

Got the OR bivi you listed for a go at the Cuillin with some mates who insisted on doing it over 2 days. The night was wet, I don't mean rain outside, the condensation inside. By the end of the night my synthetic sleeping bag was very wet. Horrid thing unless needed for a quick, light hit on something not too cold.