Bivy failure Re: [at-l] Post Gathering questions

[sloetoe at yahoo.com (Sloetoe)]

### Three quick thoughts:
1) "Beware nice flat spots..." Great advice.
2) There is no reason a bivy should not stay relatively dry in a
total deluge. Been there and done that and more than once. I
even have the patch. (I did the AT in 1979 with a bivy just like
what's offered as the Integral Designs "South Wall/South Col"
http://wwww.integraldesigns.com ) Woke up more than once
completely covered in muck from bounce/splash, but completely
dry inside.
3) You haven't established WHY you had 1": of water in your
bivy. I have two bivies (apparently both made with faulty
materials) that failed miserably during ferocious storms and
caused interior water accumulations that had MY kids (who've
been around the block) thinking they were going to drown on a
hillside. Both material AND seams failed on that one; what held
water was the "bathtub floor" of urethane-coated nylon. The
other thing that failed was that the kids LET the water run into
the bivy by having the zippered opening not overlap properly,
and the water collected and ran INTO the bivy. I had to
establish all three reasons because after I resealed their
seams, they still flooded; after I re-taught them how to keep
the opening open AND STILL BREATH , they still flooded; and then
I stood in the yard with a bivy over my head and had them blast
me with a hose, and we established that there were leak points
in the fabric itself. Just a plain bad bivy.

--- Gary Ticknor <garyticknor@starpower.net> wrote:

> If you had 1" of water in the bivvy, it sounds more like a
> site selection problem than a shelter problem. (Beware nice
flat spots filled with soft silt and duff  - they are frequently
leveled by past puddling.)...  - Greenbriar
> 
> boulder ... wrote:
> 
> >Gear failure:
> >Test run for my Northface bivy (2.5 lbs).
> >Filled with over and an inch of water so I slept in the car.
Will try seam sealing, but any suggestions for a light (< 2.5
lbs) but inexpensive (< $200) tent?

Spatior! Nitor! Nitor! Tempero!
   Pro Pondera Et Meliora.