Why You Need A Gore-Tex Bivy Sack
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Let’s be honest.
Sleeping in a bivy sack is tough.
The good news is that bivy technology has come a long way in recent years.
One of the most useful advancements in most bivy sacks is the use of Gore-Tex on the exterior.
The Gore-Tex bivy has made the bivy sack more flexible, more resilient, and made it more possible for any lightweight or ultralight backpacker to get a decent night’s sleep even when the weather turns bad.
Best Bivy Sacks Ranked
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- Ultralight at just under 2 pounds
- Fully taped seams for extra weather protection and warmth
- Durable hydro seal coated waterproof nylon floor to prevent any water seepage into the bivy sack from below
- Gore-Tex for added circulation
- Some condensation builds up especially in the warmer months
- Lightweight at 2 pounds
- Waterproof and breathable
- There's the option for staking for even more space
- Lots of space for even taller campers
- Dependable bug netting
- A little heavy for a bivy sack
- Ultralight weight of 18 ounces
- The hooped feature for greater comfort while you sleep and bug netter.
- Long enough for taller campers
- Packs down to the size of a water bottle
- Waterproof
- Condensation builds up
- Lightweight at 2 pounds
- Military issued quality
- Gore-Tex breathability
- Material resting on your face throughout the night
- Excellent waterproofed materials
- Ultralightweight at 2 and a half pounds
- Fresh air freely circulated
- Heavy for a Bivy sack
- Small for a tent with little headroom
- Zippers seem to be problematic and can break easily.
- Good ventilation
- 88 inches to fit even the tallest campers plus a heavy duty sleeping bag
- Can stake down to get the full legnth and width
- Heavier for a Bivy
- Not totally waterproof
- You also may want to invest in better stakes.
- Extra coated water protection
- Lightweight
- Hooped headspace
- Bug netting for circulation and bug protection
- Kind of heavy for a bivy sack
- Condensation build up
- Not well ventilated
- Lightweight at 2 pounds
- Military issued quality
- Gore-Tex breathability
- Material resting on your face throughout the night
- Gore-Tex for added air circulation
- Enough room for a sleeping pad
- lightweight at 2.5 pounds
- Military grade warmth and weather coverage
- No hoop to keep the Bivy material from resting on your face
- You may also get some condensation build up
- Ultralight at 3.8 ounces
- As basic and simple setup as you'll find
- Paired with a warm mummy sleeping bag will deliver plenty of heat
- Good value for the basic Bivy that it is
- Simple heating technique by using your own body heat
- Very small
- Won't keep you too warm without a sleeping bag
- Tears easily
Weight | 1.4 lbs |
Packed Dimensions | 15"L x 4"W |
Assembled Dimensions | 84"L x 26"W |
Hooped | Yes |
Current Price | [amazon fields="B07D5WQS66" value="price"] |
The Outdoor Research Alpine Bivy is one of the best Bivy sack on the market today. It’s 7 feet long and 2 feet wide so it should be able to fit even the tallest camper with at least some gear. At just under 2 pounds you get a lot of Bivy sack while keeping your pack weight low.
Weight | 2 lbs |
Packed Dimensions | 22"L x 14"W |
Assembled Dimensions | 80"L x 34"W |
Hooped | Yes |
Current Price | [amazon fields="B002B3WSEA" value="price"] |
The Chinook Summit Bivy Bag is comfortable, spacious bivy sack that lightweight backpackers will love. It packs down very tightly into your pack to about the size of a football and weighs about 2 pounds, which is on the heavier side for a bivy, but more than makes up for with over 7 feet of space to lay down inside of with plenty of space at the head once you install the aluminum poles.
Weight | 1.1 lbs |
Packed Dimensions | 15"L x 4"W |
Assembled Dimensions | 84"L x 29"W |
Hooped | Yes |
Current Price | [amazon fields="B07D5YL617" value="price"] |
The Outdoor Research Helium Bivy comes with a lot of great features that we love about Bivy camping. The sack weighs in at around 18 ounces and offers enough size to easily fit someone over 6 feet inside or someone under 6 feet with gear.
Weight | 9 lbs |
Packed Dimensions | 12"L x 3"W |
Assembled Dimensions | 80"L x 30"W |
Hooped | No |
Current Price | [amazon fields="B002LLPILC" value="price"] |
Military Modular Sleep System 4 Piece with Goretex Bivy Cover and Carry Sack is going to simplify your gear. This is a US military inspired total sleep system, that includes 2 separate sleeping bags, a bivy cover, and a stuff sack.
Weight | 3.3 lbs |
Packed Dimensions | 17"L x 5.25"W |
Assembled Dimensions | 94"L x 39"W |
Hooped | Yes |
Current Price | [amazon fields="B003U9851E" value="price"] |
The Snugpak Ionosphere 1 Man Dome Tent lays at the intersection of tent and bivy. Its super lightweight at 2 and a half pounds and takes very little time to setup, consisting of just two aluminum hoops to run through the attached seams.
Read our full review of the Snugpak Ionosphere Dome Tent Bivy
Weight | 2.4 lbs |
Packed Dimensions | 10"L x 6"W |
Assembled Dimensions | 81"L x 34"W |
Hooped | Yes |
Current Price | [amazon fields="B005BN4RY6" value="price"] |
The Snugpak 92860 Stratosphere is a great lightweight Bivy that works well in cold temperatures. Because it’s a little smaller it might sleep a bit warm in hotter temperatures, but the outer material is breathable and you get good protection against the rain.
Read our full review of the Snugpak Stratosphere Bivvi Shelter
Weight | 1.8 lbs |
Packed Dimensions | 16"L x 5"W |
Assembled Dimensions | 90.6"L x 35.4"W |
Hooped | Yes |
Current Price | [amazon fields="B00D1BPCJ4" value="price"] |
The Aqua Quest Hooped Bivy Tent worked great for wind and rain protection. The Bivy is good sized especially for a Bivy is about as lightweight as most at just under 2 and a half pounds.
Weight | 2 lbs |
Packed Dimensions | 19"L x 5"W |
Assembled Dimensions | 90.6"L x 29.5"W |
Hooped | No |
Current Price | [amazon fields="B00DCS5E3K" value="price"] |
The Military Outdoor Clothing Previously Issued U.S. G.I. Woodland Camo Gore-Tex Bivy Sleeping Bag Cover is a Genuine U.S. military-issue Bivy sack with plenty of space inside with a military quality guarantee that will keep you warm and cozy inside even in sub-freezing temps.
Weight | 2.2 lbs |
Packed Dimensions | 4"L x 3.5"W |
Assembled Dimensions | 84"L x 36"W |
Hooped | No |
Current Price | [amazon fields="B008JXV2PM" value="price"] |
The Woodland Camouflage Waterproof Bivy Cover offers classic Bivy coverage that’s good enough for the US Army.
It’s one of the most durable Bivy’s on the market today and includes Gore-Tex weather protection with ventilation that can withstand colder temperatures as well as avoiding condensation build up inside the bivy.
Weight | .5 lbs |
Packed Dimensions | 12"L x 5"W |
Assembled Dimensions | 91"L x 32"W |
Hooped | No |
Current Price | [amazon fields="B0075ZS096" value="price"] |
The S.O.L. (Survive Outdoors Longer) Escape bivy is an excellent cover bivy for the ultra-minimalist backpacker. It is particularly popular with the mountain biking community.
There’s not much to it other than to slide it over your sleeping bag for rain and temperature protection. It weighs only 3.8 ounces and kept us comfortable in a short overnight trip in sub 50-degree temps.
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Last update on 2023-02-20 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
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Last update on 2023-02-20 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
[/su_spoiler]How Military Bivy Bags Got Us To Gore-Tex
The original use of bivy sacks was strictly limited to the military and the few ultralight backpacking pioneers who braved the elements with minimal cargo.
These were simply just bags that went over the sleeping bag for extra warmth and weather protection.
Especially in the case of the military, these bivy’s were perfect since they cut down on the need for bigger, heavier shelters and soldiers could be out for longer periods of time.
Gone were the days that a unit needed to carry tents around everywhere they went and could get by with just a bivouac shelter.
Over time, however, the complaints of these old bivy sacks would pile up.
Complaints included inadequate rain and weather protection, stuffiness, excessive sweating, and overall lack of air circulation.
Fixing these problems would require a complete redesign of the bivy sack as we know it and Gore-Tex was a big part of that solution.
The official military bivy sacks now come with Gore-Tex and are one of the best selling bivy sacks amongst lightweight backpackers.
What Is Gore-Tex
Gore-tex is a fabric made by the Gore products company who design materials for both the private and public sector aimed at improving the quality of the products they’re built into.
The Gore-Tex in a bivy sack is a membrane bonded between a high-performance lining and outer textiles to create a tough, weatherproof laminate in the exterior of the bivy sack.
Specifically, it’s comprised of a thin layer of expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) which has over 9 billion pores per square inch.
When built into a bivy sack, Gore-Tex creates unparalleled waterproofing, wind-proofing, and air circulation.
In the case of rain, water cannot permeate this mean membrane and instead beads up on the exterior.
Wind is also denied entry into your bivy which many tents can’t even do.
Even textiles like microfibers, closely woven fabrics, and many fleece materials that claim to be windproof allow a little bit of wind to penetrate inside.
Technically speaking a fabric can only be considered truly windproof if its air permeability is 1.0 cfm (volume of air that passes through one square foot of fabric in one minute) or less and most of these other fabrics don’t comply.
On the other hand, all Gore-Tex products meet or exceed these standards.
Gore-Tex Breathability
While Gore-Tex’s weather protection keeps you dry and warm, it’s ability to circulate air is truly revolutionary.
The fabric’s breathability refers to how well it lets your sweat escape in the form of moisture vapor.
This feature is incredibly important to anyone sleeping in a bivy sack.
One of the biggest complaints about Bivy Sacks is how they build up condensation.
The tight space in a bivy sack creates more stale air and traps heat more easily.
This can turn your bivy sack into an oven and leave you feeling like a baked potato.
You’ll wake up drenched in your own sweat, even if it’s cold outside.
The Gore-Tex bivy membrane allows moisture to escape while keeping you warm and dry inside.
Which Gore-Tex Bivy Works Best
The beauty of buying a bivy sack in 2024 is the amount of variety.
There are different styles of bivy’s that range in quality from basic sleeping bag covers to mini 1-person tents.
You can get bivies with hoops that create space between your face and the bivy material.
Some have the ability to be staked which helps create some extra space inside.
Most are ultralight weight.
The heaviest bivy sacks are around 3 pounds.
Even bivy’s with hoops weigh between 2 and 3 pounds.
One of my personal favorite bivy sack features is meshed bug netting over the head.
This helps circulate air and keeps things cool inside the sack.
Not to mention if it’s a nice, clear night you can star gaze without worrying about bug bites.
In regards to Gore-tex keep in mind that not every bivy sack includes Gore-Tex.
There are other Gore-tex knockoffs that are usually made by the manufacturer of the bivy sack.
While they promise Gore-tex performance, some of them fall short.
For supreme weather protection and comfort always look for a bivy sack that includes Gore-tex specifically.
Gore-Tex Bivy Setups
The beauty of any Gore-Tex bivy sack is its portability and its ease of use.
There really isn’t any shelter that’s as easy to carry and set up as a bivy sack.
They roll up to the size of a small football and simply require being unrolled and unzipped.
Many bivies have the option to stake it down or run a rod through the fabric to create a dome.
Even these extra features take up little space in your pack and are easy enough for even beginners to use.
Plenty of backpackers use their bivy sacks as emergency backup shelters.
If their primary tent falters the bivy is there.
Especially since it takes up such little space it’s not hard to have one on hand just in case.
Disadvantages of Gore-Tex
As much good as Gore-Tex does, there are some drawbacks.
Maybe the biggest drawback is that it’s so good it encourages you to take unnecessary risks.
While your Gore-Tex bivy is waterproof, some campers might be tempted to set it up in wetter conditions.
It might encourage you to brave weather that you may not be fully prepared to deal with.
Campers also tend to overestimate the breathability of their Gore-Tex bivy.
In hotter conditions, you’re still going to get very warm inside and probably experience excessive condensation.
Even in cooler conditions, the Gore-Tex might not be as breathable as you like and you may still get some condensation.
Conclusion
The inclusion of Gore-Tex fabrics into the construction of bivy sacks was a huge upgrade.
Some would say this is what helped make bivy sacks more mainstream.
Making sure your bivy sack includes Gore-Tex is a must if you’re camping with a bivy.
You’ll have an ultralight shelter that can withstand rain, wind, and cold.
At the same time, you’ll get good air circulation to help you stay comfortable.
Although Gore-Tex isn’t perfect it certainly is an upgrade from the original bivy bags.
Also be sure to keep an eye out for Gore-Tex built into other outdoor items like tents and boots!
Last update on 2023-02-20 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API