Led_Hed

In the past year I've bivied on two routes. One bivi was planned, one was not. On the unplanned bivi (february 26th-N. Cascades) I was w/o a sleeping pad or bag of any kind. That sucked. The only pair of socks I had were the thick damp wool ones that I had been wearing all day. That sucked. I had no stove and couldn't get a fire lit. That sucked. I had food but not the fatty kind. That sucked. I had no shelter of any kind (only gore-tex bibs/jacket). That sucked. I had a balaclava, insulated hood and thin beanie. That saved my bacon. I had a Pat. DAS Parka. That rocked. I didn't sleep a wink. On the planned bivi (april 22nd-Red Rocks, NV) I had a down jacket. That rocked. I had fatty meat sticks. That rocked. I had a pad. That rocked. I had a balaclava but an uninsulated hood on my down jacket. That kinda sucked. I had an emergency space blanket which worked OK (get the biggest one you can find if you go that route). But the biggest discomfort factor was the place we stopped. It was a slanting ledge and no matter what you just couldn't get comfortable. I would really gun for a ledge that looks good on the topo and strongly consider stopping short at a good spot if you're unsure of bivi sites above and it's getting toward dark. On the planned bivi I still didn't sleep more than an hour or so. What ever happens I'm sure you'll do fine but think hard about the possible/likely conditions where you are climbing. My winter unplanned bivi was in the Cascades. My planned bivi was in the desert SW. So the ingredients will be much different if you're talking about a Rockies climb for instance. But I'm sure this is obvious to you. Good luck. You'll come away with lot's of good beta for future reference. Hopefully you'll look like this ->

I'm down for a little Bellingham area sting operation...

Ha! Good work Mike. I knew you could pull off the route. Have you seen any of the tentpoles for my lil' Mtn. Hardwear tent in any of your storage bins from Vegas? Gettin' ready to shove off for AK Monday...

What about Colonial and Big Four? They're winter routes but so are Chair and Index...