My First Bivy.

[Bug]

This is a supplement to the "Alpine ABC's" thread in the Newbies section.

"My First Bivy" was when I was 6. We hiked about 3 miles and gained about a thousand feet. That put us on top of Boulder Point in what is now the Rattlesnake wilderness. It is about 8500 ft with a few 9000 ft peaks around it. It was mid June so there was still four feet of snow pack in the basins and a big cornice on the ridge we camped on. My three older brothers, Dad, and I got there about 3 in the afternoon. We were all putting our packs down on the wind blown dry patch on the top of the ridge. It was a pleasant afternoon. I asked my dad, "Where are we going to sleep?" to which he replied, "Anywhere you want." I chose a bush hoping it would be softer than frozen ground. Insulite was not invented yet. Everyone found a spot much like a pack of wolves. We melted water in a 2 lb coffee can and chugged it down, charcoal and all. We melted more and had hot Ovaltine. The acrid smoke from sub-alpine fur burned our eyes and permeated everything with a wet dog smell. Or maybe it was the dog, Albert, I was smelling. There was a can of Campbell's Pork and Beans for dinner. We didn't stay up late because the fire sucked and the wind was coming up. I curled up in my $7 sleeping bag and the wool blanket my grandmother knitted, and wiggled into a semi-comfortable position in my bush. When I woke, it was stone dark. The wind was howling like a banshee. My back was to the wind and was cold. The wind was whipping right through the cotton shell and wool blanket like they weren't there. My teeth chattered and my knees knocked. I wiggled around to the leeward side of the bush but found no respite from the wind. I sat up and looked around for my loyal relatives but saw none. I realised at that moment what it meant to be under-prepared. It scared me at first but I was too miserable too lament for long. I knew I had to find some way to get out of the cold. I picked up my bag and stuffed the blanket into it. They were both being whipped around by the wind. I slipped into my tennis shoes and walked downhill through the snow the way we had come up. In about fifty yards, I came to a mass of bodies on a bare patch of ground and took up the leeward position. It was still damn cold but I got some sleep. When we woke in the morning, I asked dad why he didn't come and get me when they moved. He said he did but I was sound asleep so he left me alone. We each had an egg sandwich for breakfast and laughed about how cold we were the night before. One brother and Dad, waded down through the snow to Boulder lake and caught some fish. While they were fishing we ammused ourselves by jumping up and down on the cornice trying to get it to fall. It didn't. We hiked out the 3 miles to the road and then had twelve miles to hike out to where we could call for a ride. For lunch we shared one can of vienna sausages. My feet were blistered and I was totally fatigued when I got home. Somehow, I remember it as fun. I learned a lot. Always carry a square of canvas and later a square of plastic to cut the wind. Bring bread bags to keep my feet dry. Carry my own matches in case I end up alone. And never count on anyone to take care of me.

Are there any other first bivy stories out there?

[catbirdseat]

That is a memorable story. I could have sworn I heard it before and sure enough, I found it

 

(unusable link deleted by Off White because it messed up the page format)

Edited September 16, 2004 by Off_White

[Bug]

I started this thread to try to get a "amping skills" or survival in the mountains" thread. It might help people to hear what others have learned the hard way.

[catbirdseat]

Okay, I'll bite. I was a skinny college kid on a 10 day backpacking trip with my buddy Flint (even skinnier). We made a day trip up to some high mountain lakes by scrambling up a dry gully about a couple thousand feet. There were many lakes in the basin which my friend soon discovered had trout in them. Since he had brought his rod, fishing was what he was going to do.

 

I spotted a cool looking series of rocky summits called The Pinnacles. I couldn't talk Flint into joining me for the scramble to the top, so I went by myself, agreeing to meet at a certain lake at 6 pm.

 

I got to the summit and the view was wonderful. I knew then and there it was what I wanted to do more of. I then surfed some scree slopes down to the lake where I arrived at the meeting place early. Only problem was my cotton clothes were completely soaked in sweat and the sun had just gone behind the mountain. I was getting really cold fast. I had nothing with which to leave a note.

 

I looked around at some of the nearby lakes but couldn't find my friend. I was stiff and sore and getting cold and made a bad decision to descend to camp by myself.

 

At about 10 pm, my friend arrived at camp to find me after having searched for me for hours and throat hoarse from yelling. He was so mad he almost punched me out. He eventually forgave me.

 

I learned a hell of a lesson about being prepared with better clothes and sticking to a plan.

[chris_w]

Back in 1992 my Uncle asked if I wanted to go on a climbing trip for a couple of weeks. I said sure. He flew out from Seattle to Cleveland, picked me up and we drove straight to the Rockies. I think we stopped 3 times for gas and we only had 1 tape to listen to. Jim Nabers, didn't know Gomer pyle could sing. Anyways, our plans was to climb Longs peek and Mt. Meeker (Rocky Mountain National Park) via the Lambs slide. We couldn't get an overnight pass because it was not considered a technical route (30-40 degree snow\ice for 2000 ft). It was 14 miles round trip with 6-7000 ft gain with Longs peak topping out at 14,256.

 

We hiked in and since we drove straight to RMNP, I never really acclimated so once I got to 10,000 ft I started to feel like shit. Didn't know what it was so we kept going. Because I was moving slow, we realized Longs peak was out so we just went for Mt. Meeker (13,9??ft?). We summitted but I was to slow to make it down. We ended up biving around 13,000 ft in the front range. The whole drive out my uncle was telling me stories of how climbers die from not being prepared and stuff like that. Now he says "This is the highest bivy I have ever done." I was soo tired I fell asleep right away and started snoring. My uncle was annoyed because he couldn't sleep and this was my first time in the montains and I was out like a light. He brought out his emergency foil blanket and put it over me but it was so old that it just broke apart. During the night we also had to deal with a Eastern Rockies Long haired snafflehound trying to get into our food.

 

When we woke up it was lightly snowing and we had a great view of Boulder lit up from 13k. I was feeling better and we hiked down to our car to find a ticket because we didn't have an overnight permit.

 

The picture is blurry but you can see my state of the art gear I was wearing. Cotton Camo pants and purple ski coat. I think the only thing I bought for the trip was the boots. You can also see the gold\silver emergency thingy.

Could this also go under the bad photo thread?

[Squid]

gaiters on camo...nice touch!

[Bug]

Are you sure that isn't an alien next to you? It looks like there is another one inspecting your crotch. My first bivy wasn't like that.

[Alpine_Tom]

My first bivvy:

My first attempt on Mt. Rainier, via Emmonds glacier, with a more experienced partner. Rented all climbing gear: ice axe, too-small plastic boots, incorrectly fitted crampons, pack. Brought my $50 Costco car-camping tent and a $20 sleeping bag. We got to Shurman with no problems. Once pitched, the tent caught the wind like a sail; I must have hauled 100 lbs of rocks into it to keep it from blowing away. Fred brought the stove etc, I was supposed to pack the food, but it turned out I had left the freeze-dried food in the car. I lay there and shivered, hungry, in my thin bag while the wind whipped the tent like a flag in a gale.

The boots were so tight it hurt to put them on even before standing up. We headed out and got to about 13,000’ or so before turning back because of clouds coming in. I lost one of the crampons half an hour out of camp, and couldn’t get it back on (my fingers were too cold) so I just slogged on with the one crampon.

This could go in a “find the mistakes in this picture” thread.

[rbw1966]

Looks remarkably similar to extremomountain dude

[Bug]

One year long ago, when I was in 7th grade, two friends and I went snowshoeing in the Rattlesnake wilderness in May. The snow pack was hard and deep all the way up to the summit of Stewart Peak (8900). The other two guys had never been backpacking before. Eric had a jar of peanut butter and a jar of jelly. He wore levis and had cotton thermal long underwear. Kevin was better off with his wool pants but still had cotton thermals. I wore army surplus fatigues but had on a thick wool union suit. Our boots were OK and we had wool socks and bread bags tho I was the only one who used them the first day. None of us had gators or gloves. Our raincoats were rubberized canvas. We all had a flannel shirt, an oversized knife, and a tin of Copenhagen.

Our first day was beautiful weather and we made it to the summit by 1 or 2. On the way down, we stopped and built a fire to cook lunch (a large can of beef stew). Eric ate two peanut butter sandwiches. By the time we were heading out again, it was about 5PM. We could see the frozen lake below and wanted to get to the “snowshoe inn”, a log cabin built a few decades earlier. The first drop was steep but not that steep. The second one was really steep and we laughed as Eric tumbled down it spilling jars and loaves everywhere. We continued down this way until we got to a large drop. We couldn’t tell exactly how large because the snow overhung the edge and we didn’t want to get too close. We wandered back and forth looking for a way down until dark. So we collected firewood and set up the el cheepo tent and built a fire. Eric was shivering uncontrollably and ate another peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Kevin and I were OK and had hot dogs and fire baked potatoes with salt. After awhile, Eric crawled in. Kevin and I went in after a couple hours of spitting into the fire to find Eric totally incoherent but seemingly not asleep. We really didn’t know what was going on and crawled in on either side of him and went to sleep. The wind blew fairly hard but we slept well. Everyone woke up refreshed and ready to eat. Even Eric was normal and happy, and remembered nothing of the night before. We had bacon and eggs for breakfast. Eric had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. We finally jumped off the cliff at a spot that seemed OK. It was. After picking up Eric’s stuff, we made our way to the cabin. It was bare and empty. The trees for a quarter mile radius had been stripped bare of branches up to about fifteen feet. We kept moving. At this point, we had about 22 miles to hike out. Eric had another peanut butter and jelly sandwich. When we got to the gorge about twelve miles down, we stopped for lunch. Eric had a peanut butter sandwich, which of course was the last one. That was supposed to be our lunch. Eric figured that since he carried it, he could eat it any time he wanted. Kevin and I shared a packet of soup and threw rocks at a squirrel but he escaped. The ten mile walk out was long and we were hungry. I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich eating frenzy when I got home.

[catbirdseat]

I'm hungry for a peanut butter sandwich.

[bDubyaH]

first real one was on mt crosson (in the ak range) at the gendarm (10,000') summitted and headed back down in a day, had to stop and wait for the snow to firm up, as slides were a bit frequent due to the heat, no food, no tent, no bivy sack, no sleeping bag, 3 of us spooned to stay warm, had great views of denali, just before sunrise the snow was nice and firm, we got up and booked it back to kahiltna international to resupply (i.e. drink beer and whiskey and eat everything in sight) before heading over to mt hunter.

#1 thing i learned on that bivy...take an extra pair of socks, i was pretty much warm except for my feet which froze from being soaked by 24hrs of postholing.

[Cpt.Caveman]

Everyone should bring a lighter for first bivouacs at or below treeline so they can warm up. Think of it as a lightweight sleeping bag ;-)

[Dru]

...or a cuddly partner. But a fire will keep you warmer over the course of the night.

[Bug]

I forgot my sleeping bag on one trip with my father. I think that's when he figured out I was "experimenting with marijauana". Neither one of us brought up the concept of spooning. I just built two fires on either side of me and slept fine. We summited Main Trappuer the next day.

On a boyscout trip in the Mission mnts, we got drenched by a major storm. It rained for three days hard. Some of us younger kids were starting to get really cold and then it got really cold that night. The next morning, Ed Smith chopped up a big dead stump into four huge pieces and got them burning. The flames were leaping fifteen feet in the air.Probably saved a few lives. Fire is my friend. I always carry a lighter and matches. Even if I don't have anything to smoke. Which is most of the time because nobody trusts me now that I'm over forty.

[bigbong]

Got stuck on Saskatewan Glacier over night after climbing Sky Ladder, Mt. Andromeda (11,200) Columbia Ice Fields, CND.

Dumb... carried no biv gear. Made igloo by rolling large snow balls and stacking them... cold night... spread out our ropes and packs to insulate us somewhat from snow. What did I learn...? Always plan an alternate decent in case you can't use the one you planned on !!! Don't tell your wife what happend....

[Lambone]

I've never had to endure an unplanned bivi....lucky I guess...

 

EDIT:

ooops, yeah I guess we did crash next to the trail on our way out fron the NR of Mt Stuart. It was raining and we had no gear...but we were completely worked...laid down under a dead tree.

[ncascademtns]

Unplanned bivy on Mt Sir Donald in 2000 after a great day on the summit. Just ran out of daylight.

[lummox]

too drunk to drive in rural victoria australia after brawling outside a village pub. i curled under a hawthorn bush and shivered through the night while the wind howled.

[ChrisT]

I remember getting soaked in the Sierras on a backpack trip wearing jeans back in the day when synthetics were for discos and not the outdoors. Luckily we had Gary H., a pyrotechnic along, expert at starting fires who also carried a clean t-shirt for every day of the 10 day trip. After the storm, my friend and I snapped our two army surplus rain ponchos together and pitched a tent. Not exactly a bivvy - I have yet to have my first.

[Dru]

I don't think I have ever made an unplanned bivy. There is enough suffering on planned bivies. Certainly on some of those 21, 23 hour type days the urge to stop and curl up has been intense but there was always some factor (like a bottle of Scotch back at camp or an aggro partner who didn't want to spoon) that kept me moving.

 

I did spend 3 days in the summer of 1990 sitting on a ledge with no bivy gear and no food but it was done in a spirit of research

[Bug]

While your stories are amusing, they are not instructive. Thank you for participating.

[bigbong]

Wow... I also had an un-planned urban bivy in Victoria, B.C. after a brawl (exposed sidewalk under street light) but the man rescued me and put me up in thier hotel for the night, which in turn set up a second rescue by buddies at 9 a.m. the following morning.... what did I learn ? Much better to get drunk alone in the desert and fight with your own demons...

Edited September 21, 2004 by bigbong

[ken4ord]

My first bivy was unplanned, I was on a sort of honeymoon. I say 'sort of', cause Chess at the time invited my friend Greg along. Well we went up to the Canadian Rockies, a week and half we had already done several climbs before we planned on going into Mt Louis. Both Chess and Greg wanted to rope up for the fourth class approach, which slowed us down. Also we weren't at all proficent at alpine climbing, so we had pretty much a wall rack, two regular 10.5 lines, and belayed out everything. After a while I began to get worried as I saw the sun sink behind the mountains we still had maybe 1000 feet of climbing ahead of us and maybe 2 below us. So I started soloing pitches as Chess belayed Greg who was hauling the pack.

Eventually I got to this big ass ledge and saw about 600 feet of climbing and thought 'well this is where we are spending the night'. I was pretty calm about it, Chess on the other hand freaked. She started crying and screaming about the B&B she reserved and how we couldn't spend the night, blah, blah, blah. We started going back and forth, me 'There is nothing we can do about that now and acting like a lunatic is not going to help!' 'Well it is not like I am going to jump off the ledge!' 'Well it sure as hell seems like you will!' She calmed down and eventually my friend joined us on the ledge, and reached the same conclusion I did.

So we hunkered down luckily there was some stone walls already built and it felt really warm out. Bad part was after the food and water assesment we realized that we had 2.5 power bars and 1 liter of water. I knew then that is was going to be slow going out.

So we laid out the ropes for padding, put on all our clothes, Chess and I had bivy sacks, so I gave my pack to Greg and we proceeded to get some Z's. Probably around 2 I woke up with Chess shivering uncontrolibly, I was cold too so we took turn warming each other. It turned out to be ok. That became the patern for the rest of the night, warm each other, sleep, get cold, wake, repeat.

Eventually the day broke, but we got a slow start. The climbing was moderate, but felt hard as hell cause we didn't get to really eat anything. We made the summit started our way down. Lucky for us on one of the rappels there was a seep. Not enough to collect water, but enough to get sips by sucking the rock. We all took turns.

Finally we were on the ground, then began the slog, it took twice as long to hike out as it did to get in, though we did it. Burgers and beer never tasted so good. Chess and I made it to the B&B and took full advantage of having a bed and no neighbor in a tent. All was good once again.

[tread_tramp]

My buddy and I had just reached the summit of Mt. Index, North Peak as the sun dipped behind the Olympics. So we spent the night right there. Had actually planned to bivy somewhere along the way, so we had enough with us to actully enjoy the the experience. Luckily it was a warm summer evening.