requirements are best met with a 6x8 PEVA shower curtain, converted into a 3x8 ft bag, around a bug net bag, around a bag made out of frostcloth (Loewe's, it's for protecting plants) around a modified SOL Escape bivvy. the latter costs about $35 on Amazon, an OD green version is available. The Escape is "breathable" mylar, and by itself, aint worth much. Wind goes right thru it and if you let water puddle on it, that water will soak thru, also. It's good for about 10F degrees more than your clothing, IF you get up off of the ground on dry debris or a hammock and if it's not raining or windy, or if you can somehow get naturally sheltered from the wind and rain.
The SOL weighs 3/4 lb, modified to fit a big man and to have a full length zipper, enabling it to be opened flat. The PEVA bag weighs the same. The bugnet and frostcloth bag, similarly zippered, weigh half a lb a piece. The bugnet bag is needed in warm weather and in winter, stuffed inside of your clothing, enhances the insulative effect of clothing (quite a bit).
The frostcloth and bugnet layers serve to keep the clamminess and condensation (caused by the PEVA being impermeable to your body moisture) off of the ESCAPE. Everywhere the mylar and plastic can touch, and also touches your body, it will be cold. The PEVA excludes wind and water, and the 4 bags, together, add about 20F degrees to what your clothing can handle. For the 1/2 gallon total size and 2.5 lb total weight, the results are very gratifying. In summer, often all you need, as the night chill descends in the early Am, is the frostcloth, under the bugnet. or you might want the escape, but not have it zipped-up.
A further innovation has been to utilize 6x100 ft of 2" mesh monofilament gillnet as a hammock, with muletape tree straps. This adds a lb, but it can feed me if need be. The lead weights were removed, but i can add rocks as weights if I need to fish with it. It gets me up out of the rocks, pointy roots, bugs, snakes, mud, water, snow, off of the cold, hard ground, and it stows in a compression sack the size of your fist. In use as a hammock, it's 12.5 ft long, 100 ft, folded 3x.
None of this gear is effected by its getting wet, which is a BIG deal out in the real world. It was easiest to install the zippers, but what i really want is to sew a 3/4" wide strip of muslin all around (one edge of the muslin only being sewn", with a small snap every 5". I dont trust zippers-durability,, the long ones are expensive and I value being able to stick out my arms and legs wherever I need to.
This shelter/sleep gear can all be worn as a poncho, if need be. If I pair it with fishnet longjohns, polyester longjohns, milsurp polypro outside-longjohn pants, a thin fleece hoodie and a nylon shell
(with hood) polypro gloves, balaclava, I can sleep OK at 20F, given a sedative, which I need even
at home. If I stuff dry debris between the layers, I can at least muddle thru the night at 10F. Ditto if I rig the hammock as a reclining slingchair and use the UCO candle lantern betwen my feet,
(BEESWAX candles only) bracing my lower back upob my pack, my feet up on some brush. This gear can be set up to be paired with the projected heat of a Siberian fire lay, or as a solar-heated supershelter, using the "greenhouse effect". Naturally, hot rocks and water bottles can be added to the mix at will. The 3 candles offer 18 hours of warmth and will dry out a lapful of damp debris every 2-3 hours. So, by the time that the candles have expired, I can have all the dry debris that I need to stay warm just by insulation, down to 10F and to 0F by doing calisthenics inside of the sleeping gear. Once it's below 0F at night, the risk of enemy activity is low enough to at least let you use a Dakota firepit to warm rocks, but of course, either you had to have dug the pit before the ground froze hard, or you have to use an above ground fire to heat water and rocks, and use those aids to thaw out the ground, letting you dig the Dakota pit.
If you're free to add a fire to the ensemble, this setup can handle severe cold, for as long as you can provide firewood. However, a true emergency often involves being sick or hurt, and that can easily mean that you can't provide the fire. There's also times and places where an open fire (in daylight) is big trouble.
I dont do this stuff for fun anymore. I've done it for real, far too many weeks at a time. So if i'm out there, it's to test some new gear or tactic, or it's because shtf. In which case, I'll have 3 lbs of concealable "soft" armor, which become my sleeping pad. Take one of the panels out of the carrier, use it under my hips/thighs, while the other panel is used under my torso.
So, what I've come up with is a sleep/shelter kit that is sub 4 lbs, counting the stakes and cordage, good for 4 seasons, and 4 lbs of "extra" clothing, besides normal wear, that lets me handle almost any weather (that I'd be out in). I abhor being above the Mason Dixon line in the US, after about 1 November, and if I got caught there, for winter, I'd be bicycling south, 100 miles per night, getting OUT of it. Cold weather is a horrific enemy when hostilities are extent, and a terrible handicap when it comes to moving, foraging, and evading enemies. All that can be avoided by 1-2 week's bicycle ride, at night, or a month of rafting down rivers, at night. So why put up with it?
The SOL weighs 3/4 lb, modified to fit a big man and to have a full length zipper, enabling it to be opened flat. The PEVA bag weighs the same. The bugnet and frostcloth bag, similarly zippered, weigh half a lb a piece. The bugnet bag is needed in warm weather and in winter, stuffed inside of your clothing, enhances the insulative effect of clothing (quite a bit).
The frostcloth and bugnet layers serve to keep the clamminess and condensation (caused by the PEVA being impermeable to your body moisture) off of the ESCAPE. Everywhere the mylar and plastic can touch, and also touches your body, it will be cold. The PEVA excludes wind and water, and the 4 bags, together, add about 20F degrees to what your clothing can handle. For the 1/2 gallon total size and 2.5 lb total weight, the results are very gratifying. In summer, often all you need, as the night chill descends in the early Am, is the frostcloth, under the bugnet. or you might want the escape, but not have it zipped-up.
A further innovation has been to utilize 6x100 ft of 2" mesh monofilament gillnet as a hammock, with muletape tree straps. This adds a lb, but it can feed me if need be. The lead weights were removed, but i can add rocks as weights if I need to fish with it. It gets me up out of the rocks, pointy roots, bugs, snakes, mud, water, snow, off of the cold, hard ground, and it stows in a compression sack the size of your fist. In use as a hammock, it's 12.5 ft long, 100 ft, folded 3x.
None of this gear is effected by its getting wet, which is a BIG deal out in the real world. It was easiest to install the zippers, but what i really want is to sew a 3/4" wide strip of muslin all around (one edge of the muslin only being sewn", with a small snap every 5". I dont trust zippers-durability,, the long ones are expensive and I value being able to stick out my arms and legs wherever I need to.
This shelter/sleep gear can all be worn as a poncho, if need be. If I pair it with fishnet longjohns, polyester longjohns, milsurp polypro outside-longjohn pants, a thin fleece hoodie and a nylon shell
(with hood) polypro gloves, balaclava, I can sleep OK at 20F, given a sedative, which I need even
at home. If I stuff dry debris between the layers, I can at least muddle thru the night at 10F. Ditto if I rig the hammock as a reclining slingchair and use the UCO candle lantern betwen my feet,
(BEESWAX candles only) bracing my lower back upob my pack, my feet up on some brush. This gear can be set up to be paired with the projected heat of a Siberian fire lay, or as a solar-heated supershelter, using the "greenhouse effect". Naturally, hot rocks and water bottles can be added to the mix at will. The 3 candles offer 18 hours of warmth and will dry out a lapful of damp debris every 2-3 hours. So, by the time that the candles have expired, I can have all the dry debris that I need to stay warm just by insulation, down to 10F and to 0F by doing calisthenics inside of the sleeping gear. Once it's below 0F at night, the risk of enemy activity is low enough to at least let you use a Dakota firepit to warm rocks, but of course, either you had to have dug the pit before the ground froze hard, or you have to use an above ground fire to heat water and rocks, and use those aids to thaw out the ground, letting you dig the Dakota pit.
If you're free to add a fire to the ensemble, this setup can handle severe cold, for as long as you can provide firewood. However, a true emergency often involves being sick or hurt, and that can easily mean that you can't provide the fire. There's also times and places where an open fire (in daylight) is big trouble.
I dont do this stuff for fun anymore. I've done it for real, far too many weeks at a time. So if i'm out there, it's to test some new gear or tactic, or it's because shtf. In which case, I'll have 3 lbs of concealable "soft" armor, which become my sleeping pad. Take one of the panels out of the carrier, use it under my hips/thighs, while the other panel is used under my torso.
So, what I've come up with is a sleep/shelter kit that is sub 4 lbs, counting the stakes and cordage, good for 4 seasons, and 4 lbs of "extra" clothing, besides normal wear, that lets me handle almost any weather (that I'd be out in). I abhor being above the Mason Dixon line in the US, after about 1 November, and if I got caught there, for winter, I'd be bicycling south, 100 miles per night, getting OUT of it. Cold weather is a horrific enemy when hostilities are extent, and a terrible handicap when it comes to moving, foraging, and evading enemies. All that can be avoided by 1-2 week's bicycle ride, at night, or a month of rafting down rivers, at night. So why put up with it?
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