The Bivouac

Whilst this topic may be a bit off of the subject of photography it is worth going in to. In its own right it is one of my favourite things to do in the hills and is a good way of being on hand for some really dramatic photos. If you are well equipped and have prepared correctly then a night under the stars surrounded by giant mountains is an experience that you will never forget There is no luxury hotel room anywhere in the world that can compare to being snuggled up in your doss bag with the stars wheeling overhead and the starlit glaciers and snow on all sides.

You really don’t need that much in the way of equipment. If you are already a camper then you will have most of it already. The word bivouac will evoke different reactions depending on who you will talk to. To climbers its freezing nights perched on a ledge the size of a cornflake waiting for the dawn. To soldiers its makeshift camps in forests and on the moors. It really doesn’t have to be uncomfy though. With good kit and a bit of planning a night under the stars will be a memorable experience.
Getting the location right is crucial. The higher and drier you go the better it is. You will have less problems with damp, dew, etc and the bug factor goes down. You have to budget for an occasional beetle but hordes of ants and spiders and a billion and one buzzing mosquitoes can definitely take the edge off the fun. If you are in woodland, by water or anywhere like that then take a tent. If you are going high or dry then you can just doss out in your sleeping bag. I have slept out under the stars in the Alps and in the desert many times and have never had an insect problem except on one occasion. We arrived after dark and inadvertently picked a marshy spot and I woke to find masses of those pinhead body long-legged spiders all over me. In general over 600m in the UK is pretty insect free. In the Alps spots over 1500m are bugless.
The other crucial factor to having a blast instead of a trial is the weather. When I bivouac I do it specifically for the pleasure of the night out. If you do this you can pick the night according to the forecast and go when it should be clear.
What to take.
Your sleeping bag should be a proper one and a warm one. The rectangular Boy Scout job with no hood and no shoulder baffles is a definite no. A three season is a minimum but four season is better. If your bag is a bit warm you can always unzip a bit, but if its too cold you will have a grim time of it. Getting a compression bag is a good idea as it will crush the sleeping bag down so it takes less room. Down bags are much lighter and smaller when compressed, but they are more expensive and its imperative to keep them dry. Artificial fillings are cheaper and work even when wet, but they are bulkier and heavier. I have used both and if you can stretch the budget a down bag is a better investment.
You will need a good sleeping mat. If you are on a foam one then again get a good one. If its bright blue and costs a fiver then put it back on the shelf. They are definitely not all the same. However the best option is the self inflating air mattress. They are more expensive and they need more care as they can be punctured. The level of comfort and insulation they offer is fantastic. Once you have tried one you will never go back to the foam mat. They are not much heavier and you will be blissfully comfortable and warm. When I was a foam user it always took a couple of nights in the field to get my spine and body used to the lumps and bumps. Now I use the inflatable I sleep like a baby from the first night. Trust me.
Even if you have picked a night that is supposed to be clear there is still the possibility that the forecaster may have been wrong. You will therefore need some sort of shelter. There are two possibilities. The first is the goretex bivvy bag. This is a basic bag the size of the sleeping bag. They come as a straight bag or with a hoop to make it more like a little tent. It doesn’t have to be actual goretex. As you are asleep your moisture emission will be quite low so the bag doesn’t have to be a high performance breathing fabric. It should be breathable though and if you have a down bag then a breathable fabric is essential. The hooped bivvies are more expensive but more comfortable. The straight bags are cheaper but they have a straight zip at about face level. When the bag is zipped up the feeling of the bag touching your face may feel a bit claustrophobic. Try it in the shop to see what it feels like. If there are two of you then a good option is a small tent. Split in two it weighs about the same for each person as a bivvy bag. When you arrive at your location you put the tent up. You sleep outside and then get in the tent if the weather changes.
You will need a cooker too. The worst of all is the Trangia. Cute it is, with the little kettle and its nested pots but it is miserably slow to heat anything. The next worse, but much better than the Trangia, is the blue gas option. It works quite well when the cylinder is full but loses efficiency quickly when the amount of remaining gas goes down. They also lose efficiency when the temperature falls and they are poor when its windy. Also once you have installed the cartridge you cannot remove it. Their advantage is cost. They are cheap. There are cookers that use a different gas mixture than the blue gas and you can get them so that the gas cylinder is separate from the burner and linked by a flexible hose. These are better as you can heat the cartridge with your hands to keep the pressure up and the gas mixture burns a bit hotter than the blue gas.
Best of all is the liquid fuel burner. They are more expensive but their performance is dynamite. Once its lit you will be drinking your brew in no time and the jet-fighter-in-afterburner sound will cheer you like no other sound. They have the advantage that they will burn anything that is flammable, so at a pinch you can burn petrol, diesel or even paraffin. The best fuel is Coleman fuel, it burns clean and hot and doesn’t smell. Needless to say it’s a rip off in the UK, but much cheaper on the continent. Its sold as white fuel there. A good tip for those in France is that exactly the same substance is sold as a dry clean stain remover. Go into any hardware shop (quincaillerie) and look/ask for Essence C or Essence F. Its exactly the same stuff and sells for a fraction of the price. The chemical is called Hexane so you might be able to get the chemists shop to give you a half litre.
The food you take will depend on how far you are carrying. In general the freeze dried meals are awful and are a last resort. The wet meals in packets are better; you can cook and mix in pasta or rice for a great fill up. If you are not going far then packet meals from the ordinary supermarket are just as good.