A BETTER BIVOUAC


by

Cameron M. Smith
1998

Here I am enjoying the splendor of life in an ice cave, at fourteen degrees below zero...Canada, December 1996. Photo by W. McRee Anderson.

Some general tips, here, for the alpinist dealing with a bivvy...just some notes on things I am finding useful these days, particularly in colder conditions.

BIVVY CANDLE: Excellent idea. One night in a snow cave I was chattering away, freezing to death due to an inadequate down bag (I need to recondition my bag!) my partner McRee whipped out two 'pink lady' candles. These are 99 cents for three at Canada's Mountain Equipment Co-Op, and burn for hours. It was a fantastic saving grace to have the light and warmth they provided within the snow cave. Not only can they keep the hands warm, they can provide light (saving headlamp batteries) and they make a nice homey feeling to the cave, and provide a wide circle of light rather than just a beam or a spotlight as from a headlamp (candles also provide heat, which a headlamp does not). I've seen some 'votive' candles at Safeway that are rated to burn for 15 hours: this is probably the best candle. I'll try them out! Just punch the candle into the snow, light it, and you're in heaven. Take one for each person for each night, if you can afford the weight.

FREEZE YOUR SHELL AT NIGHT: Let's say you do a ski approach and find yourself soaked with sweat as you get into your bivvy...bad scene. Consider letting your shell gear freeze solid over night. Secure the clothes with slings or something (in case of wind), just outside the cave entrance. Overnight all the sweat that the gore-tex was not able to vent, or all the wet rain that soaked into the nylon, will freeze solid (as opposed to driping away if you keep it inside your bivvy bag). In the morning, beat the ice off the clothing and then spend half an hour ramming your arms and legs into the clothing...It's wierd, but it provides you with DRY clothes the next morning. If you keep the shell gear in your bivvy bag (but outside your sleeping bag of course), it may well just melt the snow and you wake up to put on a damp jacket; awful stuff, indeed! It maybe be best to turn the clothes inside out (as when the liner is soaked with sweat, for example on the back, where you've been sweating under a backpack) and let the inside freeze.

SPACE BLANKET: An integral part of my alpine gear, nowadays. Get one that is shaped like a body-bag (rather than just a sheet). This can be permenanently kept, unfurled, within your sleeping bag (if you are taking a sleeping bag: if not, keep the space blanket in the bivvy bag, which, I hope, you never leave behind!). If it gets colder than expected at night, you can crawl into the bivvy-space blanket, which now acts both as a heat reflector (very effective, I find) and a vapour-barrier-liner (preventing your sleeping bag from absorbing sweat). The space blanket is pretty easily damaged, and I go through them at a rate of one per three or four climbs (at 11 dollars each), but they are well worth it, in my estimation. Even if you don't have to crawl all the way inside, they are good for padding areas, or warming areas that are getting cold, like the shoulders or hips, which often press up against the sleeping bag material. You can also wrap your feet in them and never again worry about cold feet on a bivouac. One of the best investments you can make against the cold, and best of all, it weighs effectively NOTHING. So, for effectively no weight (or volume, since it is within the sleeping bag, which has to fit into a stuff sack anyway), you can either (a) have the excellent properties of the space blanket or (b) not. Clear choice, here!

CONTACT LENSES: A few years back I quit using glasses on climbs: I was sick of steaming up, scratches, dropping them, crushing them with crampons, etc. Contact lenses work very very well for me (though for high-altitude mountaineering I have heard they can be problematic). The key to not losing them or damaging them is just to crawl inside the sleeping system (bivvy bag, sleeping bag etc), shut it completely around you, and turn on your headlamp: you now have a warm, non-windy and perfectly controllable environment in which to take out the lenses. Get solution that is a disinfectant and storing solution all in one, and get it in a small travel-size bottle, or transfer it to a small bottle. Use a lense case that is flat (so it's comfortable in a pocket), close it tightly, and then zip it in a pocket before you go to sleep. No freezing, and no more broken lense cases (the white plastic lense cases are practically unbreakable if kept to at least body temperature). To me, contacts beat spectacles outdoors, hands down.

SHOVEL: A shovel is a great tool for digging snow caves. I use a LIFE LINK plastic shovel with a telescoping handle. In short-handle mode you can work easily inside the cave, digging without a long handle getting in the way. The shortened handle also makes the shovel more wieldy when strapped to the outside of a pack with a bungee cord. I would not recommend taking the shovel on a climb, just using it on the approach / descent where a cave is needed or desired. On a climb, you can use your helmet as a shovel (works pretty well; be sure to keep a good hold of it as the helmet will inevitably try to roll away when you set it down).

THE SNOW CAVE: How to go about digging a cave? It's pretty easy. First, gind a mass of snow that is deep and wide enough for you to imagine two people laid out inside. You don't have to have it large enough to stand, but to be able to sit up or perhaps crouch is necessary. Start by digging a big cavity in the snow mass, sculpting two 'benches' on the sides, for you to sleep on (when digging the cave you normally have to work one at a time due to either having only one shovel or just not enough room in the cave; one guy may be forced to do jumping jacks (to stay warm) while the other is digging). Between the benches you can dig a smallish trench (just a foot or so deep) that can be used for cooking and gear storage, and acts as a cold-air-well: the coldest air in the cave will flow downward into this trough rather than hanging directly about your sleeping-bag breathing hole. You can usually just use two packs as a door rather than investing the time to create a fully weatherproof door or entrance passage, as described in survival manuals. Be very careful while entering and exiting the cave: a wrong movement could dump snow into your sleeping bag or down your neck. It is critical that you get into the sleeping bag as dry as possible, so be very careful with getting dressed and undressed. Consider doing this one at a time so you don't bump into your partner, etc. If it is snowing hard or you are in a potential avalanche area (avalanche can happen in forests, too, so consider the slopes above), be sure to secure your gear so it is easy to find, and keep some tools in the cave in case you have to dig out.

That's it for now!
Cameron