The Hubba
The Hubba

I’m looking for the lightest breatheable bivy sack out there, any suggestions?

I'm looking for the lightest breatheable bivy sack out there, any suggestions? Gabe Lander, WY

The Hubba

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I’ve always hated bivy bags as anything but an emergency shelter, or for use on a climb when weight and space for a tent is at an absolute premium. I hate them even more now that tents are so light, weighing maybe a pound more than a bivy bag.

The Hubba The Hubba

Compare, if you will, Outdoor Research’s really very fine and good Alpine Bivy ($219), with MSR’s one-person Hubba ($250). The Alpine Bivy weighs two pounds. The Hubba weighs…three. And you can sit up in the Hubba, something you really can’t do in the Alpine Bivy even with its hoop-over-the-head area. There’s no contest, in my view.

True, you can find lighter bivy bags. Integral Designs’s Micro Bivy ($210), made with eVent, comes in at 18 ounces, which is pretty good. But I still wouldn’t trade it for the comfort of a lightweight tent, except in the gravest of conditions. And then of course you can compare it to Mountain Hardwear’s Sprite 1 ($170), which can be trimmed to two pounds six ounces. Tents win.

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