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The Book of the Bivvy

Tips, stories and route ideas

ISBN

9781786310781

Availability

Published

10 Sept 2021

Edition

Third

Pages

176

Size

17.20 x 11.60 x 1.10cm

Weight

190g

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A guide to the bivouac - the pinnacle of minimalist wild-camping. Accounts of bivvybag adventures, both nice and nasty, alternate with practical chapters on lightweight kit and long-distance bivvying, and the book finishes with a selection of bivvybag expeditions. Informative, honest and highly entertaining!

Seasons

Spring to autumn, plus (for tough types) winter

Centres

Hillsides, hilltops and valleys throughout the UK, including islands; warmer climes Abroad

Difficulty

Bivvybag sleeping asks for some physical and mental resilience - but the rewards are out of proportion.

Must See

The definitive account of bivvybag sleeping in the UK; bivvybag nights, both nice and nasty; bivvy history - how improved bivouac technique enabled the first successful ascent of the Eigerwand

ISBN

9781786310781

Availability

Published

10 Sept 2021

Edition

Third

Pages

176

Size

17.20 x 11.60 x 1.10cm

Weight

190g

Overview

This book provides an informed, instructive, and wry insight into the world of the bivouac, drawing upon the author's wealth of personal experience. It is a celebration of bivvying - back-to-basics camping with just a lightweight bag between you and the elements. Honest and entertaining, there is every chance it will inspire you to find a remote hilltop, roll out your bag, and watch the sunset.

Practical tips about different types of membranes, sites, techniques and minimalist kit
A half-and-half mix of how to do it and why to do it (or how not to do it and why not to do it)
Accounts of bivvybag nights and expeditions, both nice and nasty
The rich and colourful history of the bivvy, including references from Classical Greece and the role of the bivvy in the first successful ascent of the Eigerwand
Six routes for the aspiring bivouacker, in the Lake District, Scotland and the Spanish Sierra Nevada

Table of Contents

CONTENTS

Map key

1 Introduction

Bag for life

Bivvy night 1: Snowdon

2 Primitive bivvy

Bivvy night 2: Peigne and suffering

Problems of the polybag

Plastic bag for pleasure purposes

Polybag facts

3 Bivvy history

Rude people enquire into futurity

Nights on the Eiger

Bivvy night 3: A walk on the Wye side

Mr Brown’s little green bag

4 Midlevel baggery

Bivvy night 4: Fast asleep on the Berwickshire coast

Cave behaviour

Bivvy night 5: A bedroom in Borrowdale

Fallback bag

Bag and camera

Bivvy night 6: Man management

Bag shopping

Poncho, basha, tarp – and the groovy group shelter

5 Time, things and Miguel

Time

Things

Miguel

6 Sleeping on summits

Bivvy night 7: Great Gable

Walking on the wet side

7 The comfort zone

Bivvy night 8: Up Base Brown in down

Sleeping mats

Dew process

Route 1: Merrick two-day trip

8 But what if it rains?

Bivvy night 9: Wet under thorns in Belfast

Further suffering

What if it rains?

Look after your bivvy and your bivvy will look after you

9 Across Scotland by bag

Wetness and weight: cross-Scotland constraints

Route 2: Acharacle to Aberdeenshire

10 The art of lightweight long-distance

Bag and baggage

The fuel on the hill

Fast food

High cuisine

Bivvy night 10: A peat-hole on Bowland

The importance of water

11 Mountains under the moon

Route 3: Coleridge’s Helvellyn overnight crossing

12 Bivvybag routes

Route 4: Lakeland all the way

Route 5: Rannoch Moor: the beauty and the bog

Bivvy night 11: Helm Crag

13 But that was in another country

Foreign parts

Route 6: Sierra Nevada: the Spanish 3000s

Bivvy night 12: Cima Cadin

14 And in the end

Sheltered housing for the elderly

Appendix A Suppliers

Updates

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By Ronald Turnbull

Ronald Turnbull writes regularly for TGO, Lakeland Walker, Trail and Cumbria magazines. His previous books include Across Scotland on Foot, Long Days in Lakeland and Welsh 3000ft Challenges. He has written many other Cicerone guides, including Walking in the Lowther Hills, The Book of the Bivvy and Not the West Highland Way. Ronald's weekly newsletter on mountains, hillwalking and history is at https://aboutmountains.substack.com/

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