Basically the same method we use in the UK Armed Forces, except we didn't roll the bivi up, we simply stuffed the whole lot into the center of the 120 litre Bergen (ruck), that way it was always protected. To deploy the system I would open up the ruck, pull the bivi half way out, and get in with the ruck still attached, so my feet would be in the ruck. The ruck had side pouches, so you could sit up and access them at your feet, and your webbing (belt kit) would sit at your head. It meant you could still access everything in total darkness. To move off at speed in the dark, simply get up, get out, and push the whole lot back into the ruck, webbing on, ruck on, good to go. For sleeping in boots two bin liner bags over the boots works great at keeping the mud out of the sleeping bag, you can still 'bug out' with the bin liners on your feet if you need to.

Special tip from the airforce: don't sleep with the air conditioning on, you might get a cold.😁

One tip we used in the infantry. If you have to wear your boots in your bivy, turn your sleeping bag stuff sack inside out and put your feet in that first, then into your sleep system. Great video.

I use a very similar set-up. Two tips I will add are 1. You can lay down fine twigs and dry foliage to create a mattress under you. A comfortable bed that also prevents damage to the bag from sharp rocks. 2. A small lightweight tarp can make a huge difference if it rains. Goretex needs a clean dry outer surface to function properly. If it's wet the water vapour from your body will collect inside as condensation. Also when the rain is hitting the bag 2cm from your ear it is very noisy and will keep you awake! Hope that's some useful advice.

Cowboy bedroll, Tactical edition! Excellent video and instruction.

It is a good system , back in the search and rescue days in the Washington State rain forests some of us used this system , saved a lot of time on missions , we also never had time to build a camp fire . That’s back when my most common food in the field , was an esar sandwich , it packed well in a ziplock bag didn’t matter if it got smashed in your pack , very nourishing, lasted a long time , and very filling . Basically three slices of whole wheat bread . The outside slices both had thick layer of peanut butter facing in , the third slice , placed in the middle, was saturated with honey on both sides , the peanut butter on the outside slices kept the honey contained inside the middle layer so that it was not messy. You made them ahead of time and stored them in the fridge, waiting for the next mission. Worked great for the times you could not make a proper meal , which was often.

Yeah. We grew up calling them bedrolls. I’m 74 now and learned this from my grandfather. What’s old is new again I guess.

English is clearly not your native language. GREAT JOB. Thanks for making this video for us single-language English speakers. Never apologize for not knowing English. Keep up the excellent work!

Its a biwakrolle, it rolls biwaks. made my day.

In Denmark we call this a "Jægerpølse". Translates to "Jäger sausage" / "Huntsmen sausage" - in reference to our special forces unit called Jægerkorpset / Huntsmen Corps. Personally, I don't like the extra bulk of the setup, so I prefer to keep my sleeping pad on the outside of the pack and my bivy with the sleeping bag inside my ruck. Whenever I arrive at patrol base or where ever I need to sleep, I just lay out my sleeping pad and throw the bivy on top. Almost as fast, but less bulky.

Never cheap out on your sleeping mat. I recently camped in Scotland in the early spring and the ground was barely above freezing. I could feel where my hip pressed into the ground. It felt as cold as ice and sucked the heat out of me.

American here, “sleeping pad” is the correct word. Good job.

I have been experimenting with this concept for a few months. I found that for me, it works better strapped under the backpack. It lowers the centre of gravity instead of pushing it away from you. I added an extra outside layer: a waterproof ground sheet. It is an old BW rubbericed poncho that folds open, with the bivvi+mat+sleeping bag roll inside. It gives me a somewhat clean and dry ground around my stuff, plus when everything is rolled it protects the roll from abrasion, cuts and so on. I found that if the bivvy bag is the outermost layer it will not last long (I am using a cheap comercial bivvy, maybe with a military surpluss one the ground sheet is not a "need" but a "want")

Here in Norway we have some very good foam Mats with r-value up to 3,5. Also we have something called fjellduk. It roughly translates to Mountain tarp, and is a favoritte amongst soldiers, hunter and outdoorspeople. It's a piece of tarp that is water and wind proof. It has a heat refective metallic inside, and most have a layer of insulation too. It can be used for shelter, as a bivy, poncho, anything really. If your friend has one too, you can zip them together. I think all soldiers here are issued them now...

That has to be the coolest hiking gear outfit I've ever seen.

Another upside is, if you die you already have a waterproof body bag. I'd also recommend folding it in half and putting it in a larger dry bag, which is easier to mount below or on top of the Ruck - at least in my opinion.

This is a similar system in the US Army. The US Army ECWCS sleep system comes with a gortex bivy and two liners, a lightweight summer liner and a thicker winter liner. Paired with a foam sleeping pad and US Army scout half shelter...or US Marine two person combat tent....can't beat it!

I additionally place mine in a drybag. While it does help keep it dry, the main reason is it protects the bivy from damage by branches, thorns, rocks, etc

Thank you for this video. Looks like a sweet rig. Toss in a 7' X 9' tarp and you are in like Flynn.

Yes, I do prefer most inside the rucksack. Compact is better.

Exactly the same type of set up I use. Savotta roll mat, British army goretex bivi bag, 2 season sleeping bag.. I add a cheap groundsheet to protect the kit and a snugpak jungle blanket in colder weather, possibly with a British army basha. But that's the full extent and what i regard as luxury lol.. Oh, and a half roll mat extra in winter for under the body core. Great vid. First time watcher..

For a setup like this, using the foam pad on the outside to protect the goretex/sleeping bag from getting ripped or popped works pretty well, like you talk about at 7:50.

A genuine military body bag will change everything you thought you knew about bivvy bags . Cool video .

We used to make tanker rolls like this; except the sleeping mat was outside the bivy. You could fold the bag and bivy in half lengthwise, then it wouldn't stick out past the edges of the mat. Just like this, unroll and get in. Great video!

A great demonstration of a rapid deployment sleeping system. Thank you!

Lieber Rippy, nach all den Jahren, Du bist immer noch der taktisch geilste UKpostsr in Germany. Bitte versorge uns weiter mit dem geilen scheiß, ich lerne immer noch von Dir. DeinStamm

I love it 🤘 All your gear, the bag. Impressive setup. Video is awesome 👍

I would include a pneumatic insolation mattress on top of the ridged mattress. I would stuff the whole system into waterproof sack, then attach it to the bottom of the pack. This would provide another layer of protection from travel damage.

You want the mat on the outside of th bivi to protect the bivi from getting pierced both on the move and while you're sleeping on it.

Absolutely love my German bag with the sleeves and the zipper at the knees. Now I need to find one of these beautiful bags.

Agreed! Disadvantage is shell is exposed to brush etc. scraping and poking it. Here in hawaii we have forest and razor sharp lava.

I've found heading for the nearest Travel Lodge or small hotel works wonders for protecting me from wet and cold nights. I then set out early next morning and start walking again. A small tip from the UK 😉😄😄

I've used a bivy and am a big fan, but lately I've been liking the Poncho + Liner combination more. I can get out of it more quickly, and I can wear it around camp or on the move as well. I add a wool blanket and tyvek sheet on the inside for colder weather

Man that ground looks so nice and soft. I wish I had that here! I haven’t found a way to sleep comfortably on rocky Missouri ground without a 4 1/4” pad so usually I use a hammock here. Hammock for down to 25F and tent with thick pad for below 25F

This is awesome!! Very nice for a survival situation, for lightweight summer backpacking or even bike packing as intend to use it. Thanks a lot!!

Great video! I always thought bivys was for extreme minimalists who wanted to get the weight down at the cost of comfort, but as long as you can sit up and look around and do stuff while in the bivy, it becomes more like cowboy camping, which is really nice compared to looking at tent walls. I got the Hilleberg Bivanorak, which works both as a bivy and raingear that is big enough for me to fit my 65liter backpack underneath it. It is kinda similar to a rainponcho, but it needs to be singed up around the waist, which limits the ventilation a bit, but it is still plenty better than more tight fitting raingear. With this i can sit up and look around, and even walk around and take a pee without going out of my dry and warm shelter. This takes very little space in the backpack, and as it only weighs 500g, i can easily bring both this and my Zpacks Duplex tent if im going on a longer trip. Then i have a pretty good set of raingear, and 2 different shelters, suited for different terrain and weather conditions. When it comes to comfort, i kinda lean towards preferring a tent as a shelter, but the cowboy camping feeling i get with the Bivanorak really makes up for the small difference in comfort, and the freedom of being able to set up camp right on a somewhat narrow trail is way better than having to search for a relatively big open area for a tent. Setting up and taking down a tent is a bit of work, while with the Bivanorak i only have to inflate my sleeping pad and remove some sharp sticks and pinecones from a relatively small part of the trail. The Bivanorak also allow me to set up camp right by a lake, as long as i have a drybag to protect the stuff i dont want to get wet from condensation. Condensation can still be an issue on the warmer summer nights though - if you have a uncomfortably warm sleeping bag - as the perspiration from the body will get trapped inside the bivy...

I can't believe it! This is so obvious and simple solution. How come I didn't figured this out myself?! Great tip :)

Achja der Biwak, ich bin so froh dass ich aus der Bundeswehr raus bin, studiert habe und mir diese Videos immer aus dem warmen und gemütlichen anschauen kann und ich immer ein schönes Hotelzimmer habe mit Dusche =)

This is great! I've never saw someone that clean in forrest if he is there for at least 5 minutes. Feels very real.

Nicely done. To the point, and great camera work. And not a bad concept, either.

I do this sometimes, I have an extra large dry sack to put my roll in to protect the bivi bag from abrasion. It is like a modern, lightweight version of what in Australia we traditionally call a "swag". Typically swags are canvas and are usually used in conjunction with heavy, bulky bedding material, not lightweight backpacking gear, and are used primarily for car/4x4 based camping.

Ich öffne den Reißverschluss am Biwaksack ein wenig um ihn zusammen zu rollen damit die Luft zunächst besser entweichen kann. Erst wenn ich oben am Reißverschluss angekommen bin wird dieser verschlossen. Wenn man Luft durch den geschlossenen Biwaksack presst, kann dieser Schaden nehmen oder seine Wasserbeständigkeit verlieren. Biwaksack bei schlechtem Wetter nur in Kombi mit tarp sonst alles nass bis man ein-/oder ausgestiegen ist.

In thick brush you can make it smaller by folding it in half lengthwise before rolling - gives you a bigger diameter but very compact. Using compression-straps helps compacting it even more. To keep the weight close to the body, you can either attach it to you hip belt (butt-pack) or on top (behind your head) - could help against snipers too a little bit ;-)) Cowboys had a very similar system, called "bedroll" from wool-blankets and oilskin canvas - they carried it behind the saddle (as you can watch in old cowboy-films). Pathfinders carried it across the shoulder, they tied the ends together to make it a loop.

This is an excellent idea but I would mount to my pack vertically so it don’t stick out on sides. Looks about the same length.

Make a kip mat using two thinner mats and glue a mylar sheet in between the two so that it reflects heat back to the body and the cold back to the ground. The problem with sticking the bivi bag on the outside is that if it catches on a branch, barbed wire fence etc it can rip. You will be better to get a large molle fixture stuff pouch and put that on the back of the bergen with the bivi bag etc in it.

Bivvy sacks are great. I also recommend silk sleeping bag liner.

I do some thing similiar, but I put the sleeping pad inside my sleeping bag, it significantly improves the thermal retention to the ground.

I used to store my sleeping bag inside my goretex bivvy bag, then roll that up inside my ALICE pack. Sleeping mat would be stored separately inside/outside the pack (depending on mission load out), and used under the bivvy bag when sleeping. Benefits: bivvy bag is protected from damage when stored inside the pack, also the sleeping mat protects the underside of the bivvy bag when sleeping.

Thank you for the information Sir.

Awesome job, Thankyou, really good job. Brings back memories for sure.

This is awesome. Appreciate the detail

Use this kind sleeping bag system during winter in Swiss army’s. Bivy/sleeping bag/polar bag Never fell in sleep so fast, with rifle and boots in the bivy. Rest of the clothes and water in the sleeping bag. (Some tried to let they rifle out during night and couldn’t find it in the morning until they ask sergeant 😂)

Nice video. I'm not sure if I will use it (most places I hike at the moment require you to sleep at a camp site), but I like the whole explanation. Also nice that you point out the downsides of this setup.

We call that gortex sleep bag a bivy. It’s part of the US sleep system also.

We are in the middle of a blizzard here in Ontario, and while i have a sleeping bag and tarp etc in my vehicle, making something like this would be an ideal addition. If I were to have this on my pack, I would put it in a compression stuff sack and see if that could assist in making it narrower. The sleeping pad might impact that working well however.

Great video thanks. I tried this with my Hunka XL bivi/Snugpak/foam mat combo. What I did was a rolled up from the foot end first and that forced out all the air then rolled back down. Took me less time than rolling down from the top and trying to force all the air out.

Really good shot, attitude, speaking an english I can undersrand 🙏 Awesome forest and material. Thanks !

Yep!... That is what I did with my Carinthia Gore-Tex and #6 sleeping bag. You never know when you will need this in case of emergency as well!

Excellent! Thanks for sharing!

Great video 👍 Thank you for sharing!

Great review, bro! Keep working!

That just saved my ruck sack 50% of it's space. Thank you

This is not my thing - I'm a tent guy - but I thought it was pretty cool. I like looking at ways to simplify things. I also like that your video generated a lot of useful comments from military people who actually know what they're doing. Thanks for the video. I just subscribed and I'll be looking at some of your other content soon. Peace.

Nice setup, I like it.

In the north we call this “arctic bedding”, you put the whole sleeping package on top of the pulk sled.

Informative and beneficial video

If you want to attach this to your rucksack with paracord, try a jam knot. Some will call it Canadian Jam / Arbor Knot

Impressive... Even more compact than the Amazon 1 person hiking tent.. but as you mentioned, the vapor during the night is a deal breaker.

good material, best regards

I've had a similar Bivy for many years with the added feature of thin flexible ribs to create a small one man tent, which can, although very tightly, sleep two. The main draw back to these is that they can be too warm in summer months and not quite warm enough with snow on the ground. Also a rain fly tarp is a great addition to keep the surrounding ground free of rain. Even so, a bivy is a great selection for a one man shelter because it is light, reasonably compact, and generally does as advertised. ;-)

Excellent video thanks !

Thank you for the great vid!

Great adventure

Great content. Glad I ran across it.

Sehr gut, besonders aus taktischen Gründen. Alles andere, was nicht schnell von der Hand geht, fällt beim Biwak aus.

Thermal break, then insulation, then sleeping bag. I looked at what Inuit do on ice shelves for sleeping. I need a sleeping bag that wicks moisture. Or add light weight wool blanket. It will help keep sleeping bag dry for many more days of use. I am camping with family or at bear camp with temps 32F/0C at night sometimes. Inflatables just seem to loose more body heat than needed. When you keep it simple it's preventing the 4 types of heat loss. 1. Convection 2. Radiation 3. Evaporation 4. Conduction

As an American in am starting to enjoy your series. You are giving good sound advise for beginners or others looking for new ideas. I am sorry that you have to deal with know it all critics who somehow fail to understand that you are just showing what you carry, not what everyone else should carry. Thank you, love your darker grey color, blends in perfectly with a dark, damp Forest. I am German by decent so it must be a German thing to love the Forest or Wald. Keep up the good work! Auf wiedersehen!!

I know this is off topic, but I love that the closed caption is written as if to keep your accent😂

Dope tip! I have a 20 degree bag and a military gortex liner so mine would be even more bulky

Nice info

I do not use a biwibag but a plash palatka in the same manner..just spend a night here in sakatchewan canada in minus20 right under the stars with no shelter other then the biwi made from the plash palatka...I do not like synthetic outer shells as sparks usually take their toll on the material and 100% cotton canvas is far better ...but that is preference ...great video..I assume you are in the forces and therefore this system works possibly much better for you as you always get a new biwi when you burned the shit out of it while we civilians need to pay our self... have fun and stay in the woods

God bless from Canada eh great video thanks

i like how u have ur bivysack mic ed up so we can hear exactly how loud is it when ur rolling and squishing all those gortex and nylon for 8 mins.

I remove the sleep pad and use often separately, two items,both small. I used a tarp for a shell. Rucking out with boots on. Cowboy up!

Bivys are good for a little lite rain, but I can assure you in Oregons Willamette Valley Goretex will soak through becuz it rains for days. Way better at higher altitude in the snow I feel. And for the record the goretex bivy I speak of is part of the ECWS military sleep system used by US forces currently

I prefer having the closed cell sleeping pad on the outside, because sooner or later you will end up puncturing your bivy, and that's not good. I have been experimenting using a combination of both closed cell and inflatable sleeping mats, with a mylar blanket in between. It works well for me when it is really cold.

Is a good thing, easy to use and not heavy.

Good to know, thanks 👍

Thanks

Good tips but I normally roll mine up with the mat on the outside otherwise I'm always worried about snagging the bivvy material in a bush or tree etc when I'm walking

I've been thinking about this quite a bit recently, I'd keep my foam mat and inflatable inside while transporting then attach them both to the outside when I'm setting up (i use the Dutch hooped bivi so it takes a bit of setup anyway) and make sure the foam mat is on the bottom to protect the inflatable from punctures. I'd potentially even wrap this with a small ground sheet just to prolong the bivi's life and make cleaning easier

"This old tip can change your way of sleeping outside" Proceeds to literally show case a *sleeping bag* '-' Wow revolutionary.

Thnx!

Multi use glove recommendations. Waterproof a most for the winter.

schönes Video, gut erklärt!

VERY GOOD THANK YOU

Bring a small tarp or waterproof poncho to hang overhead or wrap your pack in and have it sealed over your head for another layer of rain protection

Gut gemacht!

I like it.

i do the same but use an inflatable matress and down bag inside the bivvy then all inside a 20l drybag to keep the size down and keep it dry. sits at the bottom of my pack so can be quickly pulled out from the bottom opening of the bag