Weekend Vol Biv Kit

Jeff and I pulled together a last minute vol biv trip for this weekend.  We don't have any big goals, just to get out in the wild for a couple days, mainly as a shake down for his trip to New Zealand next month.   We are both on the west coast for work this week so the plan will be to huck off Laguna, east of San Diego and head north for a couple days.

Here's my kit for the weekend - all up weight less food and water is 30.6lbs.  Adding 2.5 lbs of food and 2.5 liters of water brings the total to 38.8 lbs.

Sleeping
1) Sleeping bag - Z-packs 30 degree, 15 oz
2) Silk sleeping bag liner - adds a few degrees and keeps the bag clean
3) Tarp - Zpacks Hexamid Tarp w/ cuben fibre ground sheet. 
4) Polycro groundsheet - since we will bivy in harsh desert terrain, a bit more added abrasion protection
5) Thermarest Neo Air sleeping mat, small size (42 inches).  I will also use my gilder as extra insulation for my lower body when sleeping
6) Patagonia neopuff synthetic hoody - mainly for added warmth when sleeping

Camp / Hike
7) first aid and emergency survival kit - standard stuff, bandages, whistle, signal mirror, etc
8) snake bite kit - threw this in there but the more I look at the weather (cold), I think I will leave it behind.
9 personal care kit - lite towel, wipes, toilet paper, sun block, advil, lip balm
10) misc ditty bag - 2 light weight headlamps, repair tape (gilder & camp stuff), extra lines (glider & tent), 2 spare pegs, fire steel, tender, butane lighter, digital thermometer, zip ties
11) Black Diamond Z-poles - carbon fiber walking poles.
12) spare clothes - extra merino wool base layer (top & bottom), Patagonia Cap 4 sweater, spare merino socks, fluffy sleeping socks.

Eat/ Drink
13) hydration kit - 2L, 1L and .5L platypus bottles.
14) mess set - meal hydration coozy bag.  Container has spices (salt, pepper, sugar, olive oil), tea bags, bouillon cubes, crystal lite packs, & titanium spork for eating
15) cook set - Snow Peak 700ml titanium pot, vargo stove, 4oz fuel, fire steel & butane lighter
16) food for 2-3 days - mix of pro bars, nuts, jerky, oatmeal, homemade freeze dried meals & meals from Packit Gourmet

Flying
17) Paraglider - Ozone Swift 2, size small
18)  Reserve parachute - Nevures Plum, medium
19) Harness - Advance Lightness, small
20) Rucksack - Advance Lightpack
21) Helmet - Smith Varient Snow helmet
22)Gloves & flight attire - 2 Buff's, 1 merino beanie, 1 pair merino liner gloves, 1 park Manzella goretex wind breaker over gloves.

Electronics (overkill)
23) Electronics - from top left:

• Garmin GPS Map 60
• Spot 3 GPS locator
• RescueLink  406 PLB (personal locator beacon)
• Gopro3 Black
• iPad Mini (in Alocksak)
• Anker 10k mAh spare battery
• Yaesu Vx-150 radio
• charging cables for phone/ipad/gopro & vario
• not shown - iphone 5 & FlytePark mini audio vario

Yes, It's over kill.  iPad is for checking maps and reading at night.  Gopro to document the trip &  radio for in air communications - we want to stay together.   There is also a bit of redundancy with both the Spot and the PLB.  For emergency help, nothing beats the PLB and but the Spot lets our wives track us (piece of mind) as well as allows easy coordination of a retrieve.  I could likely ditch the Garmin, but I've been using it as a backup nav for flying and hiking for years and I'm comfortable with it.

What you don't see:

What I'm wearing  - We will be starting off with a flight so I will have plenty of layers on for cold air at altitude:

• Exped expedition boxer briefs
• REI silk base layer (top & bottom)
• Smartwool hiking socks
• REI softshell pants
• Icebreaker merino t-shirt
• Mountain Hardwear fleece pull over
• Sierra Designs DriDown puffy jacket (no hood)
• Hard or soft shell, depending on temps - either a windshirt, a Mountain HW light weigh Softshell or a OR Helium 2. Depends on temps and chance of precipitation
• Salomon Goretex 4d Boots

Next, the items you might have expect but don't see:

• Rain gear - we are not expecting rain and a few spinkles or a dusting of snow won't bother us. If it looks like a downpore, the chances for flying are nil so we will scrap the trip and go ride dirt bikes.
• Water Filter - we will be in the high desert and will be packing in all our water  The only water I expect to find would be snow and we can boil that for cooking.  There should be some accumulation in the shade at the higher elevations.

Packing:

So where does all this fit?  Well, most of it goes into the harness for both flying and hiking.  The sleeping bag & clothes fit into the harness in the back protection pouch (after removing the foam back protector).  The sleeping bag is in a dry sack and partially inflated so it would provide a bit of protection in the event of a crash.

The tarp, sleeping pad, repair kit & ditty bag fit in the ballast pocket of the harness.  The electronics are mounted on the harness during flight or stowed in the helmet for hiking.  For hiking, the glider goes into rucksack first, with the harness, with its contents goes on top.  Then I can put the cook set bag in the rucksack, wedged between the two.  The first aid kit lived in small top pocket on the rucksack.   Water is stowed in the side pockets of the rucksack and I put the food in a Zpacks chest pack, attached either the top or front of the rucksack.

Should be a fun weekend.  I will post a trip report once we are back in civilization. Also gotta pre-thank Ron for the eventual retrieve we will be imposing om him.  :)

My Current Paragliding Kit

My vol biv flying kit is just my regular flying kit.  I made a conscience effort to drop weight from my kit 2 year ago, which was just 1 year after making a consensus effort to drop weight from my fat ass.

It wasn't cheap, but since I lost 40 lbs I needed new gear anyway.  So I invested in the best, light weight gear on the market at the time.  The results were a flying kit that weighs less than 20 lbs.  My previous kit weighted in at 36lbs. 

My flying kit consists of a paraglider, harness, reserve parachute, helmet & flight instruments, along with a rucksack to carry it all.

My current setup includes:

• Paraglider:  Ozone Swift 2, size Small - 4.3kg
• Harness:  Advance Lightness, size Medium - 2.3kg
• Reserve: Nervures Plum, size Medium - 1.15kg
• Helmet:  Smith Vantage snow helmet - size Large, 500g
• Rucksack:  Advance Lightpack - 600g
• Instruments:  Flymaster Nav - 220g

All total -9kg or 19.8lbs.  Its a nice, light setup that is also highly functional.  I could compromise on both the glider and the harness for a lighter solution but that would mean giving up both performance and comfort.

The Ozone Swift 2 is an EN B glider and is top of the line for EN B's in gliding performance.  It also performs well when accelerated.  Performance at speed is important when flying in alpine settings where valley winds and long crossings are plentiful.  I love this glider.
Every time I am tempted to move back to flying a higher rated wing, I think back those times when I was in some absolutely shitty air and the Swift keep its shit together.  You can't underestimate the comfort factor of your glider and am I very, very comfortable on this wing.

The Advance Lightness is the lightest pod harness on the market at the moment.  Having a pod means better performance due to decreased drag but also increased comfort as it shields your lower body from the cold.  The Lightness is a hammock style harness, meaning it has no seat board.  It takes some getting used to as weight shifting requires different hip input and it allows lots of feedback from the glider; but once I was dialed in on it, I love it!  The other area of compromise is back protection - while it has back protection, it is not certified, since certified back protection requires 14cm of padding while the Lightness only has 10cm.   Since it doesn't have a seat board, its easier to land in a legs down postion or to setup for a good PLF if needed, so I feel the compromise is worth it.  I have also grown to love the front mounted reserve.  Its easy to access, provides a good spot for mounting the vario, and I can easily check it before flight.  Note to the fashion aware - the default color is a nasty, bright orange.  I hate Orange.  It's a high yellow content orange, so a quick dip in some denium blue RITE dye, and it's now a lovely forest green.



The Nervure Plum reserve is the same reserve as the Sup-Air extralight.  Nevures OEM's them from SupAir.  I went with the Nevures because my price on them is significantly cheaper than the equvielnt Supair.

I carry 2 varios, a Flymaster NAV which has integrated GPS for navigation and airspace alerts, and a Flyte Park Pico audio vario that is very sensitive.  I use this for sound only.
 

Purpose built paragliding helmets are expensive.  I've owned several and while they are certified, the modern ski/snow helmet offers much better protection and lighter weight.  I used to prefer a full face helmet but I'm grown to like the openness and increased visibility of the Smith Vantage.  I also like that it has vents that I can easily open and close in flight to help regulate airflow and temperature.
It weighs in at just over a pound and I'm always looking for a lighter option - just haven't found it yet. 

My rucksack is the Advance Lightpack that came with the lightness.  It too got the RITE dye treatment.  Its specified at 75 liters but I don't really think its that big.  I do like that it has lycra side panels that stretch.  I have no problems stuffing all my regular gear into it but using it for a longer vol biv trip will be challenging.

That leads me to the next blog's topic - Rucksacks.  Finding the right balance of durability, volume & weight has been a challenge.  Next post I will delve into our research in this area.

Vol Biv Anyone?

Lately, Jeff and I have been absolutely obsessed with planning a couple vol bivy trips.  Given all the work we have put it, I figure it makes sense to document our preparation here.

Vol What?

Vol bivouac, or "vol biv"for short, originates from the French and translates to "fly camping".  The objective is fly a paraglider cross country as far as possible carrying all the gear you need to camp upon landing.  Get up the next day and do it again.  It's the ultimate, self-supported paragliding, hiking, & mountain climbing adventure.

Vol biv has always been at the fringe of the sport of paragliding.  Early pioneers have made some fantastic journeys- crossing the Alp, the Himalayas, and even the Karakoram in Pakistan.  New advancements in both paragliding and camping equipment have opened up the sport and bigger journeys are now possible.  The latest paragliding gear is lighter and more efficient.  You can fly farther and when you have to hike and climb, the weight is half as much as paragliding kits from even 5 years ago.  Advances in the ultralight backpacking industry also help to reduce weight and complexity of a vol biv kit.

Jeff and I have been researching gear, techniques and routes for almost a year now.  Subsequent posts will document all the research to date.  We have a shakedown trip planned for later this winter on the West coast, then Jeff is jumping in the deep end with a solo trip to New Zealand in February. 

Jeff is blogging about his NZ route research here.

I'll leave you with some links to vol biv stories and expeditions on the net.

Nic Neynen's  "Share My Joys" blog and Youtube videos have been a big inspiration to us.

The Sierra Safari was an expedition up the Sierra's and is documented in "500 Miles to Nowhere."

A nice trip across the Pyrenees. 

Sati & Melody's trip across the Alps.