If you frequent any of the popular outdoors / bikepacking / mtb forums, you may be familiar with the inevitable question that appears when the topic of sleeping in the wilds is discussed…bivy or tent? There tend to be passionate advocates of both, but I’ve generally found myself somewhere in the middle. I have a bivy (Alpkit Hunka XL), and a lightweight tent (Terra Nova Laser Comp). I can see the attraction of both options…the feeling you get of sleeping under the stars in a bivy is great, but of course the comfort and all-weather security of a tent is sometimes useful.
I’ll admit it now, I’m really not a fan of tarps. I suspect it’s most likely because I haven’t practiced enough, and I know some bivyists (?) are tarp wizards who could erect an effective rain shelter standing on their heads in the middle of a hurricane. Me on the other hand, well I do have a tarp (one of those poncho/tarp things), and I have used it a few times, but each time I’ve found it quite a faff and have had less than perfect results. The other thing I don’t like about tarps…the whole sleeping under the stars thing, the unique selling point of a bivy, well that’s negated somewhat when a tarp is sitting above your head.
That’s not to say I’m a fan of tents. For most trips that’s going too far the other way. Whilst you may have pitched with a beautiful view of the Black Mountains, once you’re zipped up inside you may as well be in your back garden. They’re generally heavier too of course, and more bulky to carry. Plus, they require a larger footprint to pitch than a bivy and are generally more visible, which isn’t ideal when sleeping out in “cheeky” locations. So I’ve been on the lookout for a solution that’s somewhere in the middle. I’ve seen those bivies with a looped pole above your head, but they were always heavier than my tent, and that’s a price I’m not going to pay.
Enter the 2011 Nemo Gogo Elite bivy. With a claimed minimum weight of approx 600g (that’s a third lighter than my tent, and not much heavier than my bivy/tarp combo) it’s a bivy shelter with a “hoop”, but with a clever trick up it’s sleeve. Instead of a regular pole it has an inflatable tube Nemo call an “Airbeam”. It’s super quick to inflate and deflate, and means the weight is kept down & pack size is quite small. It’s also fully seam taped, waterproof and breathable (not sure of the technical figures, I’ll look into those). I made a point of specifying the “2011″ model. This is because last year’s was apparently quite a bit heavier, so the latest is definitely the one to go for. I think it’s probably still accurate to call it a bivy (rather than a tent). Nemo do, and of course it’s a single skin shelter that, if you left the Airbeam deflated, would essentially function as a regular bivy sack.
Ok let’s get the this out of the way….it’s yellow. Now, yellow might be a great colour for climbers taking a nap half way up a vertical mountain face. They may want to remain visible for safety reasons. I, on the other hand, doing a sneaky overnight bivy just off a bridleway in the Chilterns, I’d rather not be noticed, and a nice small-footprint bivy is ideal until it screams YELLOW at any passers-by or landowner. Unfortunately, this appears to be the only colour available, and certainly the only colour available in the UK, so I’ll live with it.
The other thing to get out of the way…it costs three hundred quid. I typed that in words so you don’t think I accidentally added a zero or something. Quite a lot of money for a bivy, but this is the world of ultralight gear of course where saved grams correlate quite depressingly with increased £s.
Anyway, I only just got it, and we’re in the process of moving house, so I haven’t used the Gogo Elite in anger yet, but let’s see how it deals with the obligatory garden test.
First off, it’s an absolute doddle to set up…a task that takes literally one minute:
Unpacked & staked out…
Airbeam inflation valve (the bit with the red cap)…
“Ultralight integrated pump” attached…
–blow–pump—blow–pump—blow—pump–
and the Airbeam is inflated…
Close-up of the inflated Airbeam…
In it’s most basic configuration, that’s it. Oh, and if it’s pouring with rain you can inflate the Airbeam from inside the bivy, which is handy. To provide a bit of extra ventilation inside the bivy, you can insert a stick at the end of the “swallowtail”, which definitely makes it feel a bit more roomy inside.
Stick / Swallowtail…
This is how the Gogo Elite looks in full waterproof, closed-up mode…
One of the things that really attracted me to this shelter was that it also has the option of tying back the vestibule outer whilst still having bug netting in place. That way, you get all the “staring at the cows / stars” fun of a bivy, but with full bug protection if required and the ability to batten down the hatches (well, close up the vestibule outer) when the rain inevitably appears.
Vestibule outer rolled back, bug net closed…
Also, if you want to have an outdoors vestibule for whatever reason then you can roll back the vestibule floor & hook the outer over the stake.
Outdoory vestibule…
Size wise, it seems pretty generous. I’m only 5ft 9″, but it gobbles me up with the entire vestibule area to spare, so I reckon you could be a good foot taller than me and still get away with being fully stretched out in there.
Regular Thermarest Neoair for size comparison…
Sorry, no attractive models were available…
One of my bug bears with ultralight tents is they often come with ridiculous, unfit for purpose, crazy-light pegs. The Terra Nova Laser Competition tent is a perfect example, whose pegs if I recall correctly were only two or three grams! Nemo on the other hand have done the right thing and given away a few potential gram savings by including five genuinely useful stakes. At 12g each, you could replace them with lighter ones if you’re a proper weight weenie, but I rather like them.
Standard Gogo Elite stakes…
Let’s look at the weight of the other items as well.
Stuff sack (which is waterproof by the way)…
“Ultralight Integrated” pump…
Fully packed weight (including pump, stakes, repair kit, spare cord)…
Now 763 grams (let’s call it 750…I should have taken out the spare cord), whilst fairly lightweight, isn’t exactly super-ultra-crazy light these days. You could get a double-walled tent at about 600g from Terra Nova, but that’ll be £650 please so lets ignore that one. The Laser Photon 1 is probably more realistic…about the same weight and a similar price as the Gogo. But that’s a tent and I don’t want one of those. I could of course also go for a sub 300 gram bivy sack and a lightweight tarp, the total weight of which could easily come in under 400 grams. But I don’t want a bivy and a tarp 
. As a compromise between the two, I can live with the still quite lightweight Gogo Elite, and pack size is certainly better than my Laser Competition.
Gogo Elite pack size against 800ml bottle…
So that’s a quick initial look at the Nemo Gogo Elite bivy. It looks promising so far, and hopefully I’ll be able to get out to the hills soon to test it out properly. Oh one last thing. I thought this tag stitched into the stuff sack was a nice touch. Not that I need it of course, knowing them all by sight. Ahem.
Constellations…
