Outdoor Research Interstellar Bivy

I was really excited about this purchase when I got it. Once it arrived at the house and tested it out, I noticed the zippers would give me a hard time but I figured I’d just deal with it since I needed it. First day in the field after a long day of hiking I was ready to unroll this thing and hop in for bed. So I cleared out an area, unrolled it, staked it down then proceeded to unzip it. Only to have the canopy zipper catch on the netting. I tried to finesse the zipper out of the mesh but it wouldn’t come out. Here I am, 8 miles in a wilderness area ready for bed and can’t even get in my bivy. So I try to unzip it all the way down and the zipper comes off the rails and turns it into a spring. Then I unzip the netting and crawl in. Once I do so, I want to close everything up but i can’t because the zipper is now derailed and part of the zipper rail is no longer attached to the bivy. After 45 minutes of fighting this thing, I am able to get it partly zippered up so I can sleep. I fought it everyday for a week on my hunt and even cut my hunt short because inclement weather was coming in the mountains and my bivy wouldn’t close up.

Love this and the way it keeps moisture out and lets moisture out. I had a rather large sleeping pad that was wide and I know that took away some of the room at the bottom. It ended up compressing the down on my sleeping bag. I got cold legs every night because of that. I'm going to get a smaller sleeping pad and keep using this bivy because all the other qualities I like.

I was pretty excited about this purchase, a bivy this light sounded pretty sweet! I had this thing out was playing with it on my living room floor for about 10 minutes and knew it was getting returned. Most of that 10 minutes was spent trying to figure out the 12 zippers! The system of zippers is a mess, I couldn't imagine trying to get this open in the dark in a hurry. The tags on the zippers are marked but not in a way that makes it easy to tell the difference between the zippers for the mesh and the cover, very confusing to figure out while laying on your back. The sleeve for the pole is too tight so the pole doesn't move around the curve of the hood easily, I was worried I was going to tear it. It's also not as large as advertised. I'm 6'1" (73") 205 lbs and wear a size 48 long suit jacket for reference. When I got in without my sleeping bag my feet touched the bottom and my head was 2 inches from the top. Not enough room for me and the bag. I'm a fan of Outdoor Research products and was pretty surprised by how disappointed I was with one of their products.