What do you all think of the OR Helium bivy? It's on sale on Amazon for $99. It gets a lot of mediocre reviews and some bad ones. Most of the bad reviews are related to water infiltration. If I was planning on using it with my buddies tarp maybe it would be okay.
The majority of my nights in an OR bivy have been in the Aurora model. On really cold nights, 20 degrees or less, there has been the occasional morning that I will have frost on the outside of my sleeping bag near the foot. That’s been the extent of poor moisture transfer. I am certain that it has been from the inside trying to get out. Additionally, I am usually under a tarp, so I’ve never been fully zipped in raining weather. I’ve spent plenty of cloudless nights out in the open with it and it gets closed but not zipped to keep the cold wind off.
Now onto the Helium. I don’t have any nights in it. The extent of my knowledge is a few couple hour sessions in it to check it out at the house. I just got the Helium two days ago. I immediately appreciated the roomier cut on the Helium vs the Aurora. Also, the hoop is a nice touch, the Aurora is a clamshell bivy that you have to tie up if you want the big screen off your face.
The floor on the Helium isn’t as robust as the Aurora and that’s the only drawback I see between the two. I run an XL Neoair and the Aurora would compress my sleeping bag if I side slept, the Helium is bigger doesn’t compress my bag. The extra room is so large that my GSP can fit in the Helium with me, whereas there really wasn’t anyway she would have comfortably fit in Aurora.
I didn’t notice any moisture problems on the panels of the Helium after a couple hour nap with both her and I. However, I did notice that where the seams were taped and where the hoop is reinforced a small amount of condensation had accumulated. I don’t see how moisture could evaporate from these points on any bivy or tent. But it’s something to keep my eye on for further test runs. Also, when you have the bivy deployed with just the netting over the head, the Pertex fabric hangs in the void that is created by the hoop. I could see this decreasing airflow and helping to increase moisture issues in the bivy. I can stuff the extra Pertex over the hoop, but I would like to come up with a more “finished” solution.
I think that the Helium is going to be replacing my Aurora based on my initial impressions. I wish I had more real world use to share, but I figure it’s more than nothing. I run my bivy with an LBO and I’ve never been left wanting for more. It’s a little overkill, but I figure it allows me to snag my bag and bivy and spike somewhere if needed and I can leave my LBO setup for those that I am hunting with too.
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