Why do you go outdoors? Me, for fun. I bet you too.
Fun is subjective. More interestingly, fun is retrospective.
In 2009, alpinist Kelly Cordes popularized the Fun Scale. According to this, non-scientific, scale there are three types of fun:
- Type I fun: You enjoy it while it’s happening.
- Type II fun: You hate it while it’s happening, but you enjoy it in retrospect.
- Type III fun: You hate it while it’s happening, and you also hate it in retrospect.
Most of the time, I have type I fun. I try to avoid type III fun, although shit happens. But a pinch of type II fun makes me feel alive.
A precarious bivouac is a good example of type II fun: it’s uncomfortable, it’s cold, and you don’t sleep at all. But believe me, it makes for great memories.
Alpinists are the masters of precarious bivouac, so much so that they’ve developed a specific sleeping bag: the half bag.
As the name suggests, a half bag, also known as pied d'elephant, is actually half a sleeping bag that only covers your legs. Paired with your insulated jacket, you'll be covered from head to toe. Less weight, less bulk, same warmth. Roughly.
Half bags are used by alpinists, fastpackers, and adventure racers. As a specialist tool, offer is quite limited.
This experimental Sestrals Half Bag, a custom project for an adventure bikepacker, is designed to make type II fun… funnier:
- It’s longer than a typical half bag to dramatically increase your core warmth.
- It features an innovative insulated sleeve to keep your hands cozy.
- Climashield APEX synthetic insulation offers bombproof dependability.
- An ITW Cyberian CL Cordlock is easy to operate with gloves, mittens, or numb fingers.
After finishing the project a crazy idea comes to my mind: would suspenders help keeping the half bag in place?
Marco.