Bear, I was reading a massive thread last night on this subject , over a hundred posts , have a look further down the gear section in OM forum.

The general concesus seemed to be that:

You should always carry one,

however the big orange bin liner is only good for sitting on and sledging, either on snow or wet gress apparently.

The baco foil noisemakers are good for nothing except making noise

And i belive there was another complaint about the type u used that centered around ripping and disintergrating after time, even if unused.

There was some call about combining both of the above for a more effective system however most praise was form the extra weight and better chance of survival from having a bivi or bothy.

Alpkit i found is doing a rather good one for £25 but i havn't invested myself yet so i dont know how good it "really" is.

If anyone does id be greatfull of your oppinion.

Most groups (Schools,Scouts outdoor centers) strongly suggest having the big orange ones but the reality is having spent a night in one its not fun and by morning there was more water inside it than outside.

I now use one as a bag linner on my big pack as its usefull as a footprint on rough ground and doubles up as a waterproof liner for my back along with the sledging thing its also can be rolled down to make a crude bowl or even water holder.

And when i do invest in a bivi, i will still keep the orange one for the reasons above but also as a big orange flag on a walking pole, to the rescue teams i hope never to meet, But big respect to you guys and girls !!

J

I have been thinking about the practicalities of many of these options, and ptc* just brought up this one in another post . I am awaiting his feedback - reviews on the web are largely positive.

If I was going to shell out for a Blizzard bag (and the half price offer has me tempted...) then I would have thought that the tube version would be more versatile. I am usually with someone else in the outdoors and so a two-person shelter makes more sense. This could also be used to warm a hypothermia victim with someone else in the bag, and would be a more spacious shelter for two in a planned bivvy. Has anyone tried one of these? Does the single person bag have room for two?

The Bothy bag or Kisu is very effective for groups and is more reusable than the Blizzard bag. I have sat out foul sobzero weather and got a brew going inside one before - very good for morale.

So for me the optimal choice depends on how many people you intend to provide for and what the conditions are likely to be. For now the orange poly lives in the back-system of my rucksack so I don't even think about bringing it, but I am sure that there are better options available.

Thanks, chaps.  I've just seen this on Planet Fear as well, which might be of interest - http://www.planetfear.com/article_detail.asp?a_id=425

It might sound a daft question, but any thoughts on how a Blizzard bag might compare to the Survival Zone or Hunka for 'non-emergency' use? 

Well, Blizzard themselves admit that their fabrics are not a resilient as woven ones. So you'll get more nights' use out of a bag like the Hunka. But there are plenty of adventure racer types who use the Blizzard as a primary sleeping bag. There's very little intrinsic warmth to a classic bivvy bag. You stay warm(er) inside because the keep out the wind and stop your insulation (clothing/sleeping bag) gettting wet. Blizzard bags on the other hand are designed to minimise radiative heat loss and provide some additional insulation by trapping air between the layers.

If you are doing planned bivvies then my personal feeling is that you can warrant the cost and weight of carrying a woven bivvy bag and/or tarp plus sufficient insulation (sleeping bag). But as I said on another post  it is crucial that an emergency shelter requires minimal capabilities to be effective and cannot rely on you being able to peg out guylines or tie knots!

for me, the decision process between buying two single bags and one tube goes like this:

tube:

+ probably warmer for two people : certainly more helpful in treating hypothermia

+ less claustrophic and better for morale being together

+ can keep your boots on with less risk of tearing the bag

+ lighter (530g instead of 2x350) & less bulky

two single bags:

+ can share the weight

+ each person has protection in the event of getting separated (or going solo)

+ redundancy (i.e. if one splits or blows away, you have a spare)

+ don't need such a big footprint if you are stuck on a ledge

For me it would be an easier decision if the single bags were not on half price! Either way, they should be a big step up on the Lifesystems bag you reviewed.

John

I carry a two man bothy and a Alpkit Hunka now. The bothy would be OK on its own, but the bivvy bag gives me options.

 The hunka is fine for planned the planned bivy.

I've tried out the Blizzard in the unforgiving wilderness of a country park in darkest Essex and I didn't find the rustling was too offputting for me (though I didn't se much of the nocturnal wildlife - foxes/badgers/owls - I was hoping for; at least it drowned out the noise from the A127). I was happy that you could position the hood to direct any rain away from the face and although there was some condensation / sweat within the bag it was less than I remember from last time I used an orange 'death bag' despite being quite a warm night (I would normally not have used a bag at all but wanted a trial run in the Blizzard before trying it on a mountain).

On the 'down' side (not meaning any pun) the Blizzard comes as a tube with the bottom end closed off with a cable tie, and mine was broken when I unwrapped it (thankfully my first aid kit includes some cable ties). There is a bit of a difficulty drying the sweat out from inside the bag when you get home because the creases/pleats mean you can't just wipe it / turn it inside out like an orange bag. Re-packing takes a bit of practice - you certainly won't get it down to the original pack size when you're out in the wild so bear this in mind when planning rucksack contents, but with practice you can use knees to squash the rolled bottom end whilst smoothing the air out towards the top and roll it down to fit into an A4 ziplock bag.

You certainly wouldn't fit two people into my single person blizzard.  

So, overall I'm very happy with it and will certainly be buying a second (& poss third) if theres a half price deal on.

I carry a two person bothy when I am out alone, I am counting on using it like a survival bag if I ever get that badly in the poo.

Don't write off the orange plastic bag though, they are not meant to be comfortable, or warm, or dry - they are meant to cut out the wind chill and keep a casualty or benighted walker alive.

A lot of people misunderstand how they are used;  the casualty is meant to tear off a small hole in the bottom corner then crawl inside head first, breathing through the hole.  It'll be an uncomfortable night but better than not carrying one and popping off!

Would I want to use one? Nope!  Will I insist on any group I am with having one each? dead right. 

As John says above I've got some stuff from Adventure Medical to try out and the survival bag looks great.

It's tapered, it'll cover your head and because it's velcroed, you can open a breathing vent wherever suits. The teams at the AR world champs were allowed to use them with a foil lanket as the two combined met the safety requirements.