Has anyone got the Hilleberg Bivanorak?  Or tried one?  Or even seen one?

I hear they are quite well known in the USA, but I've never seen one in the UK.

I'm sorely tempted to go this route instead of buying a bivvy bag as I really like to have my arms free rather than in a sleeping bag / bivvy bag.  My idea is to use it for summer lightweight 2-3 day trips into the hills (especially Spanish mountains), when rain is unlikely but morning dew would make a mess of an unguarded sleeping bag and a tent is unecessarily heavy and restrictive (even my Akto).  I guess it would also be useful for winter snowholing too.

But, how does the bottom seal up when used as a bivvy?  Is it really waterproof?

It's just that it's so weird an idea I don't know if it's brilliant or really dumb.  Any thoughts would be most welcome.

a slightly different solution I have been looking into comes from Integral Designs:

http://www.integraldesigns.com/product_detail.cfm?id=728&CFID=29362&CFTOKEN=13192351&mainproducttypeid=1

Either seem to make good sense to me. I think I'd rather have a tarp-style poncho (à la Integral Designs) for versatility... but it wouldn't be much use as a sleeping bag cover. Plus the ID option is significantly cheaper and lighter...

John

.. and another variant: the Six Moon Designs Gatewood Cape.

And, as one of the reviews points out, there's no problems putting it up in the rain, because you are already inside it!

Recently we had an all night freezing rain storm on a weekend night so I decided to put the cape to a test (so I could get familiar with using it in adverse conditions). I was able to quickly set it up in the dark in the middle of a rain storm while at the same time wearing it as a poncho.