ABC - Altitude Bivy Campaign

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Alpinum
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ABC - Altitude Bivy Campaign

Post by Alpinum »

Or competition - as you wish.

Rules for ABC:

- during bikepacking trip of (off course) at least 2 days/1 night.
- bivy spot reached by bike. Unsupported.
- at least 4 h riding/pushing/carrying to get there.
- special drink to be enjoyed. Free choice of drinks, but it needs to be one of your favourites and one you think you should enjoy more outdoors.
- the less sheltered, the better. A star-gaze bivy would be best, tarps are good too, tarp tent or closed tent are okay, but a hut/bothy doesn't count.
- (should face sunset or sunrise or, best, both.)
- validation through photo of camp with bike to be uploaded here.
- post your high or low bivy point in metres or feet. Drawn from a map, GPS... whatever will do.
- if you keep posting on here, you might as well sum the high/low points all up and possibly get a number you can try to exceed (or undercut for those who rather spend the nights at the sea) the following year (calendar or not - up to you).
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Alpinum
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Re: ABC - Altitude Bivy Campaign

Post by Alpinum »

From last weekend. 3 days riding, 2 nights out, one of which leaned to a building, so I'm not counting that.
Bivy was at 2570 m.a.s.l.
Above the Laj da Ravais-ch (lakes), not far from Davos, Switzerland.
It took us about 6 h to get there including breaks and a special cask of Bruichladdich (independent filler) was enjoyed.

View from 10 m from the camp
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Descent in the morning from a high spot just about 100 m above the bivy spot, which was in the middle left of the photo.
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The second night (the one I'm not counting) was a bit different...
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Our safe and 'dry' place during an electrical storm. I not often use a bivy bag under the tarp, but here I was glad to have it with me. In the valley, yet still at 1565 m.a.s.l.
Last edited by Alpinum on Tue Aug 13, 2019 9:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
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summittoppler
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Re: ABC - Altitude Bivy Campaign

Post by summittoppler »

From when? This week, this year?
BAM: 2014, 2018 & ......
2024 Bikepacking nights: 3

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Alpinum
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Re: ABC - Altitude Bivy Campaign

Post by Alpinum »

summittoppler wrote: Mon Aug 12, 2019 9:02 pm From when? This week, this year?
From when we started discussing it - just as a suggestion.
That would be last week some time.
Rasta
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Re: ABC - Altitude Bivy Campaign

Post by Rasta »

Alpinum wrote: Mon Aug 12, 2019 10:55 pm
summittoppler wrote: Mon Aug 12, 2019 9:02 pm From when? This week, this year?
From when we started discussing it - just as a suggestion.
That would be last week some time.

Clever! That nicely excludes my previous application.

ABC, for those with hairs on their chest experience, stands for Annapurna Base Camp.
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Alpinum
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Re: ABC - Altitude Bivy Campaign

Post by Alpinum »

Rasta wrote: Mon Aug 12, 2019 11:58 pm Clever! That nicely excludes my previous application.
?
Do what ever you feel like. It was just a suggestion.
It's not (well it shouldn't be) about who gets the highest or lowest point. It's about getting your lazy bum out more often and perhaps to a place you'd usually not go for the night :-bd


[Cleverclogs=on]
ABC is only referred to Annapurna Base on the well visited Annapurna Circuit. ABC also stands for many more things. One likely more relevant for most mountaineers is Advanced Base Camp, as some mountains have a base camp where you can drive to or get to with animals, yet is still a bit far to the mountain base. Saying ABC in front of Makalu or at Tingri or anywhere else outside the Annapurna region will mean something else than whilst on the famous circuit.[/Cleverclogs=off]
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summittoppler
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Re: ABC - Altitude Bivy Campaign

Post by summittoppler »

Liking this :-bd

View down to Tryfan with the sunrise from the bivvy at 2986 feet a week and half ago...
Image20190803_055637 by Jeff Price, on Flickr
BAM: 2014, 2018 & ......
2024 Bikepacking nights: 3

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Re: ABC - Altitude Bivy Campaign

Post by summittoppler »

Not the highest (1790ft) but the views don't come much better from the Hunka... The cloud inversion was a nice bonus too :-bd
Image20190825_200629 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

Image20190826_055144 by Jeff Price, on Flickr
BAM: 2014, 2018 & ......
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Tonto
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Re: ABC - Altitude Bivy Campaign

Post by Tonto »

2280 metres - 7480 ft Lac du lauzanier.
Cold night, damp morning and a scary climb over the Pas de la Cavale to follow.Image
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Alpinum
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Re: ABC - Altitude Bivy Campaign

Post by Alpinum »

I didn't get that high for the bivy,

Image

but I got high for the ride/hike-a-bike

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Bivy at 2100 m. High point of the trip at 3340 m.
Descended down to 485 m.
Of the grand total of 2855 m vert loss, 2352 m on single and double tracks, of which again 1901 m on superb steep and tech terrain.

ImageImage
jameso
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Re: ABC - Altitude Bivy Campaign

Post by jameso »

Nice... Best bivi I did in recent years was off the top of the Izoard, ~2400m. Bottle of good French red and some stargazing.

Will get some pics up soon here from last week's Gardetta bivi on the TNR, also 2400m or so, clear night, followed a litre of pression or 3 shared between us in the Gardetta refuge. A higher bivi is often a better bivi :-bd
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Alpinum
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Re: ABC - Altitude Bivy Campaign

Post by Alpinum »

Image

Image

Image

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I hiked & carried the bike up to 2580 m in less than 2 h, so it doesn't really count...
Left the valley at about 21:30, no moon, big mountains and a gorge. I didn't think much about what I'd get in the morning.

What a bloody stunning view I got. All those mountains - with most of which I share wonderful experiences.
After breakfast up to 3240 m and back down in a kind of a frenzy to get to a b-day party in time.

Was a good one, as I really struggled to leave. The appeal of going home (after work on Friday) was huge, but am really happy to be so stubborn. Was a short but intense trip with some crazy off track rock slab riding, slippery and scary glacier hike-a-bike, a rather techy track that tricky to ride fluent due to many spots with serious exposure.
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Alpinum
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Re: ABC - Altitude Bivy Campaign

Post by Alpinum »

In November and December I rode across the Puna de Atacama and visited two high volcanoes for one of which I spent my highest night with the bike at 4900 m.

On the way there I took a shortcut which started off with a faint double track that soon disappeared
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Not far from my camp at the base of the volcano, back on a track.
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View from my bivy spot the following day with the bike as I left it behind to hike up the volcano.
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I guess almost all places, to which one can still actually ride, to leave the bike behind to go up a volcano are at round about that altitude. Then there are of course much higher passes in the area at close to 6000 m from where you get great views - clearly enough reason in my point of view to spend a night so high up, although rather unnecessary.
Also many have carried their bikes up to Ojos del Salado to ride down and have slept at high camps/bivies. Given that, I'll probably break my personal records of 4900 m sometime as I too like the idea of riding a bike down a volcano. Necessary or not.
Rasta
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Re: ABC - Altitude Bivy Campaign

Post by Rasta »

:-bd

Looks amazing. I went to San Pedro/Atacama years ago, but hitch-hiked, no bike.
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Re: ABC - Altitude Bivy Campaign

Post by Boab »

Properly "vaguely exciting"! The Atacama is one place I'd really like to go...
There are theories at the bottom of my jargon.
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