Bivouac: one of the greatest micro-aventure

When you talk about bivouac most people know what you are referring to. Sleeping outdoors is by definition an amazing adventure. Although my parents aren’t hardcore adventurers, I’ve always been fascinated by tents since I was 6 because I find it amazing that a 30x15cm bag can pack a shelter protecting us from rain, wind and most importantly monsters and other scary noises occurring at night! The adrenalin and excitement were so strong that I wasn’t scared. I spent many adventures under a tarp or tent, so much that when I came back from Peru I couldn’t sleep in my bed left two and a half years earlier.

Bivouacking relies on good gears and preparation

Doing a bivouac goes beyond sleeping in a tent. It is a micro-adventure that requires excellent thinking and packing skills to reduce the weight down to 8kg/people for one night (including food). If it weights more you won’t appreciate this bivouac as it might feel too difficult. Everything must be well organised to:

• make each action efficient
• protect your sleeping equipment from natural elements. Keep in mind that the strictness of a bivouac is the same as a surgeon in the surgery room!
• make sure your gears are adapted to optimise the ratio weight /volume / comfort

Night Hike: Fullmoon and Starlights

Depending of your staying, two kinds of sunset challenge are possible.

• During the fullmoon week to test our ability to see at night. The reflection of the sunlight allows us to walk without headlamp on smooth trails. Our eyes get use to the darkness and after an hour we almost see like cats. The sensation is hard to explain as we experience something we barely use this capacity. Trust yourself and try you won’t be disappointed!
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• Moonless night offers a different show. As soon as we are far enough from any light pollution we see a portion of the MilkyWay and far more stars. The mesmerizing beauty of our Universe forces us to stop and admire the different constellations created by the imagination of our ancestors. Who knows, we might see some shooting stars too!

With a pair of binoculars we will spy around the mountaineers on the glaciers starting their journey to a peak like us!

Hiking by night opens to a higher state of consciousness

Here is something marvelous we often forget in our daily life: We are all made of stardust. Over billions of years the huge gravity taking place within a star combines light atoms together to create bigger ones. The fusion reaction liberates energy in protons, photons and radiations. At some point, the atoms within the star are to big to combine with each other. At this specific moment  two things can happen depending the start mass:

• Either the star exploses in a supernova: One of space brightest event responsible of the creation of the heaviest atoms. All its atoms are brutally spread across our Universe and the huge gravity of its heart falling on itself gives birth to a neutron star or a black hole.
• Either the star expulses its outer layers to create a planetary nebula while its heart gets smaller and smaller to become a white dwarf for almost eternity.

Hiking by night helps us to remind ourselves where we come from and how magical our reality is when we look further than the tip of our nose.