Comments about The North Face Asylum Bivy:

love how small this tent is, easy to set up, extremely light weight. I bring it with me when I fly and travel, the roll-up size for my tent AND pad (neo-air) is less than most people's pads alone. definitely makes people I hike with think twice about how much tent they need. honestly in retrospect I think I might go with the mica tent because of two things: first, you can sit up in it, and second you have head ventilation. The reason I went with the asylum is because it didn't have the separate rainfly and I'm super lazy, so less setup work the better.

cons:
- doesn't have a mesh vent by your head that you can have open in rainy conditions (if you leave the door fly open rain will get inside)... this can make you feel a little claustrophobic and will keep your head area a few degrees warmer than outside in warmer weather
- seams are taped along the bottom of the tent, but the top seams will weep when it rains- you'll need to use some of that seam sealer goop stuff to fix it
- you really need to crank hard on the front and back guy lines to keep the sides of the tent from sagging, not a huge issue but I'd be afraid over time that the fabric would stretch and eventually you'd run out of slack to take up... haven't had that happen yet but it might long-term
- fabric looks like it's under a lot of tension. I always worry it's going to rip off the connections to the lines and poles but it hasn't yet. knock on wood.
- not freestanding (the mica is), this can be a pain if you're in tight or rocky areas as you must guy-line this tent down... and I'm lazy

pros:
- smallest and lightest tent you'll find
- sets up in about 3 minutes after some practice
- NO SEPARATE RAIN FLY (and yes the fabric does keep rain out once you seal the seams, it breathes well too)
- foot vent (it's there, you can't see it in the pics, and it works well in spite of the head vent)
- glow in the dark zipper chords
- place to hang you headlamp
- small area near your head in tent for your hat/book/wallet/whatever
- really nice quality poles