Most peculiar improvised bivouac

So a lot of us have done bivy's, some planned, others not so planned. Wonder what some of you have done under those less than desirable circumstances? I crawled into a 10' deep sand floor cave that needed Marmot crap evacuated before I could settle in. The wind tore my tent down at 11: 00 p.m. the night prior, gusts were approximating 90 mph & I laid across the top of tent, sleeping bag and my pack and crawled into a moat dragging the whole ball of wax with me. Next morning I found refuge in this tiny cave on Adams SW approach and moved in. I met an Outward Bound instructor up there soloing and when asked where I was hanging, proudly pointed 100' over to "the cave". One of the quietest places I've ever slept and it had a sunset view to boot.

This one could have been a lot worse....A ski acquaintance of ours was separated on the Muir ascent just before Christmas many years back. The days are short and turn-around time is crucial. The weather came in quick, starting as clouds/fog enveloping the snowfield , then short visibility and snow. We waved hoping to bring our bud back but things got snotty too quickly. We stopped going down at every place we could hope to meet but also mindful of our own safe descent had to continue. Our com-padre suffered a snowy white-out,and became lost after dark with us alerting the Rangers of his plight. He found his way down to the restrooms early next morning, always unlocked back then I guess. And with what everyone should carry, turned on the electrical hand dryers and duct taped them "on" for awhile as he recovered and fell asleep on the cement floor. Muir snowfield can be a bastard & if you're like me, look back to the S.W. from time to time.

Was skiing Homewood for the first time last Dec on the epic dump with rental skis and boots and headed into the trees and came to a sign that said experts only. Went that way and skied past two snowboarders sitting down then went right of them following a beautiful line through the forest for about 1200 vertical feet only to come out at the bottom facing a snow covered lake all alone with no way to know exactly where to head. I knew I had to follow my ski line back up the way I descended in waist deep pow. This was about noonish. After six hours of side stepping I was very fatigued, so I dug a semi-cave, bottomed it with fir branches, stretched out and immediately fell asleep. I awoke about a half hour later shivvering to a bright moon, snow was still falling and my track nearly filled in, but I was completely refreshed and knew I could make it back to the top even if it took another four or five hours, when after another hours time the bright lights of the snow cat grooming the run that was nearby the top of the ridge allowed me to traverse over and hitch a ride down to the resort.
That semi-cave made a huge difference for my situation.

Climbing not skiing, but 12 or 13 years ago Anastasia and I climbed Outer Space in late October. It was at our limit at the time and we left the trailhead at 8 a.m., not really doing the math on available daylight. Shenanigans on the first 4 pitches killed enormous amounts of time and, though we did the last 3 pitches in about 20 minutes, we topped out at 7 p.m. in full darkness.

Do not descend the gully in the dark if you've never done it before. Terrifying. It took us six hours and we ultimately got back to our packs at two in the morning, falling asleep on our feet. We flaked out our doubles on the ground, crawled into our backpacks and tried with no success to get some twigs to burn.

On our feet at first light and back to the car at 8 a.m. - a personal record (thankfully since beaten) of 24 hours car to car. Ridiculous.

But the waffles were delicious that morning.

Not exactly "peculiar", but I used a big punky cedar trunk to good effect when I got benighted coming out of Grand Park at MRNP, off course, on way to Lk Eleanor trailhead.

From May 2007 TR : "...I decided to get comfortable for the night instead of thrashing around in the dark forest with a little LED headlamp and lots of logs and moss covered scree. I headed directly down toward the creek to 4000’ for a warmer night, found a nice log with soft cedar bark beside it, got wood for a fire and settled in feeling bad that my wife was not going to know if this was an accident or just an unplanned bivy. No phone coverage. With a puffy jacket, windbreaker, warm hat, balaclava, dry gloves, thermofit boot liners, and a mylar space blanket, I was warm enough, getting more sleep than wife and friends ..."

Had to climb back up a really steep slope, front-pointing tele boots in elk tracks.