Water purification is among the extra boring facets of backcountry searching, however it’s additionally probably the most necessary bases to cowl. Beaver Fever (Giardia) and different unsavory parasites won’t be lurking in each stream or mountain seep that you simply discover, however you need to proceed as if they’re. In the event you don’t, you’re taking an pointless likelihood at getting sick—typically very sick.
Thankfully for backcountry hunters and hikers, there are many choices for sanitizing the consuming water you acquire. There are short-term emergency filters like Lifestraw and the Survivor Filter Bottle. There are additionally high-tech water filters that may price lots of of {dollars}, in addition to Steripen UV-treatment water purification instruments obtainable.
What’s the most suitable option for backcountry water purification? That depends upon who you ask. So, we’ll allow you to hear what two of our Employees Writers—each of whom are well-versed within the backcountry—should say about it. Whichever technique of water purification you select, use one thing, and use it at all times.
Going With no Water Filter
By Tyler Freel
To be blunt, I’ve no use for backpacking water filters. I’ve been searching Dall sheep yearly for nearly 20 years and haven’t used a filter for over a decade. Frankly, I can’t perceive why anybody would. Making water secure to drink within the backcountry is necessary, however I don’t imagine a filtration system is the best choice. Somewhat, I favor chemical remedy of consuming water within the backcountry. I’m not speaking concerning the nasty previous iodine tablets that flip your water orange/yellow, scent unhealthy, and style worse. I imply chlorine dioxide—a remedy that the CDC recommends.
I’ve been utilizing Aquamira chlorine dioxide water remedy drops since round 2009 for all my backcountry hunts. I’ve pulled water from numerous tundra bogs and potholes worn into rocks—typically with Dall sheep droppings in or close to them. Typically you possibly can even see wiggly little critters swimming round your freshly collected water. I’ve choked down floaties, bugs, and silty glacial creek water, and by no means caught something (that I do know of). I merely deal with every thing I drink within the backcountry (and typically journeys are for as much as 14 days at a time).
Remedy drops are small and light-weight sufficient to be stowed anyplace and might make any water secure to drink (so far as parasites go). You may stow it in your bino pouch, and I even preserve some in my life jacket when on the water. For me, they utterly negate the usefulness of a filtration system within the backcountry.
The Aquamira drops are available 2 components, A and B. Chlorine dioxide is a reactive chemical and have to be constructed from the 2 components proper earlier than treating your water. Two 1-ounce bottles will deal with all of the water you could possibly probably drink on a backpacking journey or mountain hunt, and seven drops of every half per liter of water will kill any microbes, parasites, or different crawlies that may make you sick.
The Draw back of Filters
Why are you doing that? I feel to myself each time I see an image of somebody’s jerry-rigged gravity filter or one thing related on a backcountry hunt. Water purification is a crucial chore however selecting a filter for journeys which are lower than a month simply doesn’t make sense to me. I’m certain there are some perks to utilizing filtration methods, however for a backpack hunter, there are some appreciable downsides.
Additional Stuff. Most importantly, a water filter or filtration system is one more piece of substances to pack, carry, and preserve. They don’t take up that a lot area, however definitely greater than two tiny bottles of remedy drops. When the purpose is to return out of the mountains with a pack that’s twice as heavy because it was when your pie-in-the-sky ass traipsed in, further stuff is a hindrance.
Operate. There are numerous several types of water filters, and I’ve little doubt that some are higher than others relating to reliability throughout several types of waters and particles ranges. Nevertheless, whether or not it’s for water or your 1996 Johnson outboard, a filter is a filter—and filters ultimately clog and decelerate. Common upkeep will help with this, however typically filters will be finicky, gradual, or can get damaged or broken—particularly if it’s chilly they usually freeze up. In case your filter goes down, do you will have drops as a backup? In that case, the filter is further. Refer again to No. 1.
Time. In some methods, backcountry backpack searching is as a lot concerning the tenting as it’s the searching. To hunt successfully, you will need to have all of the requirements taken care of, and that takes time. To be truthful, some filters are fast with clear water, and the Aquamira drops take about 5 minutes to combine earlier than pouring them into your water. Some pump filters are quick, however they are often extra complicated and bulkier. To me that interprets to “breakable” and “further stuff”.
Cross-contamination. One bugaboo about utilizing filters moderately than chemical water remedy is potential crossover between “soiled” water containers and filtered water containers. Filters are nice at eradicating dangerous parasites from the water, however you have to be cautious to not get unfiltered water in or in your clear water containers. In the event you’re in dry nation and must fill all of your water storage from a pothole within the tundra, you’ll have to gather and filter each drop earlier than it touches your consuming containers. This can be a non-issue with remedy drops. Acquire and retailer it in any container, simply be certain to deal with it earlier than you drink. It is going to kill every thing.
Downsides of Drops?
If there’s a possible draw back of utilizing chlorine dioxide drops to deal with your water, it’s that you simply’re consuming a chemical. Except you’re grossly over-treating your water, the concept might be a lot scarier than the truth. Some water remedy vegetation even use it in response to the CDC. Filtering is likely to be a greater possibility if it’s handy or in case you’re significantly delicate to chlorine dioxide, in any other case it’s only a barely noticeable style.
A self-evident profit to filtering your water is that you simply shouldn’t should cope with any silt or particles—one thing that drops can’t repair. The thought of choking down milky, silt-filled water or just a few bugs would make some people gag, but when it’s handled, it gained’t damage you. Suck it up and drink it down. It’ll put hair in your chest.
The Case for New Backpacking Water Filters
By Laura Lancaster
Like Tyler, I went the higher a part of a decade with out utilizing a water filter. I, too, was bored with the tubes and pumps, and the issues about cross contamination. They appeared extra problem than helpful, and I used to be by no means assured sufficient in them to go away my iodine tablets out of my first help package.
I carried a SteriPen as an alternative, which makes use of UV mild to wipe out every thing: micro organism, protozoa, and viruses. More often than not, this labored nice. I might plop down, press a few buttons, swirl the wand for a few minutes and be good to go. However the extra I backpacked, the much less supreme the SteriPen appeared. First off, it is a fairly finickity piece of tech. It doesn’t like humidity, the chilly, or to be packed away moist (type of an issue!). I made it work, however the degree of care required to coax the SteriPen to complete the sterilization course of on its off days began to get to me. Additionally, like Aquamira tablets, the water you get is the water you get. That water supply contaminated by cattle? The lifeless hen on the mouth of the spring within the desert? The murky puddles deep within the forest? Let’s simply say that the style doesn’t precisely encourage me to remain hydrated. As soon as I seen leeches had hooked up themselves to the aspect of my bottle after I had already consumed half of it (and was 5 miles out from my subsequent water supply). On this case, I didn’t suck it up and drink it down. One other time, an anticipated water supply was dry, and we ended up consuming from a forest service highway ditch. The subsequent day I felt horrible.
However in that point, I’d additionally seen sufficient individuals utilizing Aquamira tablets within the backcountry to know that they’re not for me. Hunched over, fastidiously squeezing simply so many drops from Bottle A and simply so many drops from Bottle B seems to be like y’all are conducting a science experiment. After I’m on my final drops of water on the finish of an extended day of mountain climbing, I would like water now, not after some chemical response is full. Worse, it takes 4 HOURS for Aquamira to work towards cryptospordium, which is a standard protozoa in a few of my favourite locations to backpack within the Pacific Northwest. That’s a no go.
The Upside of Filters
It seems that whereas I had my again turned to the water filters, there have been some fairly vital enhancements to the expertise. Crucial one is that these pesky tubes, that could possibly be so simply cross-contaminated, are gone. A lot of the high backpacking water filters right this moment, together with the Sawyer Squeeze, the Kataydn BeFree, and the Platypus Quickdraw haven’t any tubes in any respect, whereas others, such because the MSR Guardian, are designed in a method to basically negate the chance of contamination. No extra packing tubes inside luggage after which stuffing that into one other bag together with your filter. In case your imaginative and prescient of a backpacking water filter continues to be an old-fashioned hand pump, it’s time to commerce that in for one of many greatest backpacking water filters. Right here’s what you’ll get.
Weight. One of the interesting facets of Aquamira tablets is their weight—three ounces. However are backpacking filters really heavier? To search out out, I weighed three of the highest backpacking water filters, which had all been by way of vital testing, so about as filled with grit and dirt as they will get. I didn’t embody the soiled bag on this weight—in any case, it’s a must to carry your water in one thing it doesn’t matter what water supply you utilize, and loads of backpackers drink by way of their filter straight from their soiled water bag. What I discovered was that three of the 4 (the Sawyer Squeeze Mini, Katadyn BeFree, and Platypus QuickDraw) all weighed lower than three ounces, whereas the full-size Sawyer Squeeze weighed solely a half ounce extra. The ridiculously light-weight Katadyn BeFree solely weighed 1.4 ounces.
Price. The upfront price of Aquamira is fairly low, however you solely get 30 gallons, or about 135 liters, out of that. In the event you’re going by way of about six liters a day, you and your mountain climbing companion might want to purchase a brand new set of Aquamira bottles in 11 days. Water filters, which have a better upfront price, will typically final quite a bit longer than this. Whereas I’m doubtful about Sawyer’s declare that it may well filter 100,000 gallons (it could take ten weeks of nonstop filtering to check this), Assistant Editor and long-time Sawyer Squeeze fan Ashley Thess has used her Sawyer Squeeze for over 30 days within the backcountry, and it’s nonetheless going sturdy. Through-hikers often report utilizing a single filter for the 150+ days it takes to hike the Pacific Crest Path.
Time. One of many greatest gripes about water filters is that they will take some actual elbow grease to make use of in less-than-ideal water sources. And after testing, I can affirm that is the case for the old-school hand-pump filters. But it surely wasn’t true for the squeeze fashions, which maintained a sub-two-minute water move even when subjected to essentially the most difficult water sources, and bounced again to a sub-minute water move after cleansing. Even higher, the cleansing itself was quick and simple (once more, not like the old fashioned hand-pumps), and within the case of the Katadyn BeFree and the Platypus QuickDraw required no extra tools (the syringe used to wash the Sawyer Squeeze will price you a further ounce in weight to hold on a trek).
Endurance. The comparative complexity of the Aquamira system can begin to put on on you after some time. Pour precisely seven drops Half A into the blending cap, then add precisely seven components of drop B. Wait 5 minutes. Add to a liter of water. Wait thirty minutes. Repeat for as many liters of water that it’s worthwhile to get to your subsequent water supply. I’ve heard of a couple of story of individuals creatively premixing the A and B answer initially of the day, and even initially of their journey. It will negate the chemical’s potential to neutralize the pathogens within the water.
The Actual Supply of Contamination
By far, the largest draw back of the light-weight squeeze water filters is that they don’t filter out viruses, corresponding to norovirus, rotavirus, or Hepatitis A. There are water filters able to eradicating viruses, however they arrive with efficiency points. The MSR Guardian can preserve its quick move whereas taking out viruses, however is extraordinarily costly and weighs over a pound. The lighter weight RapidPure Air purifier+ can take away viruses in clear water, however clogs up on the first signal of turbidity.
However right here’s the factor about these viruses: we’re those spreading them. That spring excessive within the tundra is fairly unlikely to be contaminated by Hepatitis A. You’re more likely to be contaminated with one in all these viruses in case you are uncovered to untreated sewage. More and more it’s thought that when backpackers and hunters catch a abdomen bug within the backcountry that the wrongdoer is just poor private hygiene (or, worse, sharing meals with somebody with poor private hygiene). So, when you’re shopping for your self a brand new water filter in your subsequent hike or hunt, add some hand sanitizer to your procuring cart: it’ll put hair in your chest.
