June 30, 2019

Water purification

It has been said that fear motivates a lot of extra weight carried by backpackers, and here is a case in point. Don't ever let it be said I told you not to purify water you use in the backcountry, but I think this whole business is wildly overblown. Nobody is yet saying "purify or die" like they are saying "hydrate or die" to sell hydration bladders. When they start to, you can say you read it here first.

Sweetwater Guardian (14 ounces)

This is a pump with filter cartridge that I have had for at least 20 years. The only thing bad about it is that it is kind of heavy. I just weighed mine after using it (so it has water inside that won't come out) and it weighs 13.8 ounces. A seldom mentioned virtue of a pump like this is that you can suck up water from a near trickle that you could never fill a bottle from.

Steripen "classic" (7.7 ounces)

Half the weight of the above. This is the model that uses four AA cells. I use Ni-MH rechargeables (Eneloops). Mine has never let me down, but I hear the complaint that it can fail in the field and then what will you do? You go to plan B (see "Nothing at all" below), that's what you do. The Steripen classic works nicely with the ubiquitous 1 liter Gatoraide bottle. It will not work with the currently popular Smartwater bottles.

MSR trail shot (5.0 ounces)

This is an appealing device with no batteries to go dead or electronics to go haywire. Sawyer makes a variety of similar filters that are quite popular.

Nothing at all (0.0 ounces)

I was once filling bottles from an Arizona stream and was scolded about Giardia from a near hysterical hiker that happended to be watching me. I rarely worry about water that is moving in large quantities from areas that have few human campsites. If I am hiking along heavily used trails (such as the John Muir Trail), and especially where stock uses the same trail, I am very glad to have some kind of purification hardware. My main concern is contamination from stock or humans. I am equally glad to be able to purify water taken from near stagnant pools or barely running springs and seeps.

Have any comments? Questions? Drop me a line!

Tom's backpacking pages / tom@mmto.org