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To Filter or Not to Filter? That is the question.


tomcat

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Let's not forget about our good friend Cryptosporidium, avoidable with a filter, but uncurable so far.

 

I'd elaborate on Crypto, but one of our many scientists could surely do it better.

 

Iodine and bleach are both helpless against Crypto, and bleach really hasn't been proven successful against giardia either. Be careful out there.

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I'm going to have to root around and see if I can find the article a friend copied for me. It was a study done on water in the Sierras, testing 40 some sampling sites, and the highest reading for giardia was considerably less than the San Francisco public water supply. Obvious caveats though: only tested for Giardia, only in the Sierra Nevada, but an interesting read none the less. I'll see if I can find the relevant material. It did make me feel better about those times I decide "screw it, I'm thirsty" and drink from whatever is handy.

 

One thing in favor of a filter, it has on occasion allowed me to pump from a trickle source you could not fill a bottle from.

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I agree that the water tastes better from the filter and I've used others but so far I've been too cheap to actually go out and buy one. The iodine treated water does taste pretty foul but you get used to it after awhile...

Edited by ChrisT
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I've seen that study, Off, and it did not make me feel more confident about drinking unfiltered water.

 

I HATE carrying a filter, but nothing else has been proven effective to a point that I'm willing to leave the beast at home. It's not just critters that are concerning, also the people walking around carrying giardia and not knowing it.

 

Unfortunately, nothing works as well as a water filter. fruit.gif

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The water in Calif is just plain nasty and most of the people who live there don't even drink it. They're all drinking bottled water and spending lots of $$$ on it. But I believe the water in NorCal to be better than the water in SoCal...with the exception of Silicon Valley...

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I never carry a filter and never worry about it except if filling my bottle immediately downstream from an obviously heavily polluted place like a popular camping area. I have never had any trouble except in Asia, where I had the full-on giardia experience and have never been the same since.

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I have gotten sick before drinking out of streams, not G but something less insidious.

I almost never carry a filter, and use iodine tablets. The extra taste tablets in the Aqua two bottles is really nothing more than vitamin C, so I have used vitamin C or Gatorade.

I do know of a climber friend that got real sick drinking out of streams and other friends that drink out of questionable sources and never have gotten sick.

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Filters are handy, but when I'm going for light weight I bring the Pristine stuff (chlorine dioxide, sold in Canada at MEC, not yet approved in US). Apparently effective against crypto as well. Used for decades in European community water supplies.

 

Check it out here

 

The only pain in the ass is it's a two-part solution that you have to prepare, and then wait 5 minutes before adding to your water (and then wait 15 minutes before drinking).

bigdrink.gif

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Let's not forget about our good friend Cryptosporidium, avoidable with a filter, but uncurable so far.

 

I'd elaborate on Crypto, but one of our many scientists could surely do it better.

 

Iodine and bleach are both helpless against Crypto, and bleach really hasn't been proven successful against giardia either. Be careful out there.

 

Cryptosporidium, in all but sewage-level concentrations, is only a threat to those with suppressed immune systems, the elderly, and infants. which is good cause it present in most water sources in BC and aside from filtration there is no good way to remove it. But again, for like 99.9% of us it is not a problem to worry about. Although, if you are North Battleford, Saskatchewan, and the town upstreams, sewage system malfunctions, you might see 21 people die from it... shocked.gif

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Chlorine dioxide is available south of the border, Mountain Gear sells stuff called Aqua Mira which looks just like the Pristine that you had a link to. I've used it here in the Cascades with no ill effects to date. The water tastes pretty good, too.

 

Of course, the water tastes much better after a snort of balvenie...

 

 

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Let's not forget about our good friend Cryptosporidium, avoidable with a filter, but uncurable so far.

To my knowledge Cryptosporidium is not as widespread in the mountains as Giardia. Though incurable, normal healthy people recover eventually.

 

I believe that the 1 micron filters will get Crypto as well as Giardia. The 0.2 micron filters can remove bacteria in addition to the aformentioned bugs, but are much slower to pump. I use the 1 micron myself.

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Just curious and wondering if anyone uses those sport bottle looking thingys. Seems like you just scoop and go and there is some sort of filter when you take a drink??

 

I have always used the drop plop fizz fizz routine with iodine. However, that sport bottle filter seems like a good route. Kinda pricey though.

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before i went on a trip this summer, my mom gave me an msr waterworks filter. debated on taking it b/c it was kind of heavy and i'm a wuss. Glad to have taken it and will definitey use it again this year. I'm still thinking about getting one of those little sports bottles for shorter outings.

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