Who else

[DirtyHarry]

Drinks out of mountain streams without treating it?

 

I do. Its good.

[KaskadskyjKozak]

I have. The last time was coming off a late climb in Boston Basin. I was dehydrated and it was dark. I had tablets but no pump, said f**k it and downed 2 liters straight out of a rivulet flowing over some slabs. That hit the spot.

[Winter]

All the time. Probably not a good idea, but if its above tree line and I just have the right feeling I'll go for it. I guess it depends how thirsty I am. Drank water off the Interglacier coming off Lib Ridge. Yech!

[KaskadskyjKozak]

I've seen people drink right out of Pebble Creek...

 

And then I've seen toilet trouts lying in the snow a few hundred feet higher up on the Muir snowfield...

[DirtyHarry]

I've imbibed water from streams and creeks mostly alpine, but not always, all over the Cascades. Yum.

 

Anyone gotten sick?

[Snafflehunter]

I have only filtered my water two times in the twenty years I've been climbing in the N Cascades. I only used the filter those two times because the water source was a pond and my partner happened to have a filter.

 

I have been sick once from bad water (still not sure what it was, because I didn't go to the doctor) but do believe it was worth it to not have to carry a filter for 20 years.

 

I believe filters are a serious waste of weight. That's just my opinion though, and you know how those are.

 

 

[Billygoat]

I haven't become sick. I treat (been using the grapeseed extract lately ), filter, or boil about 75% of the time. kinda like avalanche terrain: If it looks bad, don't go there.

[Bogen]

Every opportunity I get. Go out of my way for it.

[ken4ord]

I haven't treated my water for year now, yet to get sick. In Africa, I think I will take a different approach.

[Dru]

I don't and I don't get sick, but you should treat it anyways. Also smoking weed is bad for your lungs and driving too fast increases the chance of traffic fatalities. Understand? Oh yes always wear helmet even when climbing indoors.

[cj001f]

I treat my water. I've had Chiguella and Dysentary before. Intestinal Parasites are not fun, and not something I want to repeat.

[chirp]

Treat mine all the time unless its coming directly from the ground.

 

On a side note, some of the nastiest pure water I have ever had came from the Plateau at the head of Willis creek just outside of Zion NP. I am assuming it was so lime or mineral rich as it tasted heavy and thick, almost un palatable but still clear and pure. This was in the caprock at the top of the Zion formations, Carmel Limestone.

[sk]

Drinks out of mountain streams without treating it?

 

I do. Its good.

i don't even have to drink out of a stream to get sick. I got a realy nasty intestinal virus last spring. the docs have not iedea what it was or where i could have gotten it. I don;t think my intestines will ever be quite the same. I am just so fricking thankful I am better than i was. I will be treating or boiling or using a filter when ever i go back country. I physicly can't aford not to.

[Stemalot]

I never treat my water. I was in Taiwan for a mouth and I didn't treat water there either. I am still alive.

[Skeezix]

I took my last Cipro tablet this morning. Had an intestinal bacteria. LiquiPoop for 6 days. I've had Giardia twice over the years. Giardia never gave me diarhea. Instead, I just have frequent bm's, a constant vague feeling of impending nausea, and depression... which goes away immediately after I take antibiotics and get rid of it. But I still drink mountain water --selectively.

[AlpineK]

I've used filters when traveling with filter owners. I don't own one and thus don't use one. I've never had a problem.

 

I am selective on where I'll drink from, but my selectivity goes down with thirst.

[icegirl]

same. I only just bought a filter this summer when I decided to go camping with the dogs in some lower elevation areas and was afraid I might run out of water that I brought along.. I've been selectively drinkin' stream water without doing anything to it for 20+ years now and have not gotten sick. I do not have an iron gut by any means, the food at Harborview turns my stomach ever few weeks and I can't eat cooked bell peppers....

[nalo]

can't eat cooked bell peppers? weird...

[icegirl]

yeah, tell me about it.... but what I was trying to say is that it's not like NOTHING makes me ill... maybe a bit too much information.

[Crack]

i've peeed in a few

[tread_tramp]

I was quite dehydrated coming off the North Face of Index after bivying on the summit and guzzled my fill from Lake Serene. I will normally filter water from outdoors but was lucky to suffer no ill effects from that lapse.

[dlofgren]

I remember asking the proprietors of a local climbing/hiking shop re. the giardia danger around Kennedy Hot Springs. "Big time. Lots of reports of people getting sick with it." they said. "You gotta have a filter!"

Got lost trying to find the trailhead; stopped to ask some Forest Service workers for directions, and asked them about giardia. They'd never heard of it. "Been drinkin' outta these cricks fer yeers, sonny."

Finally reached Kennedy Hot Springs, and asked the resident ranger about the epidemic of giardia that she was dealing with. She looked a little puzzled and said she hadn't heard of anyone getting sick from the water.

 

A friend of mine is a ranger at Rainier; never filters anything, there or anyplace else.

 

On the other hand, my daughter imbibed giardia from a small town water system in Southern Oregon a couple years ago; vomited for 24 hours. Ugly time.

Also remember dipping my cup into a small waterfall that looked clean, and noticed a bunch of little wiggly things when I brought it to my lips.

 

I filter, just to be sure.

[Ireneo_Funes]

I filter when I'm taking water from a lake or pond. Otherwise I usually don't bother, unless it's an area that sees a lot of traffic.

[John Frieh]

I treat my water. I've had Chiguella and Dysentary before. Intestinal Parasites are not fun, and not something I want to repeat.

 

werd werd werd. Having giardia while doing a glacier traverse is not fun. A friend of mine had giardia bad on one course... at least once a day he would yell "zero" and proceed to attempt to get out of his glacier rig in under a minute to avoid blowing twinkes inside his goretex. Truly a comical event to witness...

 

And the old adage goes: take a chance... shit your pants. A particular scene from this movie comes to mind:

[KaskadskyjKozak]

werd werd werd. Having giardia while doing a glacier traverse is not fun. A friend of mine had giardia bad on one course... at least once a day he would yell "zero" and proceed to attempt to get out of his glacier rig in under a minute to avoid blowing twinkes inside his goretex. Truly a comical event to witness...

 

I thought Giardia took several days (if not a week or two) to develop. Your friend must have drank the tainted water prior to that trip, or maybe it was not Giardia...