High Sierra Topix

Rlown wrote:
1) pump (me) hiker pro

Good one Russ.

The gravity filter did look good, used one several years back, not this newer
one. If I hiked with larger groups it would be the way to go, but being solo
the steripen is the most convenient and practical for my usage.

Still using my old MSR pump (25+- years old) - doesn't look much different from the newer model - guess it's doing its job - no parasites yet - that I know of - but looking to lighten up - so am considering the SteriPEN

Just an update. I changed out my 8 liter gravity filter with an ultra light sea to summit 13 liter bag, and then filtered water into the 8 liter sea to summit ultra light (2 oz) waterproof bag as a bucket with a larger hose connected to the bottom for high flow. One trip to the stream gave us enough water for cooking dinner and breakfast for seven. We always had a bag of clean water hanging around for use. Hung the 13 liter bag from a tree branch, and then attached a cord to that same branch for the bucket below. This way the bags are always the perfect distance from each other for filtering.

overheadx2 wrote:One trip to the stream gave us enough water for cooking dinner and breakfast for seven.

Is this in the Sierra? If so I'm curious, why bother to filter water for cooking?

ditto anywhere. don't filter water you're gonna boil.

Rlown wrote:
ditto anywhere. don't filter water you're gonna boil.

Agreed, total waste of time and especially fuel.

longri wrote:

overheadx2 wrote:One trip to the stream gave us enough water for cooking dinner and breakfast for seven.

Is this in the Sierra? If so I'm curious, why bother to filter water for cooking?

I filter water before putting it on the stove so I don't have to boil - just heat the water to the desired temp for drinking. If heating to rehydrate something, I boil it so don't filter it. The difference may be miniscule in terms of fuel efficiency but sometimes that matters.

To be honest, I always thought that water needed to be boiled for ten min to be safe. Don't know where I got that from, but have always filtered water that wasn't going to go past a light boil. Usually I barely get a boil going for oatmeal, coffee, tea or couscous, so have always filtered. Thanks for the input.

I just looked at the wilderness medicine site, and it stated that effective water treatment with boiling is 1 min for every thousand feet of elevation. That would put the boiling time at 10 min for most trips. That seems very fuel inefficient. Is that time different for cleaner Sierra water? Phil

overheadx2 wrote:I just looked at the wilderness medicine site, and it stated that effective water treatment with boiling is 1 min for every thousand feet of elevation. That would put the boiling time at 10 min for most trips. That seems very fuel inefficient. Is that time different for cleaner Sierra water? Phil

That's an older, conservative recommendation.

Pasteurization at 89°C takes only 1 second. This corresponds to the boiling temperature of water at an alititude of about 11,000 feet. There is a time-temperature curve for killing water-borne pathogens and the time it takes to actually heat the water to boiling should be included in this analysis. The bottom line is that at any Sierra elevation, simply achieving a boil is sufficient.

Wilderness Medical Society Practice Guidelines: For Wilderness Emergency Care
William W. Forgey
2006

Methods of Water Disinfection

Heat

As in pasteurization, temperatures above 160°F (70°C) kill all enteric pathogens within thirty minutes, and 185°F (85°C) is effective within a few minutes. Thus, disinfection occurs during the time required to heat water from 140°F (60°C) to boiling temperature, so any water brought to a boil, even at high altitudes, is safe.