Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Water filters

I was at REI last night, looking to buy a water filter and was a bit overwhelmed by the choices. I want a simple, easy to use filter for longer day hikes (like Whitney) to cut down on the weight of multiple water bottles. Any input/suggestions would be most welcomed!

I found filters to be bulky and slow so I switched to iodine. It works in 30 minutes and the after pill eliminates the taste.

We just did the whole Muir Trail without a filter. We're all fine. Drink smart, don't carry a filter.

We did have a few Aquamira pills for backup in case we would have had to grab water from a suspect source, but never had to use one.

Read this and think about it

This whole conversation "to use or not to use a filter -- that is the question" has been a perennial one on every forum I have perused. One of my favorite commentaries has been from a dear friend and constant back packing buddy, so I will share for your amusement/pondering.

Quote:

"Let's see, you've just slogged up the switchbacks out of Hetch Hetchy in late July with the temp at about 95-100 degrees, you've consumed the three liters of liquid you've hauled along and are now parched, hot, and ready to kill for a drink of water so you:

A: Stop at the never dry little stream about 5 minutes up the trail toward Bee Hive past the Eleanor Road junction where you fill your three empty bottles and drop the appropriate little pills into each of them and then settle down for the 30-60 minute wait needed for them to kill everything in the water before you settle down to a long drink of tepid swimming pool water that's full of dead bugs.

OR

B: Break out the PUR Hiker and inside of one minute quaff down, with water spilling out the side of your mouth and drenching your shirt, your fill of 56 degree clear mighty fine H2O devoid of all particulate matter and all things that can self-propel through water."

Bee

Here's the thread from the water filter debate back in March:   Filter question

That link is to a point in the middle where you can find a bunch of references, but the entire thread is good to read.

Fishmonger, will you be posting the highlights of your trip?

Fishmonger,I was wondering what happen when I saw that you bailed after SB. I hope that Claire is over whatever she had.

(SB = South Bound)

Only place I have ever used them is within the Whitney Zone, as far as the Sierra's go. Never been sick.

yeah, she's fine - actually, she was fine the day after we got off the mountain. No idea what it was. She complained once about not feeling well after Glen Pass, then did a 20 mile day over Forester, so we thought it was all good, but the day before Whitney, while sitting around and doing nothing, she felt real sick. Maybe the heat from the sun got to her (we were baking in our tent for a full afternoon at Guitar Lake while it was raining and thundering just east of us). The fever was gone in the morning.

Sick at Guitar Lake

24 hours later - enjoying one of Doug Sr.'s masterpieces

36 hours later, once we decided to abort the yo-yo




full photo gallery is up at the web site (link below), while the video hasn't even been captured yet and will take a while. I didn't shoot a lot of video, maybe 3 1/2 hours.

Highlights will take a bit - need to digest what happened first.

According to the GPS, we walked 288.6 miles and climbed 40119 feet. Based on that, I say the Muir Trail is actually much longer than 211 miles.

Thats great that she's fine. I posted before I flipped over to your site to take a look. Looks like you had fun though.

I am so looking forward to doing it again after 25yrs.

I have to say (I am a Newby to this one)that this is the best board that I have come across. I'll see you all in Sept.

If the water is clear and not cloudy (like in the Whitney area), use a Steripen. It is light, and works in seconds.

I like the Steripen. If using regular batteries bring an extra set, or use the rechargeable NIMH batteries. The Steripen uses a lot of battery power.

I also use a Steripen and have for several years. I find the battery time to be sufficient, especially given the light-weight and time advantage. Unfortunately the rechargeable batteries serve the environment but do not last as long in the Steripen.

I carry iodine as a back-up in case the Steripen malfunctions, which has not happened yet but it is an electrical device so there is always that chance. (Unlike a filter which has a duck tape option.)

If you are looking for a traditional filter I am actually planning on selling mine--just PM me.

I like the Katadyn Hiker.

When I use a filter it's the MSR Hyperflow. It's relatively small and weights about 10oz however after a few uses the filter gets hard to pump even after back flushing. YMMV.

-Rudy

Rochonchis,

Were you aware that the MSR Hyperflow was recalled. I tried to buy one last winter at REI and they had been removed from the shelves. By April they were back on the shelf and whatever the problem was had been supposedly fixed. I have not used mine that much, but do not recall any problems. Did you try trouble shooting? I would take it back and see if you could get a new one or have this one fixed.

The Hyperflow was re-done, but per the folks at Backpacking Light, even the newer version has major slowing problems. I had one last year that failed after about 4 days in the Sierra - wouldn't trust it myself. Barbara

My Hyperflow is in the trash can at VVR.

Charlie, thanks for the information. Honestly I looked into the issue a little but haven't bothered much with the filter. This season I've been careful about my water sources so I just skip it, stays home really.

I did find a review at backpackinglight.com that mentions some details about the filter cartridge replacement. I called today and MSR is going to send a new one. I'll give it a try but as others have stated the replacement doesn't help much, I won't get my hopes up.

The link to the BPL review is below in case anyone wants to read it.

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/...dge_review.html

-Rudy