Gear

I'm kitting myself out for some long distance walks. I want to be able to collect and treat water to make it totally safe for consumption while on the walk. I am looking for an easy to maintain lighweight filter but cannot decide which to go with. Do I need to worry about virus infection if I'm in the UK? If so then whats the best way to get rid of these nasties? I thought of boiling but then that will use lots of gas and seems to make using a filter a bit pointless. At the moment I'm leaning towards buying the msr miniworks but that brings me back to the virus question. I'd really appreciate some suggestions regarding this.

I want to gather my own water as I plan to stay away from civilization as much as possible and don't want to be loaded down with a massive amount of water.

I haven't used it myself, but I bought one of these

http://www.outdoorsmagic.com/news/article/mps/UAN/2880/v/1/sp/

for my stepson who's currently travelling round Thailand after a couple of months in India, and he said it works well. Won't filter a great amount though... Might be an idea to use for drinking water and just use tablets for cooking water?

I have drunk from many uk streams etc without purifying/ boiling but this is probably not to be recomended although I personally have had no side affects -hf ;e nbtr;h \[hk[hyherl; ;, :-)

Always try to collect water from fast running streams and try to walk to the source when possible to ensure there isn't a dead sheep etc above where you collect the water. This is easy in winter as there is usually plenty of fast running streams in the hills.

Boiling water is probably the safest way to kill all nasties but chemical polutants may not be removed. In the winter boiling is a good option as you can fill your water containers with the boiled water before you go to sleep and you have an instant hot water bottle and at least the energy/gas is not wasted.

If using chemical purifiers such as chlorine/ iodine they can be affected by temperature so check to see the standing time and adjust as required. This will apply to filters using chemicals too. You could then filter the water through a 'katadyn' etc to remove some or all of the chlorine taste.

Try to filter very dirty water through a couple of pairs of clean socks etc(anything similar will do - coffee filters etc) (fill with sand if possible but flush through first if you are using beach sand because of the salt). This will prolong the life of the expensive filter that you then use to purify the water further, or you could boil it. You can of course purchase a 'mill bank' bag filter to remove sediment etc rather than improvise yourself.

I would probably go for one of the higher volume Katadyn filters If I was going to get another one. I had small 'military style' emergency water prurifier pump that had and active (iodine) filter. It was slow if you wanted to produce lots of water and it 'tainted the water. You may not be able to get the bottle style of filter filled up easily in some very shallow streams or cracks etc. In the hills you often hear water under your feet but you cannot see it so the ability to make/find a small hole you can feed your filter tube into may prove handy.

good luck

I use a Katadyn Hiker filter, they only weigh 310g and just in case I pack inside its stuff sack a small bottle of Iodine droplets. The Hiker is a filter and purifier and comes with excellent attachments to make it easy to fill most water carriers.

I use my Hiker along with a 2 litre Hoser Platypus and a small 23g 1ltr Platypus Bottle so for less than half a kilo you can have all the filter and purification you need and carry up to 3 litres of water.

I'll be honest I've only used it twice but when I have I've been really happy with it as its so easy to use and as I don't use it except in really bad situations then I love that its small and lightweight and sits at the bottom of my pack.

Hayden's advice about sourcing your water is sensible. I never used to bother with any water purification in the mountains but for the last few years my approach has been to take a Katadyn Mini filter. Pros - not too expensive, pretty light (250g) so I actually bother to take it! Cons - the filter rate, it can take 100 or more pumps to produce a litre so your arms can get tired! It's ok for solo and maybe duo use but any larger group than that I'd want something bigger.

I often only filter the water I'm going to drink directly. Anything for cooking or hot drinks I don't bother as it'll be boiled anyway. As a precaution in that case I'd aim to have separate containers kept exclusively for filtered / non-filtered (Platypus bottles are light and packable).

Apart from that I've always carried some chemical treatment (currently Aquamira) but in over 25 years of mountain backpacking I've never used it.

So far that's worked for me - touch wood!

Matt you still blaming those right arm muscles on that filter!? ;-)

No, I use my left!!!
;-)


<And my sleeping bag has no zip!>

Ha Ha Ha Ewww Too much information but know what you mean about the Zip I've got a ME Dewline and have same problem!

Take a look at Aquamira- kills E coli,hepatitus A,poliovirus,giardia and cryptosporidium.Was £11 from cotswold outdoor.Treats 120 litres from two small bottles total weight about 80g.I have used it a lot and never had any problems

AquaPure water bottle. It's a normal plastic bike bottle with micro filter and iodine thingy. Used with no ill effects in Peru and Cuba.

Get a good old "as used by the military" Millbank bag for filtering from these people:
http://www.survivalschool.co.uk/Shop2005.htm

I'm currently undergoing the same decision and have used and been recommended the Travel Well Trekker