Upcoming Glacier NP trip

I agree that Giardia is in most water sources you will find in the mountains. The concentrations of Giardia cysts are so low that it is highly unlikely you will get the unfortunate symptoms. Furthermore, the filtered water has the same concentration of Giardia cysts as the non-filtered water. It's really a great racket promoted by the outdoor equipment companies. They say here, use our filter and you won't get Giardia. So people buy the filter and low and behold they don't get sick. The filter must be doing its job right? The same goes for Iodine tablets. Iodine is notoriously ineffective for killing Giardia and tastes bad to boot.


If you are going on an extended hiking trip I thing the cost benefit analysis if going filtered v. unfiltered is clearly in favor of dumping the filter and carrying less water. In glacier you can easily get by with carrying one quart or even less. The reduced weight is really nice, especially when going uphill.

What is your source of information that the filters are ineffective? If tests have been done that show that the filters don't do anything useful, I'd like to see the results.

Filters are heavy, and if you are at altitude or doing long trips, they are unnecessary weight.


But to drink unpurified water in most places is risky. Glacier NP may be one exception, and there are others. But I iodine the hell out of most water now, and if possible warm it to about room temperature, as the iodine works faster and more effectively in warm water.


I feel strongly about this...once got very sick in the Himalaya and to have to defecate every 10 minutes, at altitude, for 2 days, and got a bug in Irian Jaya that made me want to just die.


So drop in the iodine.


A9s

I read this in a book called "Sierra Trout Guide" by Ralph Cutter. He cited the studies in this book.


I trusted the source for two reasons. The first was that the author gave very detailed and accurate information concerning the subject of fly fishing for trout in the Sierra back country and what you will need in the way of equipment. For this reason I also trusted his statement concerning filters and Iodine tablets.


The second reason is that I had never used any sort of water purification device before reading the above mentioned book and I've never been sick from drinking bad water, despite repeated trials. I've had to drink from some questionable water sources (mostly due to laziness and lack of planning). I'm still kicking.


Admittedly neither of these reasons are proof positive that water purification products are worthless. If they make you feel better then by all means use them. I also suspect that perhaps my long time addiction to Copenhagen chewing tobacco reduces the likelyhood of a bug gaining a foot hold in my intestines.

the new generation of filters are very lightweight and DO filter out giardia, and are not expensive.

a few years back i was drinking out of a high mountain stream in glacier national park and my companion gave me the spiel on giardia. i said look there are no beavers around here. low and behold a mile up the creek was a big beaver dam. but i got lucky.

One of my favorite camping/hiking spots in Colorado is the Lost Creek Wilderness. I used to drink out of Lost Creek, assuming that, because it's wilderness, it's safe. After I had been going there for several years, I found out about another road into the wilderness. After driving this route, I found out that one branch of Lost Creek has headwaters that are not in the wilderness, with lots of cows pastured along it it the summer, and a fairly large campground just outside the wilderness boundary. Cows can carry giardia. They also carry the pathogenic E. Coli strain that sometimes contaminates hamburger. I don't know for sure if that can be transmitted by water, but I don't really want to test it either. It pays to know what's upstream if you're drinking untreated water.