Gear Review - Water bottle, bladders and other small things

If I start off with benefits of keeping hydrated, I guess I will be preaching to the choir. Two things one needs to watch out for are, if you drink when you feel thirsty, have a headache you are already dehydrated, so keep drinking all the way on your hike. Your pee should not be yellow, if it is you need to drink plenty of water.

Another thing I  learnt is if you drink too much water at certain break points you tend to feel bloated. These break points are usually rest stops and you tend to drink at the end of the break (perhaps because you will put your bottle in the pack). This again is not advisable. You should sip water throughout the trek and at start of your break drink a mouthful.

With all this in mind I will talk about my entire hydration gear and how it works together.

My Gear

We will start off with review of the gear I have tried followed by what I ended up assembling. The gear we will talk about today is bottles, bladders, filters and UV sterilization pen's.

The Bottles

I have tried a number of things before I assembled my final kit. I started off with regular water bottles but realized I was polluting. I then moved to the north face sippers. They were however rather small with only 500 ml capacity and couldn't last me couple of hours.

I finally moved to the mother goddess Nalgene 32 oz bottle (along with easy sipper attachment because it spilled on me)

This worked well but I had to stop every time I wanted a sip because it was packed on my backpack and with bulky winter clothing it was a pain. The water also turned into a slush in cold. So in end I was dehydrated.

The bladders

I then moved to hydration bladder, tried both camelbak and platypus and sided with platypus because camelbak had that chemical rubbery, platypus comes with winter covers and bite valve cover.

The filters

Water purification is another concern that I have, it is not something you have to worry about in flowing rivers and streams of the Himalayas but every once in a while you encounter a lake.

The water filtration system I use is two stage. I use a pump style water filter for stage one with a ceramic filter which filters any protozoa, fungus or bacteria followed by a steripen to kill any virus.

I had planned to purchase a Katadyn water filter but the device was too large and heavy. I found Pure Easy mini filter to be a much better option.

Finally for stage two I use the SteriPen to kill any virus.

It should be noted that boiling water is the best way to purify it.

My Kit

With an understanding of the gear I have used I will list down what I carry.

I usually carry a 3L platypus with or without insulator depending upon climate and a byte valve protector. The whole thing is packed into my backpack hydration sleeve. I also carry one Nalgene bottle. It is a great thing to boil and store water. It also acts as a good hot water bottle for my sleeping bag.

I never need to use my water filter or steripen in Indian Himalayas.