Lose the Nalgene bottle

Wide mouth Nalgene bottles are pretty much the standard for many outdoor travelers. I get it, I have several.

Why are they popular?

• Good places to put on some favorite stickers

• Fairly indestructible

• Good for car camping, trips close to the car where weight is not an issue

• Pouring in hot water to warm up your sleeping bag on a cold night

• They can go with you on every trip, and over time, can even become your inseparable little adventure buddy.

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But, they have a few downsides, mainly cost and weight. An empty Nalgene bottle is 185 grams, and a new one will set you back about $10.

(Yes, Nalgene does make a so-called ultralight version, which reportedly weighs 106 grams for a 32 ounce bottle. That’s a big improvement, but those lightweight ones are hard to find; just about everyone seems to have the standard weight model.)

A better alternative? There are lots of options, but my favorite is the 20 ounce Gatorade bottle.

• Essentially free; it's re-purposed from yourself or someone else.

• Way more sturdy than most plastic bottles

• Can hold hot water, which is helpful for drying out socks/gloves, and making a hot water bottle to put in your sleeping bag

• Lightweight (only 36 grams)

• Recycle it without a second thought if the microbes in your bottle get especially scary

• Bottles like this are used by pretty much every every weight conscious long distance hiker

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But wait, you say, I love my CamelBak!  I must drink from a hose, so I can finish my hike FASTER!

• Think about it. Do you really need to “hike faster?”

• Read this Tip to see 10 reasons why water bladders “suck”.

Yes eagle-eye, I’m comparing a 20 ounce Gatorade bottle to a 32 ounce Nalgene. That's because the 20 ounce is my preferred smallish size. But the comparison math is easy. the Gatorade bottle is effectively 2/3 lighter.

• Nalgene: 180 grams weight / 32 ounce capacity = 5.6 grams of bottle to carry 1 ounce water.

• Gatorade: 35 grams weight / 20 ounce capacity = 1.8 grams of bottle to carry 1 ounce water.

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I like to keep it in a lightweight mesh pocket on my shoulder strap; I got it from this store on Etsy. Search Etsy for “backpack and water bottle holder”. They come in several different sizes.

image: https://www.etsy.com/listing/944154329/

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Need a big container for a really hot day or basecamp water storage? Check out the modern generation of water reservoirs. Here’s my favorite, the Hydrapak.

The equivalent three 1 quart Nalgene bottles are more than five times heavier than one Hydrapak! Cost is about the same as well. Downside, nowhere to put cool stickers. =^(

Note that this reservoir is only for water storage. It does not have a tube or a mouthpiece. There's probably some cool way to connect this to a lightweight water filter to make a gravity feed into another bottle. But that’s not my thing so I’ll let you figure out how to do that. :-)

Here's the Hydrapak in use.

• It has a sturdy screwtop that’s connected to the bottle so you can't lose it

• Two different handles, one on the top and one on the side

• Convenient places to clip a carabiner so you can open the top and let it dry upside down

Could this be the best free firestarter?

This tip is more for car camping or a home fireplace.  For a superb fire starter, go to the produce section of any supermarket, and ask the produce person for a dark brown waxed cardboard box or two.  (Or look around the back of the store and find a pile as shown below.)

These boxes are regular cardboard dipped in paraffin, so they can hold wet veggies like lettuce without falling apart. The boxes are free for the asking.

Tear the boxes into strips, and use them as starters for your next fire. They burn furiously for several minutes, are lightweight, mostly waterproof, and free. One box makes a LOT of fire starters!

Keep your water from freezing in a snow camp

When you're in a frozen environment like a Denali high camp, liquid water is precious. After you melt snow, preserve that water by burying your pots of water.

You need a pot of water, a stuff sack or large plastic bag that goes over the pot (this is essential to avoid frozen ice against the pot the next morning), four wands, and a shovel. Bury your pot about 10 inches below the snow’s surface and cover it with snow (if powder is not available, use the shovel to pulverize snow as much as possible). It is key not to leave any air pockets. Use the wands to locate it the next morning. Even if it’s 60 below, your water will not be frozen! This works with water bottles as well, but you might have to bury those a bit deeper.

More tips:

• If your water is in bottles, store those upside down so any ice, if it starts to form, will do so on the bottom, not the lid.

• To keep the cap from freezing to the bottle you can coat the threads of your bottle with vaseline or lip balm.

• If you have a platypus-type bottle, you can wrap the tube in foam insulation, and be sure to blow water back into the bladder after you take a sip so it won’t freeze in the tube. (Better yet, don't take a water bladder in the first place, they are prone to all kinds of problems when alpine climbing.)

• If the water bladder water line freezes, just put the line under your jacket next to your skin (not as bad as it sounds, really!)  Your body heat will melt the ice in a few minutes.

Get water on the go - 3 tips

Here are some tips for “water harvesting” on the move.

1 - If climbing or hiking across a snowfield, keep your water bottle easily accessible. Frequently add handfuls of snow to your water, without stopping. On a warm, sunny day, this snow will melt or form a drinkable slush — bring a straw and some Gatorade powder for a poor-man’s Slurpee.  (One more reason not to use a water bladder - you can't easily refill like this.)

When you grab or cut snow chunks to add to your water bottle, collect from the bottom edge of a snowfield or serac. This snow is heavily saturated with percolation and will add more water than the same snow volume gathered from lighter, fluffier snow. 

2) Water running down a rock face face in a broad, yet shallow, curtain can be hard to collect. Here’s 2 tricks.

A -  Carry a small length of aquarium tubing type hose; buy it any a decent hardware store or aquarium shop. Use it as a flexible straw to suck up water that you can't reach. (This is especially handy in desert areas, where water may be just a tiny trickle.)

B - Remove your jacket and long-sleeved shirt, and then spread and flatten your hand across the rock, giving the wet slab a chest-level “high-five.” The water will collect on your fingers and run down to your elbow in a stream; fill your bottle from this drippage point. (This last tip and image are from Climbing magazine.)

Face your tent door into the breeze to avoid bugs

When it’s breezy, mosquitoes will congregate on the lee side of objects to avoid being blown away. So pitch your tent door into the breeze. You’ll be able to enter without bringing the swarm in with you.

Ridgelines often have more wind than hollows or valleys. If it's really buggy, try to camp on a ridgeline if you can.

Face the door of your tent toward an oncoming breeze to help avoid mosquitoes.