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I finally quit treating water on trips after a guy near Mount Whitney drank straight from a stream for 20 years
Everyone on the forums says always filter, but after talking to a 62 year old ranger near Mount Whitney last August who has been drinking straight from high alpine streams for two decades with zero issues, I started wondering if we are all just scaring ourselves into carrying extra weight, so has anyone else been skipping the filter on high elevation routes?
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wadebailey18d ago
Seems like the risk gets way overblown for high alpine stuff. That ranger has 20 years on all of us and he's still kicking. The scary stories you hear are usually from low elevation beaver ponds and cow pastures, not a snowmelt stream at 11,000 feet.
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young.river18d ago
Didn't a study find most cases happen below 8,000 feet, @wadebailey?
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