14ers.com

Jon Frohlich wrote:

somethingrandom wrote: Not to sound like an ass, but I cant imagine too many places to get water to filter at 14k around here... Sure, in the winter you can boil your water but you said a filter. Are you filtering snow or boiling rock in the summer?

Depends on the peak. You're not going to find anything at 14k certainly but around 11-12.5k on quite a few peaks you can. I wished I'd carried my filter on the Wilsons traverse. It was hot coming down Mt. Wilson and I ran out long before getting back to Navajo Lake. It's not necessarily as bad of an idea as it sounds.

Filtering is possible on some, others no above a certain point. I always have iodine for back up, and have used it on a few longer days. Filtering takes time, time better spent when at camp. When I leave for the summit, I don’t want to sit and filter for the sake of saving that amount of weight.

somethingrandom wrote: That said, another member and I were talking about taking a normal day pack out and ensuring we could make it through a night on the bare minimum equipment. I am actually quite looking forward to this....

Not sure I understand so I'll ask. Are you going to go out with your normal kit, then stay overnight?
I once went light on gear into Chicago Basin during the summer so I could carry more beer. I slept in a bivy, emergency blanket, some underlayers, a wool sweater, and soft shell.
I survived, but didn't sleep much. It was miserable.
I recommend it, as long as you are somewhere you can walk out of if it goes bad or have a friend with a tent. Weather was perfect that weekend. If it had rained, I'd have crawled into my friends tent in a hurry.

Jon Frohlich wrote:Depends on the peak. You're not going to find anything at 14k certainly but around 11-12.5k on quite a few peaks you can. I wished I'd carried my filter on the Wilsons traverse. It was hot coming down Mt. Wilson and I ran out long before getting back to Navajo Lake. It's not necessarily as bad of an idea as it sounds.

Having not done these I can not comment but will say that given the situation, I will walk before stopping to filter water. I will have to be damn desperate and in good supply of decent consumable resources to do so...

MountainHiker wrote:Filtering is possible on some, others no above a certain point. I always have iodine for back up, and have used it on a few longer days. Filtering takes time, time better spent when at camp. When I leave for the summit, I don’t want to sit and filter for the sake of saving that amount of weight.

I too carry iodine tabs. Between finding a water source, filtering/boiling it for consumption, and then expecting to carry on, I do not necessarily enough cause to keep me from carrying an extra 2L or so.

cheeseburglar wrote:Not sure I understand so I'll ask. Are you going to go out with your normal kit, then stay overnight?
I once went light on gear into Chicago Basin during the summer so I could carry more beer. I slept in a bivy, emergency blanket, some underlayers, a wool sweater, and soft shell.
I survived, but didn't sleep much. It was miserable.
I recommend it, as long as you are somewhere you can walk out of if it goes bad or have a friend with a tent. Weather was perfect that weekend. If it had rained, I'd have crawled into my friends tent in a hurry.

Yes, go out with a normal day kit and survive on it with a car/supplies within reasonable reach in the event of a "real" emergency. While I will not go light to carry beer, I go light because it could quite possibly take me a good solid amount of time to meander my way up a good 14er, and the lighter I am summitting the better. I normally go out for a "cool" hike with a base layer, something in the middle, and a shell. I will wear a base pant and a shell. My pack will include a litre of water for each 2k vertical I plan to go and 1L emergency supply. I have my little foil bivy, a headlamp and extra batteries, chemical warmers, and about 4000 calories of snacks (I eat a s. load). I will carry a jetboil and one small canister of fuel on this one as I am beginning to do so on winter day hikes, "just in case" along with the general college student staple of Ramen Noodles. Beyond that, my gloves, beanie, and normal cool weather hiking gear will go.

It may suck.... In fact, I want it to suck far more than I could ever imagine because the whole idea is to know that when I am really f'ed, I can survive for the night and keep moving.

If anyone wants to do this with us, let me know but we will be doing it soon.

somethingrandom wrote:It may suck.... In fact, I want it to suck far more than I could ever imagine because the whole idea is to know that when I am really f'ed, I can survive for the night and keep moving.

I did a 3-day, twenty-eight mile, 10,000'+ of elevation hike to the top of Pikes Peak a few years ago, beginning at the LSU camp near Fort Carson, and with the first night spent on Mount Rosa and the second at Mountain View, on the side of Pikes. It was to commemorate Zebulon Pike's attempt on that peak in 1806.

Because of a shared gear mix-up, I had no tent. I *did* have an Exped pad and a sleeping bag to sleep on, and I wrapped myself up burrito-style, in a borrowed tent flye. It was incredibly cold and windy on Mount Rosa but I slept like a rock. The biggest problem was tracking down all my stuff that had blown away in the night - it had come out of the Hefty bag I stuffed it in and was scattered all over the mountain. This was late November, and there was snow, so I just had to be careful not to set up any of my down stuff in it.

Since then, I've slept out in the open air a bunch of times, with just a pad and a bag. The big issues are wind and precipitation, but as long as you have a way to stay warm and dry, I think you'll be fine.