JetBoil Sol Ti
Greetings Hikers,
I have a rather long and unique history with the Jetboil systems – those who have followed my articles for any length of time know some of the good and the bad – but there is one thing about the JetBoil Sol Ti that keeps haunting me: I just really love this thing!
Now sure, talking about something like the JetBoil Sol Ti might seem totally out of place on a website that tends to focus on SUL/XUL hiking, but hopefully over the last few years I have been able to get across the point that a hiker can carry one or two “heavy” or “luxury” pieces of gear and still be a SUL hiker (BPW sub 5lbs/ 2.3kg.)
More and more one of mine has been the JetBoil Sol Ti, and here is why:
JetBoil Sol Ti. 22 Boils. 16oz. Medium heat.
Using 16 oz of water, enough for a meal and coffee, I am able to get 22 uses out of a single 100g JetBoil JetPower canister. I am no great math genius like some of the guys at BPL who can figure out at what point in a long distance hike, or even a weekend hike, a certain weight of something becomes viable or nonviable, but from a few hundred days spent on the trail over the last few years, over 500 at this point, it would seem to me that if I can go 11 days and not have to worry about whether I am going to run out of fuel, well that is a very nice thing. And, if I decide to have a cold breakfast every couple of days I could easily extend that one canister of fuel well into the two week duration. On an ounce-by-ounce comparison, even my beloved esbit weights more at those durations of being on-trail.
Overall System Weight:
The issue, of course, is the weight of the rest of the system – the pot, the sleeve, the lid, the stove.
There are ways to lighten up things a small amount, here are some of what I have done to lighten up the overall weight of my JetBoil Sol Ti system:
(Full disclaimer: modification of MY/YOUR Jetboil may result in void of warranty – and the VP of Jetboil has already tried once to scare-tactic me once to not talk about these kind of modifications to the JetBoil stove system — but what I do with gear I BUY is MY right – and my responsibility should things go bad! Same goes for you!)
First, I took off the orange thingie (the orange stove stand, that contains the piezoelectric igniter) – it was 20.31 grams (0.7164 oz) on my calibrated scale. You can see photographs of this modification that I posted on my facebook page (keep up with my thoughts and adventures on my HikeLighter facebook page.)
The weight of a mini-bic, which most of us already carry, is usually around 12 grams NEW, and will last way longer and is way more reliable than one of those stupid piezo igniters, so it just made sense to pull out the piezo igniter and the orange stand. The pot is a weeebit unstable without the orange stove stand, but to test it I let my pot sit with the stove going full-blast with a full pot of water to see if it would tip over and it never did. Proof enough for me - but remember my disclaimer statement above.
Next I proceeded to cut off the stupid black “handle” (which JetBoil does not want us to call a ‘handle’ because it is not stable enough) — interesting side note: the new version of the JetBoil Sol Ti now has two velcro straps that go on the inside of the silver cozy, which I suspect was done to try to give some rigidity to the “handle”, for those people who just naturally use the handle as, well, a handle. Once I had the velcro and black ‘handle’ removed the cozy came in at 19.23 grams (0.678 oz). So I ended up cutting off, literally, an additional 7.93 grams (0.279 oz) of weight. I know a lot of hikers have cut their cozy height to about half of what it is to try to save a few extra grams, but I have big hands so I like having the whole cozy there. Regarding the new cozy… it seems far in-superior to the previous version of the JetBoil Sol Ti cozy. I am thinking it is thinner material. It gets waaaay hotter than what I remember the original cozy getting. Could just be bad memories from my previous one.
The lid appears to be identical to the previous one, so nothing there to do to try to save weight, same goes for the orange canister stand. I did discover that the lid of the 550ml pot that LiteTrail sales fits perfectly onto the top of the Sol Ti – but it does not stay attached like the plastic lid.
Final Specs:
Before all the modifications the Total Stove Weight was 258 grams (9.100 ounces)
In removing the orange stove stand and the modifications to the cozy….
I was able to reduce the Total Stove Weight by 27.93 grams (0.985 ounces).
This now puts the Total Stove Weight at 229 grams (8.077 ounces) – that is the stove, the pot, the cozy and the lid.
[give or take a gram here or there]
Improvements I Will Still Like To See:
There are a few things I would like to see from JetBoil in a 3rdGen release.
Perhaps make a “short” version. Yes this would mean it could no longer “all fit in the pot” but I would be willing to suffer not having the canister inside of the pot, in exchange for a pot that is only 16oz in size. Given the fact that almost all the popular “prepackaged meals” these days only need 16oz or less of hot water, it just seems like it would make sense. Being somebody that makes most of my own meals now, I usually only need around 12 ounces (355 ml) of water for a meal, plus whatever for a warm drink if I want one. At 27 oz (0.8 Liter) of capacity, there is just no way I could use an entire pot of hot water – except maybe in the winter time boiling down snow(??) but for that, the MSR Reactor is the better way to go. With the pot being the heaviest part of the setup, a “short” Sol Ti pot would be an awesome thing! JetBoil went and made that humongous “Sumo” which holds like 60 ounces of water, so maybe now they could go in the other direction! All I am saying is that it would be nice if they could do a sub 5 ounce pot.
Bring back the old sleeve. It was better at keeping your hands from burning. Yeah, it slid off at times (solved by the velcro on the Gen2) but at least it seemed to be less likely to get your fingers burning hot.
Same two complaints with the lid I have always had: first is that it is heavier than it needs to be, make a new mold and use less material and bring down the weight of it. Second, maybe actually use a little more material along the bottom of it so it stays attached to the pot a bit better. I hate heavy lids, but if a lid can actually do its job really well – and that includes staying attached – the weight I am willing to accept.
It would be interesting to know if JetBoil ever considered, or tried, to switch out the orange plastic part with some titanium or aluminum. It might be heavier, or it might be lighter, not really sure. But if they could make it lighter that would mean I would not have to rip the thing off. 20.31 grams (0.7164 oz) just for that orange plastic thing seems overly heavy.
The Still Unanswered Question:
The question still exists… is an 8 ounce cook kit really the best option out there, when we in the SUL/XUL world have sub three ounce cook kits?
Well, my answer to that is: there are certain times, on certain trails, on certain hikes, where yes, a heavier and more efficient pot can make logistical sense. They are few and far between, but such situations do exist.
And, to be honest, having some water hot enough for a nice cup of tea and a meal, in under 90 seconds, is kind of nice!
I was the first person on the internet to review the JetBoil Sol Ti when it was first released. At that point in time I gave it a 3 out of 5 rating. After having had that first one fail on me, waiting a year for JetBoil to fix the issues, and me buying another one and using it for the last year or so, I am ready to give the JetBoil Sol Ti a 4 out of 5 rating – once the modifications I have done it have been done. A “short” version of a pot will probably lead me to give it a 5 out of 5 rating.
So after all is said and done regarding modifications I have done, I have ended up with a 229 grams (8.077 ounce) cook system that can provide me over a week of two hot meals a day, or well over two weeks of one hot meal a day – on a single canister of fuel.
While time is not always a factor when hiking, if you have been pounding out 30 or 40 mile days for days on end, sometimes sitting around waiting 8 or 10 minutes for your water to be ready is a really nice thing, and other times it is not. HYOH on this issue. But what is really nice, like, really really nice, is when I am in the middle of my day, or out on a day hike with some friends, and the desire for a hot cup of tea or coffee hits me – being able to pull off my backpack, pull out the JetBoil, assembly it, heat up water, make the tea or coffee, put the system back together, and be back on the trail, all in under three minutes – well, that is just a nice thing. Sometimes, when it is getting close to dark and I still have a few more miles, I can do a quick stop, heat up water, put the water into a food bag, get back onto the trail (all in under 3 or 4 minutes) and have it ready to eat at soon as I reach a good spot to setup for the night. Of all the cook systems I have tried, and that has been a lot, nothing has been easier or quicker to perform those type of situations. Does this justify going out with an 8 ounce system rather than a 2 ounce system – meh.
Perhaps, just perhaps, it all goes back to having those one or two “luxury” items that most long distance hikers realize is what makes pounding the miles day after day worth it. There is still something to be said to doing it the Lint way (10,000+ miles of wood burning via a bushbuddy) and there is still something to doing it the way I have done it for a couple of seasons (zelph 2cup flat bottom+esbit tray) so I am by no means saying I have become a JetBoil convert. But as I said above: there are certain times, on certain trails, on certain hikes, where the answer is just a ‘yes’ – and when those times arise, the JetBoil Sol Ti is the stove I have been taking.
Photos For Those Who Enjoy These Type Of Things:
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+John Abela
HikeLighter.Com
In accordance of USA Federal Trade Commission 16 CFR, Part 255: I hereby declare that the products mentioned within the content of this article were not supplied to me in exchange for services.
LiteTrail Titanium Solid Fuel Cook System – Followup
Greetings hikers,
About a month ago I posted an article introducing the 2013 version of the LiteTrail Titanium Solid Fuel Cook System and over the last few weeks I have had a fair number of folks contacting me wanting to know my follow-up thoughts on it, after having put some trail miles onto the system.
My thoughts on the system at this point are that it is a great all-in-one-purchase setup for esbit users! There are ways that a slightly lighter system could be put together, but it would involve purchases from multiple companies, and that means additional shipping fees and your own time, and it would probably just not be worth it for the average hiker. I think as it stands right now, the LiteTrail Titanium Solid Fuel Cook System is the best all-in-one-purchase esbit system that I have come across.
The Cookpot:
The cookpot itself has proven to be awesome for my style of trail cooking. My previous Ti 600ml pot was 75 grams and this setup is 72 grams – and 54.71 grams by ditching the lid, which makes it a sub 2 ounce Ti pot!
Two factors with all pots… the pot itself and the lid for the pot.
The pot itself is wonderful. One of the issues I have had with my 600ml pot was I could not get a ziplock bag to fit into it. This 550ml pot holds a lunch/dinner size bag just perfect (ref: this photo) so that makes me happy. The pot fits on every pot stand I have put it onto. The handles are a good size, even with my large hands. The rolled lip on the top of the pot is good. The pot does have some flex to it – being a thin-walled cookpot – but you really and intentionally have to give it a good squeeze to get it to flex.
The lid is a good lid, but I have since switched it out to one I made myself out of a sheet of 0.005 inch thick titanium foil. As I see it, if a lid does not actually stay attached to a pot, its pretty much serves no real purpose beyond helping with the convection of heating up water, and any old thing might as well be used… aluminium foil for example – just something to help trap in the heat. Now, if you can get a pot with a lid that actually stays attached to the pot (thinking along the lines of the old snowpeak pasta pot and lid – now that was how a pot and lid should work!) that is an awesome thing and the weight can be worth it. But at 17.33 grams (0.611 ounces) just for the lid, I could not justify it. Some things I did like about the lid: the vent holes (I wish more companies would add a lot more vent holes, there are three on this lid… add another row of three, or preferably four, on the other side of the lid, would be really nice), and interestingly, the lid fits perfectly onto the top of a Jetboil Sol Ti, so I have now swapped out my Jetboil Sol Ti plastic lid with this one, and saved two grams off the weight of the JetBoil setup – and I would rather have a Ti lid than a plastic lid any day of the week.
I am not saying the cookpot setup it is not worth buying because of the lid, you should buy this pot if you need something in the 300ml (cup size) up to the 600ml pot size, or if you are a 600ml cookpot user and want to save a few grams, regardless of whether you plan to use the included lid or swap it out, the pot itself really is that good.
The Windscreen:
The windscreen worked out pretty well. I had a few times in really strong wind that I could tell it was suffering because of the low height of the windscreen, but this is unavoidable because the windscreen is cut to size to be able to fit into the pot. There is a nice cut-out for where the cookpot handles are at. It has vent holes around 50% of the bottom of the screen – good size ones too, considering that esbit requires a fair amount of air to really reach peak heat levels.
Durability of it might be an issue over the long run. I have around 15 to 18 days of use with it and it is already suffering a few hard wrinkles. I think they were caused by me stuffing the rest of the cook kit into the pot. To compare: I have well over two hundred trail days using the Suluk46 Ti Windscreen (disclaimer: Suluk46 is a sponsor of mine) and it has not suffered any serious damage or hard wrinkles. I think for the average weekend hiker or those doing short long distance trails (CT/JMT/etc) it should hold up fine, but I am a bit concerned, at this point, over whether it will hold up over the long haul. Only had it for a month, after all.
The Stand:
There is not a whole lot to say about the stand… you unfold it, put your esbit on it, light the esbit, and put your pot on the stand. These tri-wing esbit stands have been around a long time and they have more than been proven to be rock solid. They can eventually fail if you pound through a lot of esbit and do not clean off the build-up, but if that happens to you, well, you deserve to have it happen… take better care of your gear.
There is also the ground protector / reflector that makes up the stand system. It is something you should always use – watch this video for why.
The Stuffsack:
Going to have to admit here that I did not buy my cook kit with the bag – I bought each piece individually, because I did not need the stuff sack. The reason for this comes from a discussion that Chad “Stick” and I had back in November of 2012. In one of my messages to him, as I was typing the message, an idea hit me, it went like this:
Regarding the cuben fiber cookpot bag… I have actually been thinking of ditching the one I use and instead using a one gallon zip lock bag. They weigh about the same and I can get my 900ml evernew pot to fit into one with lots of room left over. I would much rather deal with esbit soot and stickiness within a throw-away ziplock bag than within an expensive cuben fiber bag. I usually have two or three ziplock bags with me anyway so adding another one would not be any big deal. Think I am going to have to give this a try.
So for the past 7 months that is what I have done… now I just stuff my cookpots right into a ziplock bag. When they finally get to a point where they are all nasty inside because of the esbit left-overs, I just throw the ziplock away and grab another one. Heck of a lot nicer to throw away a bag that costs a few cents than a cf bag that costs 13-15 bucks.
So all that said, there is one very sweet thing about the LiteTrail CF stuff sack… and that is the fact that it is a rounded stuff sack with a flat bottom. Not really sure it helps stuffing it into your backpack all the much easier, even for those of us that use outer pockets for putting our cook kit, but it is a nice change-up from how everybody else makes stuff sacks, and having a flat bottom makes it so you can use it for other things where you want a bag to stand upright.
Additional Thoughts:
Jon from FlatCatGear has been playing around with a “focussing ring” for esbit stove systems that in my own testing has proven to be highly beneficial. Because of the low height of the LiteTrail windscreen, anything at all that I can do to help increase heat from esbit is worth it, and this is an easy and very lightweight means of potentially gaining a few extra BTU’s from your cooking setup.
After using the tri-wing for one trip, and knowing that it worked, I switched it out and went back to my BGET esbit tray. Nothing wrong with the tri-wing, but I just prefer this little tray and a dedicated wire pot stand (such as this one) that I had made and is 4.03 grams, so with it and the BGET my stand system is 5.69 grams, compared to the 12.59 grams of the tri-wing stand. It is a more stable system and less likely to have the pot tip over in high wind or if the water is boiling really hard, plus it is a lighter method.
If you are a fan of the TrailDesigns Caldera Cone systems, for $35 bucks you could swap out the LiteTrail windscreen and Tri-wing and switch over to the much more efficient Caldara system. The downside, of course, is that the Caldara Cone will not fit inside of the LiteTrail 550ml pot, unlike the LiteTrail Windscreen. I asked TrailDesigns if they were planning on releasing a Sidewinder for the LiteTrail 550 pot and they said it could not be done, which is the answer I expected, but that would have been super sweet if they could have.
Final Thoughts:
In the world of hiking there are a crazy amount of cooking systems available for hikers.
In the world of SUL/XUL hiking those numbers decrease very quickly.
Most XUL hikers are cookless hikers so it is a mute issue altogether, but for those XUL hikers who still enjoy a hot meal or tea, there are not a lot of options. The LiteTrail Titanium Solid Fuel Cook System provides a great base system that with a few changes could be made into a sweet XUL cooking system.
For those who are SUL hikers, this is one amazing all-in-one-purchase esbit cooking system, and as I said earlier, probably the best option out there.
For UL hikers, this cooking system offers everything the beginner or skilled esbit hiker needs.
The current price for the LiteTrail Titanium Solid Fuel Cook System is $90 bucks – I have spent a whole lot more on a single cooking system, so this is a great price for a complete esbit setup.
+John Abela
HikeLighter.Com
In accordance of USA Federal Trade Commission 16 CFR, Part 255: I hereby declare that the products mentioned within the content of this article were not supplied to me in exchange for services.
As of the day of publication of this article I am a sponsored hiker of Montbell America, Gossamer Gear, Black Rock Gear, Suluk46.
PROBAR Fuel Bar
Greetings Hikers,
The other day I got some PROBAR Fuel Bars and I pretty much instantly fell in love with them!
A little over a month ago I wrote about my thoughts regarding the PROBAR Core Protein bars and while I found them to be good, they just did not really match up to the awesomeness of the PROBAR Meal bars that I have loved and used for a year or so – it is not that they were no good, they were just not my style of a bar, I like soft and gooey type of bars! If you are looking for a way to supplement some protein into your hikes, the Core bars are totally worth taking along and I intend to take them along on my future hikes, but they are just not going to replace the Meal bars for me.
I had this to say regarding the Meal Bars in my article on the Core Bars:
The texture, flavor, and size of the PROBAR Meals are something I simply cannot see myself letting go of.
Amazingly, I think the time has come for me to recant that statement!
Why?
Because I got some of these “Fuel Bars” and it was just one of those magical “omg – this is awesome!!” moments.
To keep this simple, here are the reasons I have fallen in love with these Fuel bars:
- Soft & Gooey!
- Half the size of a Meal bar – which makes eating them easier while hiking
- Less large nuts inside of them (it seems a lot of the Meal bars have one large almond in them, and I do not like almonds - or walnuts - so I am always biting into a Meal bar, finding it, and spitting out the almond – regardless of how good they are for hikers)
To address the second issue of them being half the size. One of the things I have always done with the Meal Bars was to open a package and break off a third to half of them and leave the rest in the package for thirty or sixty minutes down the trail. Sometimes I forgot about them and they got kinda hard – all too common late at night on the trail. By going with a bar that is half the size, they just seem to be the perfect size to consume all at once. Granted this might result in a micro-amount of additional weight and waste due to the extra package material, but micro is really the right term here, when compared to the size of the larger Meal bar packages. Nit-picky issue and one that does not even warrant my scale being used and my time being wasted testing such matters. All in all, I am just finding that when I am hiking down the trail, I am reaching for the Fuel bar because it is a more manageable size and amount of food I want to consume at any given time.
On both a calorie and protein basis, I will have to consume two of the Fuel Bars to get about the same amount as I do from a single Meal bar, so given that I typically break my Meal Bars into two pieces, that is pretty much the same thing.
Economically they also seem to be about the same. A 12 pack of the Meal bars go for $35.48 on their website. Two packs of 12 of the Fuel Bars go for $35.20 on their website. Pretty much an even issue there too. Amazon.Com offers them as a “subscribe and save” for $16.99 per 12 pack, making two 12 packs of them $33.98, so that is what I plan on doing to save a couple of bucks.
PROBAR Oatmeal Raisin - breakfast in a wrapper!
From a flavors perspective, there are a lot more options for the Meal Bars, as there are only four (4) flavors of the Fuel Bars: Blueberry, Cherry, Cran-Raspberry, and Strawberry. The blueberry is by far my favorite, with Charry in second place. I pretty much hate watermelon and strawberries, so the strawberry got the down-vote from me, with the Cran-Raspberry taking third in my preference. Here is the thing though, regarding flavors: As Brian Green has said regarding the PROBAR Meal ‘Oatmeal Raisin” bars, “Can you say breakfast? This is the perfect morning snack bar. Like having a bowl of delicious oatmeal in a bar” – yeah, he is dead on right about them! I eat one of the Oatmeal Raisin Meal Bars every morning and have zero intention of stopping. He also said good things about the Superfruit Slam, which is probably my favorite PROBAR Meal.
While a bit off-topic, a couple weeks ago I was down at my local hiking store and they had some of the PROBAR Bolt bags, which are kind of like gummy bears, only packed with a lot of stuff that is suppose to be way better for you than gummy bears – giggle. Usually I like orange flavored stuff (it reminds me of the orange and vanilla ice cream bars I use to eat when I was little) so I bought a bag of the PROBAR Bolt Orange and they were pretty neat. I did not get any bolt of energy from them, but they made for a nice distraction while hiking on down the trail. For some of you they might be totally worth buying – if for nothing else than the flavor change-up in your mouth from the other PROBAR bars, they have a bit too much sugar for my likes. The PROBAR Halo bars are something I will likely never take with me either – for as Scott Williamson has said for a rather long time, “I avoid sugar on the trail because sugar highs and crashes affect my hiking“.
So I think my plan going out on my next hike is to take my usual Oatmeal Raisin bars for breakfast per day, one Superfruit Slam per day, and for the rest of each day I will be taking with me the Blueberry and Cherry Fuel Bars, probably three packages of each, to offset the PROBAR Meal bars that I would normally consume throughout the day. Anyway, that is the plan and I will update everybody later this year if this idea works out.
If you get a chance to try out some of these PROBAR Fuel Bars give them a try and let me know what you think! If you have already given them a try, likewise, let me know what you think of them!
+John Abela
HikeLighter.Com
In accordance of USA Federal Trade Commission 16 CFR, Part 255: I hereby declare that the products mentioned within the content of this article were not supplied to me in exchange for services.
As of April 2013 I am a sponsored hiker of Montbell America, Gossamer Gear, Black Rock Gear, Suluk46.
ZPacks Hexamid Pocket Tarp + Suluk46 Bug Proof Bivy = New Lightest Weight Enclosed Manufactured Shelter System
Greetings Hikers,
I am sure most of you that read my articles regularly and are SUL/XUL hikers have already heard that ZPacks has introduced a new hexamid shelter called the “Pocket Tarp” which is a 0.34 cuben fiber tarp using their standard hexamid shape design, and that it hits the scales at a crazy light 88 grams! Add some cordage and it goes up another 8 grams or thereabout, so lets just call it a 96 gram tarp!
I was working on updating my “SUL/XUL Fully Enclosed Shelter” spreadsheet today and figured I would update the spreadsheet to include this new shelter, and while working on that I thought about the fact that this could be the new worlds lightest fully enclosed two piece manufactured shelter system!
So I put out the word asking if anybody knew if a sub 140 gram bug bivy and Don’t Panic came through for me, mentioning the Suluk46 Bug Proof Bivy. So when I put them into the SUL/XUL Fully Enclosed Shelter spreadsheet it came out to 228 grams (8.042 ounces).
That beats the ZPacks Hexamid Solo+GG Groundsheet which is 354 grams (12.48 ounces) – but granted that is a one-piece shelter, and it uses a much more advisable 0.51 cuben fiber material.
LiteTrail 550ml Titanium Cookpot Setup
TrailLite Ti 500ml Cook Pot
Greetings Hikers,
It has been fun to watch LiteTrail mature over the last year or so, Jhaura Wachsman, the founder of LiteTrail, has been investing a lot of time and money into sourcing some of the lightest gear available for SUL/XUL hikers. That alone makes them a company that is always on my watchlist.
About a week ago they announced a new set of titanium cook pots, that are suppose to be crazy light weight, so I ordered up one of their 550ml pots to give it a go and see how it compared to my existing setup, which is comprised of the hugely popular Evernew 600ml pot, and the always amazing TrailDesigns Sidewinder, and a DIY esbit stove/stand.
The order showed up tonight, and I am heading out on a hike tomorrow, so I wanted to get a brief pre-use article pushed out for those considering this setup.
Specs:
Pot: 54.71 grams
Lid: 17.33 grams
Screen: 4.48 grams
Groundsheet: 1.38 grams
TriWing stand: 12.59 grams
This totals up to: 90.49 grams (3.19 ounces).
Trail-life Update & Updated ZPacks Belt Pouch
Greetings Hikers,
I am home for a little over a week and then off for more hiking! Love this time of the year.
I just got home from a great 5 day 120 mile hike and a package from ZPacks.Com was waiting for me, along with a shipment of freeze dried food food from Honeyville Grain which I badly needed to get myself resupplied with fruit, meat and refried beans. Showing up later this week will be a shipment from MontBell America with a replacement Montbell U.L. SuperSpiral #1 (my prefered sleeping bag) and the Montbell Mirage Parka, a new pair of Dynamo Wind Pants, the updated sub-2 ounce 2013 Tachyon Wind Jacket and a couple other small things. I am also getting a resupply of Probar Meals, and some FITS socks to give a try alongside my Wigwam socks. Oh, and I ordered up a new LiteTrail 550ml Ti pot that should be here before I head back out onto the trail, which I am going to give a go with, and let my Evernew 600ml pot a rest.
As for my most recent trail. It was an interesting adventure. Saw some beautiful country, pushed myself pretty hard, broke some gear, learned a bit more about dealing with people who are sitting at home and suppose to be helping out hikers yet utterly fail to do so when the hiker actually needs something, got to test out my new ZPacks Arc Blast (my second one, all black with all the extras, nicknamed “Darth Vader”), experienced some weather that was waaaay colder than what it was suppose to be, and all in all had a great time.
The first day out I was moving along at a good rate and snapped part of one of my Gossamer Gear trekking poles. After hiking for a couple of hours I found a spot with a very weak internet connection and I contact the guy that was suppose to be the ‘new guy’ in charge of handling requests from Sponsored hikers/Trail Ambassadors for Gossamer Gear and long story short, that went over very very badly. It is as if people do not understand that some of us actually spend the vast majority of the year out on the trail and when we contact them to help out, it is because we actually honest to God need help. I got a run around from this guy and eventually just decided to say screw it and not even bother trying to get a new pole piece sent out overnight to the next trail town that I was going to be at in two days. So I just had somebody else overnight me my Blackdiamond Alpine Carbon Cork trekking poles from home. I love Grant and Glen from GossamerGear, but whoever in the world it was that made the decision to outsource their Trail Ambassador program to somebody outside the company, needs to rethink that whole idea. We hikers out on the trail have limited internet and phone connectivity, we should not have to play a go-around-game just to get the gear we need. This whole event was a nice reminder that when your gear breaks out on the trail, it is always a good and wise thing to have somebody back home, be it family or a friend, that can handle resolving an issue for you. I am very grateful to my family, my friends, and those at my company, for all that they do to allow me to keep being out on the trail so much. Beyond that ordeal, the first day was good. Did some nice elevation changes, and thankfully had a good amount of water with me when I started as it was a day with only one water source, and it was around 14 miles in. Eat a crazy amount of food for some reason. Stupid me for not pounding a bunch of high energy food before I left my truck. Set up camp in a really beautiful spot, and was sure to mark it on the map for future trips. It was one of those odd days when you do not see, or even hear, any animals. I enjoy the sound of animals and seeing birds flying around, but there was not a peep or feather anywhere to be heard or seen.
The second day was hard, as they usually are. Body was aching, still pissed off by the aforementioned events of yesterday, and my feet were bugging me as this was the first hike of any distance that I have done with sandals. So many hikers I really respect, hikers out on the trail right now hiking the CDT or who hiked it last year, have made the switch over to sandals and I figured it was about time I gave it a try, so I ditched my much beloved Inov-8 shoes and went with a pair of sandals. Taking some getting use to. A lot stiffer than the crazy light trail runners I am use to, and the straps on the top of the foot are kind of bugging me, but the freedom of stretching my toes, and the complete breathability factor, and the knowledge I do not have to worry about foot-swell, are all things I am beginning to see as really amazing reasons for making the switch. I was able to have access to a lot of water on day two, so that was nice. Put my Sawyer Squeeze to a lot of use. Having added the small section of tube (see my previous article) was totally worth the extra few grams of weight. It just makes filling up water bottles so much easier. One of those situations where weight for functionality is smart hiking.
The third day I was able to get into a trail town and get some supplies, but most importantly was getting the hiking poles. It was a very small town (one of those towns that is a store/postoffice) so not a lot to do there so I just grabbed my stuff and went on my way. I think one of the things I said about the Blackdiamond Alpine Carbon cork hiking poles when I reviewed them was something along the lines of them being heavy, but oh so worth it. The more I use these poles the more I love them. Yeah, they are heavy trekking poles (when compared to the Gossamer Gear trekking poles) but these are the most rock solid pair of hiking poles I have ever used. They also make setting up my shelter at night a bit faster and easier, because the locking systems on them is a lot easier than sitting there doing ‘the twist’. Yeah, I love the LT4 poles, but Gossamer Gear really needs to find a way to move away from twist locking mechanisms – please guys!! The end of day three turned cold and thankfully I had with me my Montbell Alpine Light Down Parka. It is my no means the lightest jacket out there, but it has saved my butt a few times. I am really looking forward to getting the Montbell Mirage Parka later this week! It has one ounce more down than the Alpine and weighs 1.9 ounces less! I was also seriously glad I had with me my Black Rock Gear Hadron hat and the Black Rock Gear Mitts. It thankfully did not rain but I had with me the ZPacks Waterproof Breathable Cuben Fiber Rain Jacket, at 4.7 ounces, it just makes sense to always carry it.
The fourth day was all about pounding the miles, and that is exactly what I did. Started off really cold, sub freezing and stayed cold pretty much all day. I hiked for about four hours in the dark until I was really tired and knew I would just go right to bed. Went to bed cold.
The fifth day I again started off cold but thankfully it warmed up a bit. Ended the 120 mile section of trail when it was almost dark and headed home. Made up some spaghetti and feasted.
My next trip out will be hiking the same exact section of trail, only this time in the other direction. One of the aspects of building a new trail is the joy of getting to hike the same trail multiple times in multiple directions, at different times of the year. It helps you make sure that you have enough GPS data to be able to properly build a map system that others will be able to use, and it helps you really learn where the water is at and when there will be a water source and when it will be a dry creek. I will likely be taking a camera with me on my next hike so I should have some photos and video to share. There is some really beautiful country up here in North Western California.
Gear Report:
Besides the already mentioned issue with the LT4 poles, this was a great trip to test out some new gear. My new ZPacks Arc Blast road like a champ. Really loving that backpack. It was way more then what I needed for this trip but I wanted to get some more miles on it. I also used the Lawson Ti-Hook Stakes for the first time. I gotta say I really enjoyed them over a traditional hook stake, the slightly more bent head really did make them noticeably better. I also took with me a Petzl TacTikka Plus for the first time. I gotta say that while it is heavier than any other light I have taken, it was kind of nice having a full power torch to use, it was the main reason I hiked for four hours in the dark. I also took with me the Klymit Double Diamond vest. I have been using one for a few months around the house and on short day hikes, so this was the first hike of any miles I have taken it. It is crazy heavy compared to my down vests/jackets, and it seems to suffer a problem of not drying out very fast, but I gotta say, it is really impressing me. Going to give it a lot more trail time before I make a verdict on it. I took with me the Therm-a-Rest NeoAir XTherm, size large of course. It is one beastly sleeping pad, but I gotta say, it is the most comfortable air sleeping pad I have ever used. Almost tempted to keeping lugging it around the rest of the year, regardless of the fact it is 570 grams – which makes it heavier than my entire shelter system, the Six Moon Designs Skyscape X, the Adventure Medical Kits Sol Emergency Blanket (groundcloth), and the 5 stakes that the SMD SX takes. For heating up water I took the TrailDesigns Caldera Sidewinder and the Evernew 600ml pot. For food I took mostly food I had made myself over the winter season, using the Excalibur dehydrator I got for Christmas, which all of my family pitched in together and got for me.
Anyway, I grabbed my camera a bit ago and decided to shoot a quick video on the updated ZPacks Belt Pouch, which I ordered while out on the trail.
I hope everybody out there is having an awesome, fun, and safe hiking season!
+John Abela
HikeLighter.Com
In accordance of USA Federal Trade Commission 16 CFR, Part 255: I hereby declare that the products mentioned within the content of this article were not supplied to me in exchange for services.
As of April 2013 I am a sponsored hiker of: Montbell America, Gossamer Gear, Black Rock Gear, Suluk46.
Sawyer Squeeze: Updated Thoughts, Ideas, Tips
Greetings Hikers,
My Sawyer Squeeze article that I published a little over a year ago has apparently become one of the de facto articles for this product on the internet, which is really cool. It gets a lot of attention from hikers, hunters, adventurers and travelers, from around the world. It is always fun to see an article in a language I am not even able to read (thank you google chrome for having an automatic language translator) and it is the second most popular article I have written.
All this means I get a lot of folks contacting me asking me questions about it, which I am always happy to do.
I wanted to take a few moments and share some of my thoughts regarding this filter, having used it for over a year.
There have been five big issues with this filter by other bloggers and hikers the world over. I am going to address my thoughts on each of these issues.
1) Bag Durability
There is no reason for anybody to keep hashing out this issue. Everybody knows the original bags failed to perform for a lot of people. I suspect that the vast majority of these failures were a result of user error. People squeezing the crap out of the bags with such force that it was causing the seams on the bags to blow up. I even read the account of one AT hiker who blew through all three original bags, an Evernew bag, and two platypus bags. We need no further evidence than that story of the fact that most folks just abused their original squeeze bags to much. I put well over 50 gallons of water through a single bag and never have a failure.
Regarding the Evernew bags: I am pretty sure I was the first hiker to publish documentation saying that the Evernew water bags fit perfectly on the Sawyer Squeeze. Within 48 hours of me publishing that article, every major retailer in the USA was sold out. Literally thousands of Evernew water bags were bought by hikers within a matter of two days. I had companies emailing me and telling me they were sold out within 24 hours and eight months after I posted my article on them I was on a hike with the owners of some of the big name outdoor companies and those who did not know me at least knew that somebody out there had obviously posted something about it, and it was fun getting to hear their stories of having hundreds of orders in their inbox when they arrived the next morning at work. It has been estimated that there were over 25-thousand dollars worth of Evernew bags bought by hikers within 48 hours. Since that happened the companies here in the USA have received two or three additional shipments of the bags (they are made and shipped over from Japan only a few times each year) and every single time the companies here in the USA get shipments of the bags they are either already pre-sold or end up being sold within a few days of being listed as in-stock.
Clearly these Evernew bags are performing at a higher level of quality control than the Sawyer bags, otherwise they would not continue to be selling as fast as they are. As I documented in January of this year, Sawyer released an entirely new bag to try to stem the bleeding bad PR that they were getting because of the bags. It was all too obvious that they had a sure winner on their hands with the filter itself, but failed to bring to market a bag worthy of the filter itself. Or, as I have said in times past, Sawyer should have called it the “Sawyer Roll” – in a quasi-jokingly manner – in that rolling the bags reduces the vast majority of the stress on the bags.
Regarding the new bags… there have been a lot of people who have claimed that the new bags are not different from the old bags, beyond just the pretty picture. If you think that a new picture slapped onto a bag (when there was already a layer of ink on it) results in an additional 5 grams there is not much I can do about that. My contact at Sawyer has never once indicated to me that the bags are the same, beyond the change of artwork, even when I directly asked the question. I just do not have any further response regarding the new bags then this information. If somebody out there wants to, and has the ability, to do some kind of spectral analysis or whatever it would take to validate the claims by Sawyer, I would welcome the whitepaper on your research, beyond that, I can do nothing more than share with all of you what my Sawyer contact has told me.
Update: April 18, 2013 – Mountain Laurel Designs has gotten access to, and has started to sell, multi-packs of the new Sawyer Bags in both 1L and 2L sizes! They are $15 bucks for three 1L bags, and $15 bucks for two 2L bags. They are a 9-ply bag, compared to a 5-ply bag of the Evernew bags, and they are estimated to be 4 grams less weight than the Evernew bags.
2) Freezing Temperatures
There has also been a LOT of discussions and arguments about whether or not the Sawyer Squeeze can survive freezing temperatures. I have long held with the fact that any freezing of the filter should result in you throwing away your filter. I have zero evidence to prove such a drastic action, but to me the facts are simple: the squeeze is a Hollow Fiber Membrane filter. What this means is that there are a whole bunch of very very small tubes inside of the filter (read more on wikipedia regarding membrane filtering) and this is really good in that it allows for significant amount of more water<->surface contact thereby allowing the water a higher chance of being filtered. But the downside to this is that the tubes are significantly smaller than non hollow fiber membrane filters, like most other backpacking water filters. These smaller tubes mean that any water trapped inside of them results in a drastically higher chance of that water freezing and as we all know, when water freezes it expands in size, and therein is the problem. When the water freezes it a very high likelihood of blowing a hole (rupturing) one of these very small tubes. When that happens it means there is a very high chance of allowing water through the filter without being filtered.
Here is the official position of Sawyer via their FAQ page:
While we have no proof that freezing will harm the filter, we do not have enough proof to say it will not harm the filter, therefore we must say that if you suspect the filter has been frozen, to replace it — this is especially true with a hard freeze.
Only you can decide if the risk is worth it, personally, I do not. Puking my guts out four 2-4 days, than being constipated for 4-7 days is simply not worth it to me. $50 bucks is not worth a week or two of suffering.
This past winter when I was on sub-freezing hikes I carried with me extra handwarmers and made sure that at least one handwarmer was hot and inside of the bag that my Squeeze was in, to help make sure that it did not freeze. It meant carrying an extra 3 ounces per day, but again, what is safe water worth to you?
3) Tips & Tricks
It has been fun to see others sharing their tips of what they have done to make their life using the Sawyer Squeeze easier. For all the people out there hating on the Squeeze, there are a lot more people out there talking about how the Squeeze has become a part of their life and sharing ideas and such regarding their interactions with the filter. I think it is always a sign of a winning product when you see folks talking about how they are modifying it, or other things to work with it, and the internet is filled with hikers, hunters, and world travelers talking about how they have modified other gear to work with their Squeeze.
About the only thing I have done is to buy the Sawyer SP110 Inline Adapter Kit which allows you to attach the Squeeze to hydration tubing. There were a LOT of people out there making these on their own, so it was a brilliant move on Sawyers part to push out this adapter kit. It works really well for gravity filter systems, and it works ok, but not great, for drinking dirty water straight from a hydration bag through the filter and a bite valve.
One of the neat tricks of the SP100 is the ability to use just one part, the outbound part, and attach a short piece of hydration to into it, thus making it waaaay easier to fill up water bottles on the go.
 12 grams (0.4 ounces) is totally worth it to help making filling up water bottles easier – especially from water sources with very little water! |
 Never have to worry about making sure all your water gets into your water bottle! Added benefit: no more worrying about your water bottle tipping over when you are filling it up! |
One of the more unique and ideas I really want to try has come from this article in which you take a wire coffee filter and cut out the wire filter from the plastic and cut the filter part into circles and place one of them in the dirty water entrance of the filter (note: probably will have to buy a thinner washer in order to make a proper seal). There have been a lot of articles on the internet where people are adding pre-filters to their Squeeze, but I think this idea has one of the best long-term solutions that I have encountered.
4) Backflushing
Lets face it… that syringe that is included with the Squeeze is huge. When my very first Squeeze showed up and I pulled out that huge syringe I started laughing and scared the cat sleeping on a couch. It is comical. But, it has a very real purpose and should not just be dismissed.
One of the major selling points of the Squeeze is its claim to do “1 million gallons”. Of course the real selling point is the fact that it is an Absolute One Micron filter – read my original article on why that is important and why you should only be using an Absolute One Micron filter.
Part of their ability to claim such a high usage rate is because it is a hollowed membrane filter. The other part is because of its ability to be backflushed.
I have heard stories of AT/PCT thru-hikers bouncing the syringe from town to town so they did not have to carry it. I admire these hikers and think they are doing the right thing. If you are pre-filtering your water you should easily be able to make it three or four, maybe five days before you really need to backflush the Squeeze. It is called preventive maintenance - something we hikers hate thinking about, more or less doing, but it is just a reality when it comes to the Squeeze.
Please folks, do not just throw away that syringe, and when you get back home from your weekend hike, take the 10 seconds it will take to backflush your filter.
5) Drying / Storage
As I mentioned above, a hollow fiber membrane filter is an awesome thing to have because of the higher water<->filter contact time, which results in a higher level of filtration. But like water freezing inside of the tubes is a serious downsize, so too is improperly drying and storage of the filter.
When you get back home, you really need to do everything you can to dry out your filter. There has been an insane amount of people online sharing how they do this. Some of them downright comical, but most of them are really great ideas.
Personally what I would love to see would be Sawyer releasing a new product (SP118 maybe?) that would allow you to attach something like the SP100 to the inflow side of the filter, and have a small hole like the outflow side, which would be the same size as what the syringe fits onto. This would allow us the ability to attach this little device to the inflow side and use the syringe to blast a bunch of air through the filter to flush out the membrane tubes – much the same method of backflushing. It just makes sense and I am flabbergasted nobody has come up with a way to do this, nor that Sawyer has not thought of it themselves.
A lot of talk on the internet is how to carry the filter when you are hiking… some people put theirs in zip lock bags to keep the water inside of the filter from getting their get yet (solved by my idea above, hmmm). Some hikers just throw it into one of the pockets on the outside of their backpack. In the winter time I carried mine inside of a ziplock bag. This allowed me to keep it right next to handwarmers in sub-freezing conditions, as well as have it inside of my sleeping bag at night without getting my bag/feet wet. During the summer time I just threw it into an outside pocket and oh well if it drips because I only use outside pockets for water bottles and wet gear (groundcloth, shelter, rain jacket, etc.)
In Closing:
Anyway, those are my thoughts on all things related to the very awesome Sawyer Squeeze water filter. In the year+ that the Squeeze has been on the market it has take a huge percentage of the water filter market within the hiking community. I get messages on an almost weekly basis from old timers telling me they have been using the same water filter for years, yet have made the switch to the Squeeze because of its 0.1 Absolute Micron filter, its easy of use, and its weight compared to pretty much everything else of worth out there.
As I said in my original article:
Until something lighter comes along that provides Absolute 0.10 Micron level filtering that does not involve waiting hours and hours to have drinkable water, and is under the 2 ounce mark, the Sawyer PointOne Squeeze Water Filter System is going to be the only filter making it into my backpack.
That absolutely continues to be the case and the Squeeze will continue to be the only filter in my backpack until such is no longer true. In worst case situations, I can also use a few drops of bleach that I keep in a micro-dropper for washing my clothes with. And I understand there are still going to be a lot of hikers out there who will continue to use Aquamira. There is no doubt aquamira weighs less than the Squeeze – nobody can make that argument, especially if you carry them it within 3ml containers. Only thing I can say to that, and that I have been saying for over a year now, is to share a story about a 70 year old hiker who sent me an email the other day saying that after 50+ years of hiking, he finally realized that having the ability to drink water as soon as it goes inside of your water bag is a really nice thing, versus having to wait 15-30 minutes. This is so especially true if you are hiking somewhere that water is very scarce. You… well *I*… do not want to be hiking for hours and hours without a water source and finally get to one, then have to wait another half hour before I can drink the water. All of us have to make our own choice on whether an extra ounce is worth that or not. This year I am going to be in some pretty remote locations and I might only have the chance to get one once a day. Carrying that much extra water to make it through the rest of the day and into the next day, is going to result in water alone weighing more than my entire backpack, so the extra two ounces for the Squeeze is just not even going to be noticed.
I would love to hear from all of you what kind of modifications to your gear you have done to make using the Squeeze be better integrated with your hiking setup!!
Thanks,
+ John Abela
In accordance of USA Federal Trade Commission 16 CFR, Part 255: I hereby declare that the products mentioned within the content of this article were not supplied to me in exchange for services. All products mentioned within the content of this review are free of endorsements between myself and the manufacturers and meets all FTC 16 CFR.255 compliance requirements.
Updates:
April 18, 2013 – added update about MLD now selling multi-packs of the new bags – and further confirmation that these new bags are indeed stronger.
