OPTIONS MY MAN,OPTIONS




I always carry either a mess kit or GI Canteen with cup, It's always nice to have options though "Isn't It"? I'm not planning on throwing it in a fire either, again options. And besides I thought it was cool and I wanted it and I have the money so I bought it. And I'll probably buy other things, "Just because I can" and their cool and have multi uses.


Now all I have to do is find a couple reasonably priced molle pouches to carry them on my BFM or Hawg

Hi Hikin_jim



This guy could have just made a Finnish Marshmellow (snowball on a stick) to melt the snow to fill up his plastic canteen.

And what, the snow melt would run down the stick into the canteen? Or would one get the snow to slush a bit and the squeeze it into the canteen?

The only difficulty I see with the Finnish Marshmallow is that it would be hard (I would think) to keep the snow ball on the stick. As it melts, it would slough off into the fire, would it not? Or is there a trick to it? Have you actually tried it and made it work? Might be a really good survival technique.

The idea is to make a snowball about 18 inches in diameter and then push a curved stick through the centre. This then props up the snowball above the container which is going to be used to collect the water beside the fire. Even something like a plastic polybag bag arranged inside a boot can be used as the container. Additional sticks can be used to prop up the snowball in a tripod fashion if further support is required. The radiant heat from the fire, which would be about 1-2 feet away is enough to slowly melt the surface of the snow ball. The water just drips from the bottom surface of the snow ball.

If the container is made from plastic or leather then a small radiant barrier may be required to stop the container melting from the heat of the fire. This could be constructed from a small wall of sticks. A larger wall reflector made from sticks and aluminium foil can also be built on the opposite side of the fire to improve the efficiency of the fires radiant heat reflected towards the elevated snowball.

Ah, well I sure have - as recently as January this year. And I take some pains to avoid that (completely frozen bottle / canteen). I can solve a frozen water bottle problem, but it's a lot less effort with a metal single wall container and an open fire or wood burning stove (OK - Yukon stove running MoGas worked fine, too <grin>).

It's not a non-existent problem for some of us - just something to deal with when it happens. YMMV!

Tom

FWIW, all those nifty no-pot snow-melting techniques are great to know how to use if you ever really need them, but the meltwater smell and taste would gag a maggot most of the time. Rancid woodsmoke smell and taste... I speak only from my first-hand experiences teaching all that sort of stuff in Alaska. Even with a pot, unless you have (and use) a good-fitting lid, using an open fire results in water that certainly is "flavorful" to some degree (most of the time). OTOH, it sure beats getting dehydrated if there are no other options.

Tom

I like the way those look, and the standard mouth is potentially very useful. I'm familiar with their cord lock gizmos and it is feasible to NOT cinch down the little set screw on the chocker block so one can fairly readily slide it open to remove the tethered cap from the bottle.

I'm thinking more along the lines of the vehicle water stash in wintertime than backpacking with one, though. Hmmm - think I'll order a couple when they are back in stock.

Thanks for the tip!

Tom

Why not take a small stove and a metal cup with you in snow country to melt snow if needed? You can cook with it giving you something that does more then just melting snow.


As far as water bottles Nalgene bottles work well.

Exactly. I take a 2 quart pot with a bail and a tightly fitting lid and a stove ALWAYS in snow country. And a GI canteen cup. Been doing that for a looong time.

Fuel consumption in wintertime is relatively high anyway and IF I cannot find liquid water and IF it is appropriate / possible to build a fire, I have always used a small fire at lunch and supper to replenish my water bottles. The 2 quart kettle makes life simpler and takes up no room in my pack. (actual volume is greater than that - 2qts is the "working" volume)

Nalgenes work fine. I use them a lot part of the year and rarely (except as a mixing container) the rest of the year. They do freeze up, just as anything will given temps and time. Depending on conditions and exactly what I am doing, I use insulated carriers (homemade from old sleeping pad + duct tape), neck bottle (slung underneath my parka), bury inverted in the snow, shoved inside my pacs with parka over both, etc. etc. But like any container of water, they can and do freeze up.

I used to carry a SS 1 qt vacuum bottle of hot water in addition to other container(s). Sometimes I still do. But nowadays I more often take a 1 pt vacuum bottle because of space and weight. No surprise, in extreme conditions, it will not stay hot as long as a 1 qt (surface area to volume/mass ratio). I used to use the dreaded Arctic Canteen (Because I was required to). Those are a poor solution - commercial vacuum bottles are much better.

And I could go on re: walking/skiing/snoweshoeing. But what catches my eye is a better solution than I presently have in my on-board "EDC" kit.

Emergency water in my vehicle in wintertime has always been a PITA. Among other things, a stove + fuel + canteen cup are part of the vehicle package. I do not care to use Sigg type aluminum water bottles for a number of reasons (purely personal preferences), so these SS single wall water bottles are interesting.

Tom

In my van I use ½ gallon milk jugs filled about 85% to allow for freezing. I also have a hobo wood stove made from a V-8 juice can, a metal pot and a few fire starters. This way I have water and can heat it or cook anyplace. It’s always easy to find small twigs or wood debris to burn.

The reason for using the milk jugs is that they are free, hold a good amount of water and if the water is froze it’s easy to cut the plastic off the ice and put it in the pot to melt. But for most of the winter they don’t freeze 100%.