I have heard that you should avoid red snow which is caused by algae and may cause diarrhea.

The Sierra Cup I have, and still use, from the early 70's is a dull flat gray metal (a little lighter in color than a photographic "18% gray card"). I assume it's aluminum or a non-stainless steel. Whatever it is, it probably only cost me a dollar back then and it's still going strong. No rust, no difficulty in cleaning. I also have a stainless steel cup that fits on the bottom of a Nalgene bottle. It holds more volume than the much flatter profiled Sierra Cup, but the Sierra is still my favorite - many memorable trips with that cup dangling from my backpack.

Whether in snow country or in the hot desert, in a survival situation, drink the water. Dehydration is pretty immediate, giardia and the like typically take a few days. Maybe in Africa, I'd rethink that advice, but here in N. America, more than likely, the water is safe, particularly melted snow.

In fact, unless there's just a lot of fuel around, you might be lessening your chances of survival by boiling the water. If you burn through all your fuel to boil the water (which takes a lot more heat than simple melting), you may not have fuel later when you need it.

There was research in the 80's that indicated that giardia was common in N American waters, but that conclusion has been refuted by subsequent research. Now, I'm not telling people to stop treating their water, but rather I'm saying, in a survival situation, drink even if you can't treat the water. I sometimes see drinking untreated water presented as a sort of life-or-death choice. "Ohmigosh, if I drink I might get super-duper-anthrax-bubonic-sclerosis and die, but if I don't drink, I'll be dehydrated and get hyper(hypo)thermia and die." I think a better assessment is: "what a fool I'd be to not drink this water that has a chance of causing some intestinal problem later and let myself get dehydrated and risk hyper(hypo) thermia now."

Based on what I've read, water taken directly from a spring is typically safe. Water taken from creeks in remote areas with no human or livestock activity upstream is typically safe. Again, I'm not calling for an end to water treatment, but untreated water isn't this death serum waiting to take to their death the weak who gave in to their thirst. I think such a scenario does exist at sea, but here on land it's not such a damned if you do, damned if you don't gamble.

Lastly, call me crazy if you will, but I drink untreated surface water in the wild on a regular basis in areas I know and am familiar with. I've been hiking since the 60's (still carry my old sierra cup). Suddenly, one day (80's) the word got passed around that all water everywhere needed to be treated. The waters of N America didn't all go bad overnight. It just doesn't work that way. I think the problem has gotten blown out of proportion, and I'm sure the water filter companies and the like haven't exactly tried to calm things down.

The waters of the Adirondacks were safe were apparently safe for a long time, up until the 70's, when the efforts of the conservation folk got beaver populations re-established. Giardiasis, aka beaver fever, followed promptly. A friend got it because the family dug well was too close to the the creek. She was in the first trimester of pregnancy, and chose not to risk damaging the fetus with the treatment of choice; she chose instead the local herbalist's cure which involved a 24 hour fast, followed by ingestion of an entire bulb of garlic, pureed, mixed in tomato juice, followed by another 24 hour fast. She was pretty sure that she could hear the giardia screaming when the garlic hit them, and allowed that they surely were in a hurry to leave. No damage to the fetus, tho she was born Italian. Anyway, giardia is seldom fatal, mostly involves occasional abdominal cramps and diarrhea. Having it is sort of like having a pet that lives in your gi tract.

i always had the impression that "beaver fever" was the result of filthy people using the waterways as a toilet and the beaver as well as other animals were just bystanders in the cycle of passing the cysts..

Having never been hit with Guardia, but having read some accounts of people that have had it, it may not attack you when you drink the water, but it sounds like no fun to go through a week or more after you drank the water.

I will continue to boil or filter my water. The fact that I enjoy primitive camping in remote areas, and that I have always made my water safe to drink supports (in my mind) the idea that the small amount of time and effort it takes to boil the water is well worth it.

Boiling is easy and with any fire be it a wood stove, tin can hobo stove or a small campfire, fuel is not a big deal.

Small consolation for those of us living in high fire danger areas. And in the summer? Hot water? Yuck. Boiling is the best method of course, but it like all forms of treatment has it's drawbacks. It was wonderful hiking in the 60's and 70's as a kid. We never worried about water quality, just hook your sierra cup on your belt and drink as you go. Now, to stop and filter (or boil or chemically treat or whatever) just to refill is a pain. People instead wind up lugging more water along, even in areas where water is readily available.

Wouldn't it be nice if there were something along the lines of a litmus test for giardia? Peel off a test strip, dip it in the water, if it turns green, drink away, but if it turns red, don't drink. Well, I can dream, can't I?

giardia epidemiogy

You are probably right, 'dogs. Article indicates that critter giardia and people giardia look the same but are genetically different, and it is not clear that beaver giardia can infect folk. The other possibility is sub clinical infection. Some folks can probably live for a long time with a giardia colony on board without a lot of symptoms.

From what I've read, many people who are exposed to giardia won't show any symptoms and many of those who do show symptoms experience mild discomfort and recover without medical intervention. Apparently, it's actually a fairly small percentage of the populace that will have severe symptoms. Not that I want to play "giardia roulette" and find out which category I fall into.

ugh, i've had giardiasis in high school before. it was during a backpacking trip, i got the drinking water mixed up with the river water and took a healthy gulp... but to be honest, the treatment was worse than the giardia. while i had the "runs" from the giardia, the antibiotics for treatment (furizolidone?) made my stomach hurt really, really badly. i also lost control of my bowels a few times... not a pleasant sickness to get.