Nalgene Tritan Wide Mouth 500mL bottle

More waiting at the airport means another opportunity to do a review :-).  At this rate I am about to do a complete review of everything that I am carrying on me at the Kathmandu domestic airport terminal.  What next...underwear?  

(Lego Greg and my manly hands for size comparison)

One of the funny things that took a long time to buy was the humble water bottle!  You ask why?  Simply because I am a picky person and I was looking for something very particular for my expedition summits.

It is always important to carry lots of water when you go expeditions particularly at high altitudes.  This means that you need to carry water under your down suit to stop it from freezing, carry it in a vacuum flask and/or with a Camelbak also under your down suit.

The risk with Camelbaks is to the freezing of the drink hose and possible leakage, both would be disastrous as you can appreciate.  For this reason I tend to go with the old school option using drink bottles with a wide open mouth that can limit freezing problems and make cleaning and filling very easy.

The Nalgene bottle at 500mL is a great little number.  It fits inside a down jacket/suit easily.  1L bottles are generally too large in fit in pockets and having 2x 1L of water on chest pockets is just too much.  You can live with 2x500mL bottles without it interfering too much with your climbing and movement. 

This little bottle is BPA free, has an easy wide mouth and its shape is ‘narrower’ than some other 500mL bottles that are wide but shorter.  When bottles are wide they stick out of the chest and are uncomfortable.  The teeth-to-lid connection are large and robust, so no weak screw threads that can fail.  Even the lid holder is strong and no chance of it breaking easily.  There has been some good thought that has gone into building this simple bottle.

So…the humble Nalgene 500mL bottle is the one for me :-).  The natural trade-off is that it only holds so much water, but there is not much one can really do about it.  More water means greater bulk. 

What I carry on a summit attempt is my 2L vacuum flask (in the bag) and 2x Nalgene 500mLs.  I have some cheap eBay neoprene camera lens cases that I use to encase the bottles (filled with hot water) to stop it from burning me or making it too uncomfortable to wear.  I also keep the energy gels next to the bottles to stop them from moving and to keep them from freezing (if I stored it externally from the suit).

I think that I may be a little compulsive when I shop for stuff, but that’s what you get with a highly involved consumer such as myself.