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David Nelson
climber
San Francisco
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Did SF Washington's Column was back in 1976, it was 105 degrees in the Central Valley. Don't know what it was in Yosemite, but it was damn hot. The updrafts were so strong that if you threw your rope out from the wall, it fell up, not down. You Wall Rats can guess the rest of this post.
We had planned on 1.5 gallons per man per day (memory not entirely clear on this detail), with two days for the climb. We drank a bit on hike up to the base, and camped at the base, drank a bit more, because it was hot. We ran out at the end of the first actual day on the climb, did the second one dry. We both were seeing things; it was the longest, most drawn-out, most painful experience of my life. I am sure you all have had a similar tale, based on y'all who carry extra.
We hiked down, got very wet, then hiked up with extra water to retrieve our gear, as we knew the sad sacks finishing the route behind us were likely to be thirsty. They were mighty glad to see us with extra water.
So I think leaving water is OK, but it should be full bottles, not drunk out of. Dating it seems to be a good idea. Partially consumed water bottles will always have oral flora contamination, and in the heat, the bugs should breed like crazy. Cashed food? I doubt it. It is much easier to calculate and ration food.
My two cents, you can get change.
(Was up to the Valley over Memorial Day, talked to the Mtn School, hear Ken Yager is busy with the Museum, is not teaching. Ken, how about an update?)
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k-man
Gym climber
SCruz
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Thanks for posting this up Karl.
What would seem to be obvious is obviously knott.
I get sad when I see climber's trash. There just shouldn't be any.
One rainy day, I took a walk past the base of El Cap over to
Ribbon Falls. Things had been buried in that forest for a long
time; old water bottles and whatnot from decades past. I could
understand how years ago there were few folks about, so throwing
off a bottle to rot in the forest probably didn't seem like a big deal.
Bring back more than you go out with, if you can.
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Majid_S
Mountain climber
Bay Area
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Ouch
What do you think about having water and food to be served on every wall?
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Wade Icey
Big Wall climber
Indian Caves, CA
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Cleaned about 200 dollars worth of lockers, biners and shoes off of Sickle also..
Hey Riley those were mine. I cached 'em in '97.
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TradIsGood
Happy and Healthy climber
the Gunks end of the country
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I would think a bottle of water would be safe indefinitely. It might not be safe the next day if somebody with "flora" drank from it. But leave another week or two, and there won't be any live flora in it.
No nutrients for flora, UV. Killer combo. Good water.
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james Colborn
Trad climber
Truckee, Ca
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After suffering 24+ hrs without water on the Nez we found an old soda bottle that had the distinct flavor of Murphy's Soap in it. Is it common to put a bit of soap or bleach to keep the micro critters out?
Sickle ledge seems to be a the place for booty scores. Found one #3 camelot in October with initials on it.
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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My practise is to thoroughly wash bottles then rinse with a little mouthwash and leave some in when I fill the bottle. The water tastes good for a long time and the trace of alcohol helps kill bugs over the long haul.
This has served me well for decades.
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adventurewagen
Trad climber
Seattle
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Being the realistic guy that I am... I figure people are going to leave water on the route no matter what and in any sort of quantity. People aren't going to Date their water either for the most part so I figure the best option is to just try to carry out more than you carried in and keep the net amount of water jugs on the wall on the decline each summer.
As for old water, I'm not sure about you guys but I treated anything we ran into on the wall. I'm sure we could have gotten away without treating some of it but no need to take the chance.
I sure was happy to see some empty water at Dolt last year and again at Camp VI. With Valley temps in the low 100's our 3 liters a piece didn't last as long as we wanted :) Nothing left on the top though, it was a thirsty night for sure.
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Rhodo-Router
Gym climber
Otto, NC
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I'd probably still be on top of Half Dome (if my withered husk hadn't blown away) were it not for the water cache on top. It's a welcome gift.
Seems like water from the spring gets manky, while tap water does fine. A drop of iodine or bleach in a bottle of leaver water might be a good thing to try and do.
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ricardo
Gym climber
San Francisco, CA
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I've been saved by booty water on 2 occassions ..
Once at the top of zodiac i bootied 2 gallons which saved me since i topped out with less than 1 quart left, and it was frigging hot.
Another at the top of wet denim day dream .. when we topped out at 15 hours on the route with zero water left.. (we bootied 2 quarts at the summit!) ..
.. booty water is pretty cool when you need it..
.. i've lef behind many gallons when i top out with lots of water left ..
.. i've also left about 2 gallons at island in the sky .. where someone else had also left some booty food .. (unlabeled cans of food-- pretty cool .. what will you get? )
.. i think as long as its slightly hidden its alright ..
of course .. always carry your empties down!>
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Nefarius
Big Wall climber
Fresno, CA
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GREAT idea, Ron! I was just going to post about actually cleaning the bottles, thoroughly, before filling them and they should last years. I actually use a tiny bit of bleach in the water I use to clean the bottles and let them soak in it for a while. Rinse them well.
Your idea of using mouthwash and leaving a little in the bottles is genius.
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Ouch!
climber
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Only leave clear water. Yellow water isn't cool.
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John Vawter
Social climber
San Diego
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About the useful life of water in a bottle. I have done a number of desert hikes using cached water. The usual drill was to cache water the weekend before, or at most two weekends before, do the hike, then go back later to pick up anything we left. We sometimes overestimated what we needed, and left the bottles at a cache. Sometimes we went back the next weekend, sometimes it took a year to get back to a cache.
In my experience, an unopened bottle of water is good indefinitely if protected from light. Store-bought bottles unopened until we needed them lasted the longest. Sunlight speeds up the growth of algae, so we adopted the practice of caching the bottles in double black trash bags under rock overhangs, or buried shallow.
But an opened bottle is good for only about two weeks. Reused bottles (Nalgene, etc., and reused plastic gallon containers) were usually OK until needed, but occasionally sprouted algae before we got to use them. Once you drink out of a bottle, the water is contaminated and will start to grow stuff in a matter of days.
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 5, 2007 - 01:29pm PT
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John and others bring up a good point. Drinking out of the bottle. Let's make a point with Wall water of pouring what you need into your own bottle if you're not going to finish it, or pouring it into your mouth without touching it.
PS, the gallon bottle on dinner ledge right now is not piss. It's half Gatorade and Half water, left last weekend
Peace
Karl
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Nefarius
Big Wall climber
Fresno, CA
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"PS, the gallon bottle on dinner ledge right now is not piss. It's half Gatorade and Half water, left last weekend"
Or so you say, Karl! ;) I'd have to be DAMN thirsty to drink a bottle full of unknown yellow liquid! heh!
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Tahoe climber
Trad climber
a dark-green forester out west
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just scratch and sniff (tm) and you'll know which yellow liquid it is...
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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When "drinking out of a bottle", I actually pour the water from the bottle into my mouth - I don't touch it with my lips. So no contamination.
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billygoat
climber
3hrs to El Cap Meadow, 1.25hrs Pinns, 42min Castle
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When we did Rainbow Wall a few years ago, we hiked in sans water because it was early spring and we had hopes the creek would still be running (even the ranger said it might). Well, the trickle was pretty pathetic. I left my partner at the base of the slabs to start filling up as I hiked the haul bag up. When I got to the base, I found twice as much water as we needed in sealed bottles directly under the first pitch. What a blessing, much better than having to drink brown water.
I'm all for leaving full, unopened bottles behind. Did so after Zodiac, and I'm sure someone was grateful. I hope they had the decency to pack out the empties.
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the Fet
Knackered climber
A bivy sack in the secret campground
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Cached water is aid ;-)
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SuperTopo on the Web
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5/1992 - cached 3 liters of water in standard 2 liter soda bottles at a remote ledge, under some rocks
Let us know!