One of those never-ending debated within the hiking community. As a teenager, I would hike for a week each summer in various national parks around Norway. The idea of carrying a water filter never even struck me, and I never had any stomach issues drinking unfiltered water. However…

Since I started thru-hiking, the question of water filtering took on a whole new meaning. Parasites like giardia are common in many of the places I have hiked, such as the American west and New Zealand. Practically everyone carries a water filter, and those who don’t are seen as taking unnecessary risks. Sure, you might not have any issues. You might save money and weight just dipping you regular plastic water bottle into lakes and streams. But if you run out of luck, you will pay a high price. Giardia and other water-borne illnesses can cause debilitating symptoms and take weeks to heal. Best case you get an unpleasant break from your hike. Worst case you end up with amoeba in hospital for weeks.

Ditching the water filter is – in my not-so-humble opinion – simply not worth the risk.

You never know if an animal died in the river upstream, whether there might be animals grazing nearby and pooping in the water, if your hiking pals washed their filthy bodies in the lake ahead, the outlet of which you are currently drinking from. Even fast flowing water can be treacherous.

I’ll be the first to admit that filtering can be a hassle. Trying to squeeze water through a half-blocked filter early in the morning with cold fingers sucks. But you can avoid these situations by picking the right filters.

Some prefer gravity filters that you hang up, and the water filters itself while you can do another camp chore. This will keep you drinking bottles clean because you fill the bladder with “dirty” water than runs into your bottle through a filter. Downside: takes a while, not handy if you’re on the move. Water purifying pills are handy as a backup solution in case your filter breaks/gets lost. But they are not ideal as a first option because they are expensive, and you will need a ton of them over the course of a longer hike. Some pills also affect the taste of water, which might result in you drinking less and getting dehydrated. Other water purifiers like SteriPens shine UV light inside your water container and kill viruses in addition to microorganisms. If you are travelling in a high disease-risk area such as tropics, this may be your best option.

Alternatively, you have the popular squeeze filters. The Sawyer Squeeze is probably the most popular filter on long trails. I carried the Sawyer Mini on the JMT to save some weight. These filters are versatile: they come with pouches if you prefer to keep your bottles clean, they attach to bladder straws or can be screwed directly on to your bottle so you can drink straight from the filter. Downsides? They get blocked. And when they do, they are almost impossible to unclog. Squeezing water through the Mini took forever, the pouches started leaking, and I began to detest the task. My pal Toby used the larger Squeeze on the Te Araroa, but even that became clogged after a while. and required real force to get the flow going.