Drinking Glacier water

[Arthur]

Are there any Gastro issues with drinking straight, cloudy glacier water?  I am not asking about filtering it or getting diseases. This would be water at its terminus or close to it that is full of silt and cloudy.

[Roger Caffin]

We have often taken water from the outflow from a snow bank, with zero effects.

Any cloudiness is likely to be either organic silt or ground granite dust. You get a lot of the latter in places like the Himalayas. Once again, these particles are unlikely to have any effect on the gut.

The big danger for gastro has always been a lack of hygiene. “Oh, it’s too cold to wash my hands …” Happens all the time with young males.

Cheers

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

I prefer not to. But if I was super thirsty, I would. Otherwise, no.

[SIMULACRA]

I’ve never had an issue that can be contributed directly to drinking straight from the source, no filtration or purification. I do it all the time and it’s quite refreshing. The best you’ll ever taste. As Roger stated, hygiene is paramount. Wash those hands!

[Jerry Adams]

I don’t drink silty water for aesthetic reasons

I drink alpine water untreated all the time. I haven’t noticed any illness but some of them can have minor symptoms

It’s so easy to treat water though it doesn’t make much difference.

[David Thomas]

Glaciers grind up rocks to a very fine “glacial silt” which stays suspended for a long time (and give glacial lakes that beautiful turquoise color).  They also grind up any ore veins into very fine particulates so heavy metals get transported and redeposited downstream.  In my area, that’s most commonly arsenic, but cadmium and other heavy metals are found in some drainages in concentrations you shouldn’t drink all day, every day, for 70 years.  I don’t fret about it while backpacking, but I do treat the water at home.

Back to the normal glacial silt: I’m not aware of any gastric issues from the silt itself.  It complicates filtration, UV and chemical treatment – none of those are impossible, just more involved and with more caveats.  Boiling always works.   OTOH, it’s million-year-old rock in 800-year-old  fallen, compressed, then melted snow; and so while animals (and humans) occasionally traverse glaciers, I’m less concerned about meltwater right from a snow field or glacier than with most surface waters.

[AK Granola]

We recently camped on a glacial river, and the very silty river was the only water source nearby. We used it for cooking, drinking, for several meals and a couple liters a piece for our next day hike. No one had any issues. We used a BeFree filter and also prefiltered through a cloth, but that one overnight of filtering glacial water pretty much killed the BeFree. I’ve tried cleaning it and it just doesn’t flow well at all any more. If I were to do it again, I’d boil to treat instead and just drink all of the silt instead of only some of it. It was also a bit of a challenge to get the silt out of our socks, shoes and pants, since we had to cross at thigh high water; took about 15-20 minutes to cross. That stuff really sticks. So consuming the silt itself, no issues for us. Couldn’t taste or feel it in our noodles or coffee either! “Camping clean.”

There is a mountain stream on a nearby trail (not glacial) that is notorious for causing gastrointestinal problems regardless of treatment method, and the issues appear fast, within 20 minutes of drinking it, and everyone gets hit. I don’t know what it is in it – some kind of minerals, or a chemical? But it’s a known water source to avoid, I just don’t know why. So I suppose there are other issues to be concerned about in water beyond the bacteria and parasites that are the most common culprits of illness.

[Roger Caffin]

Well, it is not gastroenteritis.
The most common kind — the one caused by a virus — makes you feel sick 12 to 48 hours after you’re exposed to it, and it can last up to 3 days. If it’s caused by bacteria or parasites, it may last longer.
https://www.webmd.com/digestive-disorders/ss/slideshow-stomach-flu

And it is not Giardia either – that takes up to 10 days to appear.

Cheers

[Author]

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