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How much does your covid mask weigh?
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Home › Forums › Gear Forums › Gear (General) › How much does your covid mask weigh?
- This topic has 44 replies, 24 voices, and was last updated 3 years, 5 months ago by Murali C.
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Jul 2, 2020 at 10:40 am #3655880Jul 8, 2020 at 5:34 pm #3657066
I have made some of brushed tricot with olyfun (which unlike the so called experts on NPR say is not spun bonded, think Tyvek, but point bonded, think reusable grocery bags) liners that are super breathable but thick and carry the static charge that helps attract airborne particles. Maybe my next ones will include some wool, like the Spanish flu versions of long ago for even more 3d and static charge. The quilting cotton versions I made you couldn’t breath thru and so your breath just escaped around the edges.
(Is Spanish Flu okay to say?, I hear the President using similar language for the current pandemic and being called racist.)
Jul 8, 2020 at 5:54 pm #3657070I love the HMG masks…..no fogging of glasses as the wire can be molded onto the nose. I tried bandana, other cloth masks – home made, store bought – none were as comfortable as the HMG ones with respect to breathing and ear pain due to the mask loops. I have worn these on my long training hikes – 11 miles, 2000 feet of climb without removing them. Sometimes on the steep ascents, I will have to slow down a bit or remove the mask – but, I just slow down and wear it the whole time. They do get wet by the time I am done – but this is Austin, TX with a heat index of 100 by noon. On trail, it should be fine – I will probably take two and keep it in my pant pocket – worn weight:-)
Jul 8, 2020 at 6:05 pm #3657072Generation 1 HMG masks with black ear loops weight 0.46, 0.49 oz etc (weighed two random ones of the lot of 5)….second generation ones with white ear loops weight 0.39, 0.4 oz….:-) The white ear loops are better as they do not hurt my ears at least – the blacks ear loops did.
Jul 8, 2020 at 7:39 pm #3657082The reason the phrase “Chinese Flu” is racist is because after politicians used it in an attempt to blame others for their failures, Chinese people started being harassed. People quit going to Chinese restaurants…
As opposed to the “Spanish flu” which was named after Spain, the only country that didn’t suppress news about the flu, didn’t originate in Spain. I wonder if Spanish people in the U.S. were harassed at the time? Definitely no Spanish people or restaurants being harassed now.
When you trivialize the racism of using the phrase “Chinese flu” it enables people that use it as a racist term.
Oct 4, 2020 at 7:27 am #3678392Any recent experience with up-dated or improved masks? Please share.
Or is HMG still generally considered the best?
Oct 4, 2020 at 8:04 am #3678394What’s been people’s experience with the OR masks? The local REI is selling them. I don’t see any information about replacing the filter other than ‘replace at your own judgement.’ Where do you get the filters?
I use a buff when hiking and not near others; for example, if I see people coming toward me I pull up the buff, step to the side and turn away, since the buff is not proven to be effective. On the other hand, I really dont want to fiddle with putting the mask on and off every time I pass someone.
Aramark Uniforms makes a three layer cloth mask with washable filters. It’s what some healthcare providers are using in place of the paper surgical masks which have some condensation issues and can be rough on your skin if you’re wearing them all day.
Oct 4, 2020 at 4:10 pm #3678434^^ Bob: ” I don’t see any information about replacing the filter other than ‘replace at your own judgement.’ Where do you get the filters?”
We use some version of the Scott ‘blue’ shop towels for a removable filter layer. You’ll find plenty of uses for the remainder of the roll.
Oct 4, 2020 at 6:19 pm #3678459obx, that’s a great tip about the shop towels. I was going to post that you can buy a 25 pack of replacement filters from OR, but the shop towels is a nice hack.
I just bought an OR mask after seeing a few teachers around my school with them (I teach fully in-person and have to wear a mask at least 8 hours a day). The other teachers wear them without the filter and wash them nightly. So far it’s been the best mask I’ve tried for preventing glasses fog-up due to the adjustable nose piece and the contour away from the eyes.
In the original post it’s unclear to me whether Ryan is looking for a mask for use while hiking or an everyday mask? Oh, and the OR weighs 0.5 oz on my scale.
Oct 4, 2020 at 8:14 pm #3678480One day I was driving (in WA state) East, in the early AM when the sun rays are nearly horizontal. As my wife and I drove straight into the sun we could see little bits of saliva shoot out of our mouths, lit up by the sun, as we spoke. We wouldn’t have seen it except for the fact the the sun was streaming through the windshield. Certain sounds had high saliva output. “p”, “t”, etc. It was kind of shocking. That low angle light taught us something: Being closer than 6 feet with no one coughing is not a safe maskless situation. Simple speech can shot out salivary droplets. It’s not just coughing and sneezing that’s the problem.
Oct 5, 2020 at 4:12 pm #3678546Yes Paul I had a similar situation except with a contractor friend in early morning light with the angle just right. It was amazing to see the stream of droplets flying out of his mouth.
After that the idea of really active respiratory indoor activities like the gym, yoga or singing indoors with others seemed like pretty risky business.
Oct 5, 2020 at 4:20 pm #3678549Think about seeing your breath in the cold. Oh wait, we’re not supposed to worry about Covid!
Oct 5, 2020 at 9:51 pm #3678592I tried many over the months. The OP mask is comfortable, with adjustable ear loops and the best moldable wire nose bridge going. The design helps very much in reducing fogged glasses! The OP mask is also the least hot I’ve tried (no such thing as a cool mask). I also ordered a spare pack of filters.
Oct 6, 2020 at 12:07 pm #3678625Oct 6, 2020 at 1:48 pm #3678631Link: I think I did a face masks thread search before I hitched on to this thread with the renewed query. I guess I just hitched on to the first thing that popped up but thanks for ‘linking” haha to that other thread. Adds more good info to this one.
Thread drift warning! BTW was impressed with your reference/link to the geological map of the Yellowstone area/basin on that thread inquiring about basalt formations. Good info. That thread was interesting to me as an example of the potential capacities of this Blog. I was sorta surprised that someone was coming here to ask a question about the location of a particular geological formation somewhere in the backcountry of Yellowstone and I had fun wasting some time and virtually touring that side of Yellowstone to see if I could find the answer. Really something that someone (you) quite likely provided the answer. Impressive.
Oct 6, 2020 at 1:59 pm #3678633I was looking for a tower that fell in Yellowstone : )
Several months ago, most people hiking on trails were wearing masks, maybe half.
In the last month almost no one wore a mask. I was on Three Sisters, saw maybe 100 people, one mask, another person held their mask up when they passed me (is that effective?)
I’ve been getting more than 6 feet off the trail. Occasionally someone makes this difficult, like stopping on the trail at a spot I can’t walk 6 feet off the trail, but I do pretty good.
So, I have a mask in my pocket just in case. Surgical mask. Package of 50 from amazon. 0.1 ounce.
Oct 6, 2020 at 2:34 pm #3678639Brief trail encounters probably won’t give you covid, just keep moving. Things that will, and I take this from someone who is on the frontlines:
restaurants, bars, CHURCHES, exercise groups and in-person schools/daycares. Oh, and assisted living facilities and jails.
Oct 6, 2020 at 3:01 pm #3678642and food processing plants with lots of people, inside, close contact
the CDC says 15 minutes of exposure is what’s high risk, although one well aimed sneeze could do it
Oct 6, 2020 at 4:02 pm #3678646My $14 for 5 masks from Amazon have been holding up just fine for months now. No ear or fogging issues. Made in China
Oct 6, 2020 at 4:32 pm #3678650I think your guard comes down on a long trail.
I did the CT this summer (mid jul to mid aug). On the trail itself nobody wore a mask. There were times where 3 or 4 of us were eating together in the evening – definitely lesser than 6 feet apart and more than 15 minutes together. My rationale was that if you are able to hike these long hikes with a backpack – you probably don’t have Covid. On one of the passes, gave my phone to a guy to take a picture. He took my phone and started this bout of dry cough. I cleaned my phone couple of times with hand sanitizer and was trying to run away from him. Throughout the day, we were meeting each other at various points and I could hear his incessant dry cough! I told myself – Covid is chasing me or he cannot have – he just hiked up this massive pass.
When nearing a town or in the town, wore a mask. Coloradans were pretty good in wearing masks. All the towns did a great job of closing roads to have restaurant seating outdoors.
That said, I did eat inside restaurants 3 times while on the trail and stayed in hotels – though I took precautions with a UV wand sanitizing the sheets, pillow covers etc. Leaving doors/windows open when I first check in for 30 minutes etc. Some hotels left the room empty between guests. Some did not.
In Durango, I sat inside a restaurant because it was so hot outside. To my horror, I sat next to the piano where a guy was singing – with a surgical mask on though. Maybe 5 feet away.
Anyways, I survived:-)
It is probability of catching and all you can do is take all the precautions I suppose. I think in New York at the height of pandemic, even with all the precautions – like mask wearing, social distancing, the probability would have been high as there is so much virus in the area. While in Colorado this summer, in spite of the throngs of visitors, the virus infection rate was low….but, I hear it is increasing now.
In Austin, Texas where I live, I am the only person wearing a mask in my neighborhood of 1100 houses while walking a dog outside….I started wearing a mask outside while walking the dog as I had several instances of people coughing, sneezing 6 feet away from me….if I had not heard them sneeze, I would be walking in to their droplets.
I think it is simpler to just wear a mask everywhere rather than rationalize afterwards – was that guy lesser than 6 feet away from me when he sneezed or coughed etc….
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