Frontier Treks & Tours India

Last year I wrote a gear review about how well the Black Diamond Apollo Lantern worked for our trekking groups. One year later, and I still like these well designed little lanterns so much I just ordered some more.

One of the ways our groups like using the lanterns is to light our dining tent at night for hanging out and playing cards. I tried taking some photos of a recent group doing this and realized I’m not really sure how to take photos in dark tent lit by small lanterns with people moving a lot during fast paced card games! But they hopefully give you some idea of what it’s like using these lanterns at night.

Left to right: Klean Kanteen, generic plastic bottle, Nalgene, Innate, & Camelbak

After going on several treks and using several different kinds of water bottles, here are my pros and cons for 5 different options of trekking water bottles.

It used to be pretty simple. I used the standard Nalgene wide mouth plastic bottle for years. Then the whole controversy over BPA came out. Suddenly a whole rush of new BPA-free bottles started being advertised. I decided to switch to some BPA-free bottles. At the time Nalgene wasn’t selling any, so I went with a Camelbak plastic bottle and a Klean Kanteen stainless steel one.

Later I picked up a BPA-free Nalgene bottle and then another stainless steel one by Bilt (which is now Innate). Now that I’ve used all 4 of these I’ve developed the following opinions for each of them.

• Nalgene: Pros – fits perfectly with the bottle adapter on the Katadyn Hiker Pro water filter we use, cap is connected to the bottle so doesn’t drop accidentally into the stream you’re filtering water from. Cons – can’t think of any other than it still is plastic and some people might not want whatever chemicals are still used even in a BPA-free verson.
• Camelbak: Pros – like the Nalgene it also fits perfectly with our water filters. Cons – unlike the Nalgene the cap doesn’t have any strap keeping it connected to the bottle. Might seem like no big deal, but if it falls into unclean water while you’re filtering you’ll wish it had been connected.
• Klean Kanteen: Pros – I just like the feel and quality of stainless steel compared to plastic, the sport cap on mine keeps the cap connected to the bottle. Cons – bottle opening doesn’t fit the bottle adapter on our water filters, water inside heats up faster than the plastic bottles if exposed while trekking in bright sunlight, current cap options don’t offer any that keep the cap connected to the bottle. Yes, I know you can buy an insulated sleeve for stainless bottles that would prevent the sun/heat issue, but I like not needing to buy accessories for a water bottle.
• Innate: Pros – quality stainless steel but with a BPA-free plastic rim which is nice for your lips in case your bottle is either really cold or hot. Cons – older version that I have doesn’t fit the Katadyn water filter bottle adapter (this might be different now according to their website), the cap isn’t connected to the bottle, same problem of water heating up in sunlight as the Klean Kanteen.
• Generic bottled water plastic bottle: had to include this one as we’ve had participants forget or lose their more sturdy water bottles and just buy a couple of these from a shop before trekking. The only pro I can think of for these are they can bail you out if you lose your other bottle, but they’re less reusable (= more trash), don’t fit the water filter adapter, and have small caps that can easily be dropped.

As you can see the big thing for me in evaluating water bottles for trekking is how easy are they to use when filtering water. Apart that one thing, all I’m doing with a water bottle the rest of a trek is drinking from it or carrying it and there aren’t much differences there in quality or features.

I like a bottle that one person can easily filter water with by themselves. In my experience, the best way for that is one with a connected cap and an opening that snugly fits our filter’s bottle adapter.

If I were buying new gear for an upcoming trek and didn’t already have any bottles, my choice would be 2 Nalgene wide mouth bottles and then possibly a Klean Kanteen or Innate if I wanted a 3rd bottle just because there is something about the stainless steel that I like better than plastic.

Some photos from a recent trek we did on the Aru-Lidderwat route in Kashmir.

On our recent trek I had a chance to try out a new piece of trekking gear that we’ve purchased for our groups – the Black Diamond Apollo Lantern.

This small LED lantern runs on 4 AA batteries, or there is the option to buy a rechargeable battery kit from Black Diamond. My preference was to use some AA Sanyo eneloop rechargeable batteries, and on a 3 night trek with temps getting down to just below 50° F only 1 of our 4 lanterns had the batteries run out. With AA batteries, though, it is easy to pack some spares for backup. The lantern also has a helpful battery indicator with green, yellow, and red lights to tell you how much juice you have left.

As advertised this lantern puts out some bright (but not harsh) light and the design does a good job of dispersing it. Since it’s not very tall I found hanging the lantern up in the tent was more effective at spreading out the light. When we had the lanterns standing on the ground, it took about 3 of them to sufficiently light up our large dining tent for a game of cards. However, when I hung them up from the center pole in the tent only 2 lanterns were necessary to light that big space. One lantern was plenty sufficient to light up my family’s 4-man tent.

Size comparison with a 1 liter Nalgene bottle

In addition to being bright the lantern can be dimmed to a lower light output. I really appreciated this feature since my wife and I had our 9 month old son with us in the tent. We didn’t want to wake him up with the bright light after he had gone to sleep. By pressing down on the on/off button I could dim the lantern to the lowest setting which was almost like a night light. There was still enough light for us to see around the tent, but not too bright that it bothered our sleeping baby.

Another positive factor for us with this lantern is the low weight. Even though we pack all our big gear on ponies rather than backpacking, it’s still helpful to reduce weight where we can. Our main light source for the dining tent has been a much heavier locally sold gas lantern. The Black Diamond lantern weighs just under 11oz with the AA batteries. Added all together the 4 lanterns we carried easily weighed less than the gas lantern, plus their small size took up less space when packed.

Size of the lantern when folded up and closed

Small and light doesn’t mean fragile, though. It passed the sturdy test with our infant son, as the lantern became his favorite object to play with in our tent during the day time. Being drooled on and tossed around were no problems. This lantern is well built and looks like it will last us a long time.

Overall I would definitely recommend this lantern for camping and trekking.

Looking down toward Lidderwat on the trail from Aru

Last week we had a fun trek where we spent 3 nights at the beautiful Lidderwat campsite (more pictures below). The last couple of years we’ve had a lot of rain on treks in July, but this one stayed dry almost the whole time. Our only rain was a big thunderstorm late in the evening on our first night.

For me personally this was a memorable trek as my wife and I brought our 9 month old son along with us for his first trek. The little guy had a wonderful time enjoying the outdoors, being amused by all the animals, and crawling around the tent and campsite. I think we have a promising future trekker!

On the first day of the trek we drove from Srinagar up to Aru, the little town at the end of the road after Pahalgam. After eating lunch in Aru we headed out on the trail to Lidderwat and arrived there in a little over 2 hours.

On the second day we took the group to explore a new day trek we hadn’t tried out before. After heading out from Lidderwat and crossing the river a little ways upstream, we went toward the left in the direction of Tarsar and Marsar lakes rather than our usual path of going right toward the Satlunjan campsite area and Kolahoi glacier.

As we hiked up this new path I found myself wishing we’d checked it out before as the trail offers excellent views looking back over the Lidderwat area. We took our time appreciating the view and eventually came to a river crossing about 2.5 hours into the hike. Our guide said that the lakes were about 1 hour further past this crossing. Unfortunately the crossing had one jump between some rocks that you needed to make before crossing on a log bridge. Normally I’d have been fine with the jump, but the distance was a bit too far for me this time considering I was carrying our firstborn son on my back! My wife and I decided to head back, while the rest of our group proceeded with our local guide.

It turned out they didn’t make it to the lakes either. After going up a short ways they were invited to have some noon chai (salt tea) and chapatis inside the hut of a Gujjar shepherd family. Following the chai break the group decided to head back to camp as well. I’ll have to wait for another trek to see what these two lakes look like. At the very least the hike toward the lakes is a nice day trip from the Lidderwat campsite.

On our third day the group relaxed and hung out around the Lidderwat area. They drank some more noon chai in another Gujjar hut and enjoyed fresh water buffalo butter for their chapatis. We had cool weather and clear skies for the second straight evening so after dinner the group warmed themselves by a nice campfire underneath a magnificent sky full of stars.

More views from the trek:

Looking in the direction of Satlunjan on the trail to Tarsar & Marsar lakes

Looking back toward Lidderwat

View on the way back toward Aru

Overlooking the little town of Aru

We’re getting ready to take a group trekking so I thought I’d share a little more about what trekking with us looks like.

As an American, trekking was not a word I commonly used prior to moving to India. Instead I used the words hiking and camping. To me, trekking sounded much more adventurous and well beyond mere outdoor recreation. The dictionary on my computer defines a trek as a long arduous journey and then gives the example “a trek to the South Pole.”

In Kashmir I learned that people use the word trekking more generously to describe activities like hiking/camping as well as more serious mountain adventures. In fact, the style of trekking that we typically offer through FT&T India is definitely up a notch on the comfort scale from what most Americans think of when they imagine hiking in the Himalayas.

First of all, the trekking that we do in Kashmir should not be considered backpacking. All you need to carry on your back is a daypack with your water, snacks, rain gear, and camera. The rest of your stuff (tent, sleeping bag, extra clothes, etc.) gets loaded on top of a pony. We hire pony wallahs (the guys in the charge of the ponies) to come with us for the trek and carry all of the equipment. There’s also the option to hire 1 or 2 extra ponies for riding if any of our participants want to try that out. We aren’t the only ones doing this. That’s basically the standard practice for trekking in Kashmir.

Ponies carrying our bags, tents, & food for the trek

In addition to the sleeping tents we provide, we also bring along a dining tent and kitchen tent (as well as a cook)! We made both of these tents locally using material found in Srinagar and then we hired an excellent tailor who normally makes clothes to stitch the tents together.

Our dining and kitchen tents at the Lidderwat campsite.

Our groups always enjoy the hot meals, fresh fruit, and soothing chai that our cook provides throughout the trek. The dining tent also makes a wonderful place to stretch out and relax after a day’s hike or to enjoy a game of cards together.

Kashmir certainly can offer challenging treks which fit into the long arduous journey definition. But it also can offer relaxing treks that allow you to conserve some energy and take your time appreciating all of the beauty around you.