| | Camping Notes
Suunto altimeter condensed instructions
I have Suunto Altimax wristwatch/altimeter. It's a great gadget as an
altimeter for climbing as it lets your measure your rate of climb and total
progress toward goal. However, it's rather complicated to remember.
I compressed the instruction manual into a single page diagram, which I can take
with me. Incidentally, the thermometer (too close to your body) and
compass feature (takes too long to stabilize when you hold your wrist up) are
both useless on the watch, but the rest is good.
To understand the chart imagine that each rectangle is the fact of the
watch, The line points in the arrow you move by pushing the button in the
corresponding position. For instance, the upper left button when in
alarm mode takes you to stopwatch mode if pressed once, and if you hold it to
down, it takes you to the alarm set mode.

Camp Stoves
In preparation for a mountain camping trip, I compared three kinds of fuel
available for stoves:
Esbit, isopropane, or
white gas?
3/18/06 experiment in backyard (55 degrees outside, and at
sea level)
Heated 3 pints of ice cold water (decanted from an ice
solution) to a rolling boil
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Esbit
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Isopropane mixture
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White Gas
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Time per container
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10+ minutes / tablet
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2.5 hours
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Extrapolated 36 minutes for the ’22 oz’ container
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Time to boil 6 cups
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12:55 (4 tablets)
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7:45, 10:20
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7:52 cold pan, 9:18-9:42 warm pan
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Time to melt 5.5 cups of water from 6 cups of ice
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Not tested
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6:44 to melt then 7:40 to boil
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Should be similar to isopropane
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Time to melt 2 cups of water from 6+ cups of fresh
snow
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Not tested
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1:40, 1:53
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Ease of lighting
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3-4 matches
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Super easy push button, works every time
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Messy pumping & priming process, often takes
several attempts
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Mess factor
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Low (slight residue in stove)
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Zero
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Fuel spills and carbon deposits everywhere
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Fire risk
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Some (flame wanders)
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Low (focused butane flame)
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High (fuel spills from spigot and primer cup)
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Stability of pan platform
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High (stove is short)
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Low (high spindle)
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Medium
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Weight of stove
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3.0 oz
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4.0 oz
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10.4 oz including bag and 1.6 oz wind screen
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Weight of fuel
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0.5 oz/tablet
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12.5 oz for an ‘8 oz tank’
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1.3-2.0 oz ounces of fuel for 6 cups
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ounces of fuel/pint of boiling water
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0.7 oz
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0.2 oz
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0.5-0.7 oz
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Weight of fuel container
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0
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4.7 oz
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3.1 oz to hold 9 oz of fuel
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Net weight to boil 16 pints
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13.7 oz
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16.5 oz
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20.6 oz
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Reuse fuel container
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N/A
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no
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Yes
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Low ambient temperature
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Good to low temp
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REI promises good to 20°, worked <0°F out of my
refrigerator
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Good to low temp
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Temperature control
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Poor
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Good
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Good
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Attendance
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replace tablets every 5-10 minutes
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none
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must pump every 5 minutes
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Notes: isopropane and Esbit do not require a wind screen so
much as white gas does, but would probably profit from it anyway.
The Esbit story: First try: two tablets burned 9:45 minutes
without boiling, a 3rd tablet burned for a while then went out partially burned,
a 4th tabled then burned with the 3rd for 19:40 cumulative. A fifth tablet then
burned another 8:20 minutes before going out. One tablet at a time was never
going to boil 6 cups of water. It’s not clear if two tablets at a time would
have boiled it, but it was starting to form nascent bubbles. Second try: four
tablets at once was enough, just barely, and it was the reasonable max that the
stove could hold.
The white gas story: first priming attempt failed to light
anything, second attempt had a run away fire due to a spill, third attempt
failed because the priming cup was too hot to hold gas, but priming loop was not
hot enough to hold prime, fourth attempt worked. Some white gas is often spilled
during priming and setup, unlike the others.
The second pan full of water on isopropane had an already hot
pan, so it’s surprising it took longer.
Isopropane and temperature. In theory, it does not work as
well at low temperature. I put my isopropane cannister and stove in my
refrigerator to test. A not totally accurate thermometer said my freezer section
was < 0 (F). I let the stove sit there for an hour, pulled it out, and it lit
and burned immediately. It couldn't have warmed up much in the 5 seconds it took
me to pull it out, set it on the counter, and light it. Of course, it
wasn't continuously burning in the cold, which is somewhat different since it
cools itself significantly via evaporation and is thus even colder than the
ambient air temperature. By burning in the warm air I wasn't able to test that
effect.
I also tested it in 32 (F) outdoors. I lit first and
burned well one try. Another try took six attempts to light, but then
burned well.
Mt. Sill
These are some notes regarding the approach to Mt. Sill and
camping along it (not technical climbs of it). I made my trip in
September 2001.
Wilson's in Bishop, CA, has good maps of the region including a
plasticized topo map, which can be hard to find elsewhere.
The trail from Big Pine campground (National Forest camping)/Glacier
Lodge (apparently private cabins), follows the north fork of Big Pine
Creek for about 8 miles to Sam Mack meadow. It ascends from 7800' to
11000'. To this point, it's a clearly established trail.
At Sam Mack meadow, it crosses the stream and climbs the valley on
switchbacks. At the top of the switchbacks, the trail becomes a
little fainter but continues. At this point is the first clear view
of Mt. Sill. Before this point, it has mostly been hidden behind Mt.
Gayley.
In another 1/2 mile (approximately), the trail descends a small valley,
of maybe 30'. This is notable because it's the only descent, of even
a trivial amount, on this part of the trail (between Sam Mack and the
Palisade Glacier). In the bottom of this small valley was a
sheltered, small flat sandy area, suitable for a tent, one of the few to
be found, and a trickle of water that be would enough for drinking (once
filtered). For lack of a better name, we dubbed this PCS (Perfect
Camping Spot).
At PCS, there are some choices that are not obvious to the first-time
hiker. From here, one can see the moraine from the Palisade glacier
as a tongue of fine talus. If one heads straight up the valley, it
is probably the shortest course to the camping spots at the foot of the
glacier on some flat rocks by the lake there at 12,200'. I didn't
take this route, as it apparently requires some difficult walking
on the talus.
Alternatively, the "ducks" (small stone cairns) marking the
trail lead across the PCS valley and along a lip, which averages maybe 50 yards wide,
just below the moraine and just above the steep gully at the foot of Mt.
Gayley and Temple Crags. This is probably the best day hike route
for making the glacier and being as near to Glacier Notch (between Mt.
Gayley and Mt. Sill) as possible, as well as having a good view if one
doesn't intend to ice climb. It crests a few hundred feet above the
foot of the glacier. The initial part is slow going with scrambling
across large scree, but in only a few hundred yards becomes scenic rolling
bedrock with numerous striations, many good paths, and solid
footholds. It all continues steeply upward, but makes
for easy climbing. In the picture below, this is between the yellow
and green lines. The yellow line marks where the moraine meets the
bedrock and the green line marks where the bedrock gives way to the
gully.
Along this route, there are several possible camping spots, perhaps 10
that are flat enough to set a tent on, though all rocky. On the date
we climbed, we found only one which had any water (about halfway from PCS
to the top of the bedrock), and that was only a steady drip (but enough
for our needs). There were other water sources along this part, but
none close to a flat enough spot for a tent. There is even a decent
spot at the top of the bedrock, just yards before the ridge, at about
12,300', but no water nearby.
There is a temptation from PCS to head straight for Mt. Sill by walking
over the talus. This is not recommended. Staying a little
lower, and following the ducks, keeps one on the bedrock as long as
possible. One can approach Glacier Notch a little bit closer
with a difficult scree passage from the ridge at the top of the bedrock,
but there is no hiking trail from there to Glacier Notch (in
September). Either an ice climb or a technical rock climb is needed.
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The map below is about 3 miles on a side.
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