SinChats – Do You Use a Water Bladder for Backpacking?

Here’s a question I get every so often: Do you still use your water bladder for backpacking and if not, why? Let’s weigh the pro’s and cons in this video discussion.

The water bladder seen in the video is an Osprey 2L HydraForm Reservoir – 70 fl. oz, similar to a Camelbak bladder, but with a bit more rigid design allowing it to maintain the same shape regardless of water level.

From looking online, it seems like the Hydraform model is no longer in production. The Osprey Hydraulics LT Reservoir – 2.5 Liter seems to be the next incarnation by Osprey.

2 thoughts on “SinChats – Do You Use a Water Bladder for Backpacking?

  1. I’m probably going to stop using a water bladder. I realized how dangerous they can be on my last trip. On our second day hiking, just after a fill up, one of our bladders popped inside the pack. We didn’t notice until water came dripping out the bottom but by then, our sleeping gear was wet and we were now at half capacity for water. Luckily it wasn’t too hot to manage, and we could dry our gear out but these were near perfect conditions. I’m probably going to switch over to large light weight water bottles for peace of mind in the future. Plus…it’ll be nice to see exactly how much water I have left. JMHO.

Leave a Reply