BearVault Bear Canister Review
Review by Dan James
- Product:
- BearVault Black Bear Resistant Food Cannister (company site)
- What's Good:
- Light, durable, transparent, black bear resistant.
- What's Bad:
- Expensive (~$80.00 USD).
This summer I had the pleasure of hiking numerous times in both the Adirondacks of New York and the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Before my first venture in the mountains this spring I purchased two Bear Vaults to protect our food supply for a four day trek. At eighty dollars (USD) a piece they were not cheap pieces of equipment. But who can put a price on protecting my granola bars and fruit-to-gos?!
Any outdoor types know as well as I do that for the majority of hiking destinations in North America that properly hanging your food will protect it from bears. In some areas though, due to talented black bears, it’s absolutely necessary to have a cannister. In other places it’s the law.
The BearVault is pretty much just a huge Nalgene for your food. Like a Nalgene It’s made out of polycarbonate so it won’t shatter and is impact resistant (I would say that these comments are on the safe side. These things can take a beating). The vaults have a large flat screw on lid. This is what keeps the bears out. The lid is designed so that it clicks past tabs when fully screwed on. It’s also a VERY big lid. The design is one that makes it awkward if not impossible for our friend the black bear to open but not impossible for us opposable thumb types.
The vaults are quite light for their size. Surprisingly light at 2lbs and 6 oz. I found that the vault slipped in quite nicely to the top portion of my 60 liter pack. It was also great to have a waterproof container to put dry clothes in (in a zip-lock bag so they didn’t absorb food smell). Towards the end of longer trips its nice to have a waterproof place to put all of our garbage.
Around camp they are a godsend. I’ve used the vaults as stools, chairs, cutting boards, tables, water jugs, and hammers. Just having a flat surface in camp is a treat. Another handy feature is that they are transparent. You can see what you’re reaching in for. Other cannisters I’ve used are a solid plastic and you have to fish everything out/around to find what you’re looking for.
Now I know what you’re thinking. How can you do a good review of a bear cannister without having it attacked by bears? I’m way ahead of you. While camping this summer by Lake Colden in the High Peaks region of the Adirondacks my BearVaults were put to the test. For those who don’t know, this area is notorious for its black bears. We placed our BearVaults a fair distance from our camp site. In the middle of the night I woke up to hear smashing sounds coming from the direction of our vaults. Thuds came from the vaults smashing into the soil. Loud bangs from the vaults hitting each other and hitting the fallen trees that we had placed them beside. For a good hour these sounds drifted over to our campsite. Then they stopped. In the morning I found the BearVaults 10-15 feet from where I had left them. They were dirty, one had a small scratch on it, but other wise they were intact and the food within in them untouched.
For the peace of mind alone I’ll continue to use the BearVaults on hiking trips. It’s nice to not have to worry about hearing your bear bag and its precious contents hit the ground in the middle of the night. These vaults are highly recommended if you are planning on being in black bear country overnight.
Buy the Bearvault from Amazon.com
Comments
Jacob - September 14, 2004 7:04 pm
I know you already mentioned it but I think it is worth repeating that the vaults themselves are great for fitting down into your pack. Rather than having a bunch of loose zip-lock bags in your pack you get this neat cannister. It goes in and comes out easily and saves much time and frustration when you need to find something in your bag or, as mentioned above, you are in need of a dry storage area.
RG - August 30, 2006 1:13 am
There's another benefit to vaults over hanging: Hanging food from a tree might keep it away from bears, but squirrels and mice and quite adept at crawling down rope and eating through a bag to get your food. So in addition the being a Bear Vault, it's also a Squirell Vault. :)
Philippe Crine - September 8, 2007 1:47 pm
After years of day hikes in the Adirondacks my wife and I finally decided to try multi day hikes. We bought a tent, sleeping backs, larger backpacks and the now mandatory bear canister. Our model is a BearVault BV350 solo model that we purchased at EMS in Lake Placid. Over the past two weeks, we camped three times in the mountains: once night at Marcy Dam, two nights near Johns Brook lodge, one night at Avalanche Camp 1.2 miles up from Marcy Dam. Every night, our camp was raided by black bears. At Marcy Dam, a small black bear planted its teeth deep into the plastic lid of the canister right at the place where the plastic tab that locks the lid is located. We managed to scare it away before it had a chance to carry it far from the camp. We were not as lucky at Avalanche Camp. The bear came much later during the night when we were sound asleep and managed to carry it down a ravine where it had more time to work on the lid with its teeth. It finally managed to pry it open and ate everything inside. Bears don't clean up after themselves, so it was not hard for us to find the canister in the middle of a huge mess of wrappers and untouched coffee and tea backs which apparently they do not appreciate. Ironically, a plastic pouch of uncooked pasta and sauce that did not fit in the canister and that I had hung in a tree was left intact.
We ate the pasta for breafast and that kept us going all the way to the top of Marcy where a fellow hiker was nice enough to share some nut bars with us.
Conclusion: High Peaks bears are getting smarter and know now how to open the BearVault BV350 canister. I thought I should share this story to make other owners of the BearVault BV350 that this supposedly safe canister is no longer a obstacle to the smartest bear of the Adirondacks.
timandely - August 24, 2008 10:05 am
we did a recent hike in the lake colden area of the adirondack high peak region. we had the false security that our bear vault canister,350/400 would protect our food. a bear easily opened both our canisters by appling a bite at the plastic saftey clip area the lid screws pat to secure the lid. it ruined our hike and we had to leave early without doing the hikes we had planned. very dissappointing. we have recently purchased a backpacker cache canister with the two srews which hold the lid down. hopefully the bears don't learn to file their nails and use them as screw driver.