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Pot with Heat Exchanger Fins, Stove and Windscreen

Esbit Alcohol Stove and Cookset with Heat Exchanger (CS985H-EX)

At 13.1 ounces, the new Esbit Alcohol Cookset (CS985H-EX) is not the lightwest weight single pot cook system available, but I really like the fact that it’s a complete out-of-the-box cooking system and has a 1 quart / 1 liter anodized aluminum pot with a heat exchanger included.  I got hooked on pots with heat [...]

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Coghlan's Hard Anodized Aluminum Cookset

Coghlan’s Hard Anodized Aluminum Cookset

When I backpack alone, I pretty much stick to one pot meals. But my wife (Captain Mouse), has gotten bit by the car camping bug, so we’ve been trying out different cooksets to take on our trips together. She’s a foodie and likes to cook more elaborate concoctions than the ramen noodle and olive oil [...]

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MSR Reactor 2.5 liter pot

MSR Reactor Pot – 2.5 Liter

I became enamored with cook pots that include heat exchange fins this year after watching a friend melting snow with one last winter with far less fuel than me. This led to my changing my cook pot for this winter from an 1.3 liter ultralight titanium pot to a comparatively giant MSR Reactor 2.5 liter cook [...]

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MSR Simmerlite Liquid Fuel Stove

MSR Simmerlite White Gas Stove: Long Term Review

I’ve owned a MSR Simmerlite Liquid Gas Stove for 4 years. I’ve used it every winter since then for one and only one purpose: melting snow for drinking water and boiling it to store in insulated containers or rehydrate winter backpacking meals. I originally bought Simmerlite because it was the lightest weight liquid fuel stove [...]

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BioLite Wood Burning CampStove

BioLite CampStove – The Substance Beyond the Hype

The BioLite CampStove received a huge amount of media attention this summer for being the first camping stove that can burn wood for cooking and recharging USB-enabled electronic devices. That’s a bunch of baloney, in my opinion. There are far better ways to boil water in the backcountry and recharge electronic devices than using a wood [...]

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Olicamp XTS Anodized Aluminum Pot with Heat Exchanger

Olicamp Hard Anodized XTS Aluminum Pot with Heat Exchanger

I’ve been using a new aluminum cooking pot this summer from Olicamp that has a built in heat exchanger. The pot, which has a 1 liter capacity, is large enough that you can fit a 250 gram gas canister inside it including a screw-on canister stove, making a nice compact and stowable package. Plus the [...]

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Trail Designs Caldera Cone Alcohol Stove

How to Choose a Backpacking Stove and Pot

A lot of backpackers own multiple pots, stoves, and windscreens, because like other backpacking gear, there’s often no perfect combination of components that will fit all of your needs. Here are some factors that you should weigh when selecting the components of your own stove system. Do you plan to hike outside of the USA? [...]

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Hobos and Hikers

When I was growing up, being a homeless hobo had a certain romantic appeal to it. Hobos are wandering itinerant workers who ride the rails in the United States, a tradition that got its start after the Civil War when men and women had to journey from their homes to find work. It continued unabated [...]

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