Lightweight Backpacking Dissertation

[topshot]

Using a canister per pair of Scouts is rather overkill. I guess you save some size and weight on smaller pots but not a whole bunch. Not really lower cost either since you have twice as many stoves.

 

Hadn't heard of the Soto. "Newly developed micro regulator maintains consistent output in cold weather." Pure marketing BS. They somehow overcome the basic properties of the liquified gases - I don't think so. What it will do is keep output more constant as the temp of the CANISTER decreases, but that would not be significant for a normal boil anyway, only if you were cooking for longer than 15 min maybe. It will still fail to work in colder temps just like any other upright stove, leaving unused fuel in the canister. On the plus side, I see it is made in Japan so build quality should be good.

 

For cold temps, remote canister where you can invert the canister is the better choice. Otherwise you need to keep an upright canister warm enough, usually by placing it within some water or some other tricks but not something I'd want Scouts to be dealing with. KISS.

[drmbear]

Something I now definitely include, particularly when there are at least a few of us, is one of the very small, lightweight, wood burning stoves (I made mine with a quart paint can and soup can). There is literally an unlimited supply of downed wood along the trails in Shenandoah National Park (AT area) where I last took a backpacking trip, and I was able to boil water nearly as fast as my gas stove with only about a handful of small one-inch cubes of downed wood, maybe a small branch. It is extremely lightweight, I don't need to carry fuel(when in the right places) meaning I can go for unlimited time, and it's easy to use. I'm thinking if I can find a gas stove that fits inside it, and a very small fuel bottle, it could cover all possibilities.

[Basementdweller]

Valid points

 

 

But most patrol method backpack cooking I have witnessed outside my troop involved 4 man mountain house meals and HUGE pots of water and MSR liquid stoves. While I have benefited from the Patrols leftovers, It seems excessive to me.

 

 

I like our method it teaches my scouts to be self sufficient in the outdoors. We backpack three times a year, they can use patrol method when we car camp with patrol boxes.