Caving on the Ultralight Backpacking Stove

Alright kirby, you win this time. I completely wimped out on the DIY ultralight backpacking stove challenge. I sawed a clean hole in the bottom of a Diet Coke can and used my Dremel to drill 24 pinholes around the shoulder using the super-useful templates at Zen Stoves.Â

But then something happened. While I was out getting some JB-Weld to cement the halves of the stove together I stopped at Sport Chalet…to get a bear canister. Now I don’t want any of you to get the wrong idea and think I have no stones at all, I don’t mind rassling a bear over my lunch. I just don’t want to pay the $150 fine for getting caught in the Sierras without a bear can.Â

Anyhow, while in Sport Chalet I spied an MSR Pocket Rocket for just FORTY FREAKIN’ DOLLARS. Figuring I had more than an hour of delicate fussy Dremel work left on my can stove, not to mention the time I would lose by JB Welding my finger to my eyeball (again) and I just couldn’t pass up such a featherlight camp stove.

Damaged pride aside (real mountain men make their own gear), the MSR Pocket Rocket is 3 oz. of superfine cooking goodness. Easy to light, easy to handle, it boils water in 2-3 minutes. Beats all heck out of the gel fuel stove I used last year. One thing to watch–the flip-out pot holders get red hot during a burn. And the stability can be a little tenuous on a lumpy boulder or in soft sand. And you can’t use a windscreen with it (fuel cartridge might explode!) But those are little things if it means not having to use JB Weld.

So kirby, it looks like I’ll need another venue for proving my mountain manliness. I suppose I’ll just have to forge my own Bowie knife out of used railroad spikes or something like that.
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