Choosing a stove is harder than it may seem because you have to think about number of people and the amount of fuel. When the number of people grow it makes more sense to take a larger stove as you will be able to cook more food. In India its even harder to choose the stove because you have to options of hiring cook's, porters and other staff who will carry your stove and food. This has the plus side that you will get fresh, hot meals instead of freeze dried stuff.
You may also conciser tea house treks and choose no stove and stick to an electric heating rod.
Stoves will also be important if you are going some place very cold and all the water is frozen.
In today discussion we will look at some of the stove options and some quick tips and tricks.
So what kind of stoves have I used (or seen being used)?
There are a large variety of stoves each for a different situation. I have used the ones described as under.- Kerosene Stove
- The Kerosene stove is the backbone of any large hike / trek in India. The stoves are commonplace and so is the fuel. They are large bulky do not pack and due to quality of kerosene need frequent cleaning. However your cook will have experience with them
- Pros -
- Cheep
- Fuel is easily available
- Serve food for a large number of people
- Cons -
- Don't carry them yourself
- Require cleaning
- Setup time is large
- When to use it?
- If you are in a large group > 3
- You will have porters to carry the stuff
- This also means that you food will be warm nutritious and fresh
- Wood burning Stove
- I am putting the wood stove for the sake of argument, I am unable to think of a situation when you would be able to effectively use it. There are some commercial ones available including ones with USB charger's. They are great for tea houses as permanent installations but I do not think they can be carried around. The good thing is that fuel should be readily available but if it rains or snows you wont have any dry fuel.
We will now talk about stoves that as a hiker you can carry around. these are light, small, designed to be carried by one person and will not cook large and elaborate meals.
- Trangia mini Alocohol Stove
- Trangia mini is a great quality brass stove. There also comes a military version which is slightly larger. They are ideal for one or two day trips, because anything greater than that the fuel bulk will be quite a bit. I use Trangia mini kit which comes with stove, a pot and a frying pan along with winter attachment to use the stove in snow. You can make your own alcohol stove but I would not because I like to carry something robust.
- Pros -
- Super light
- No moving part's hence nothing will get damaged
- Cons -
- If the trip is greater than 2-3 days the fuel you will carry will be quite a bit
- Its difficult to find if it is running in sun
- As the fuel is not pressurized the efficiency is quite low
- You have to wait for the stove to cool down before you can add fuel otherwise you will have a big fire.
- When to use it
- Small 2-3 day trips
- If possible not in winter's
These videos will show the stove in action
- Jetboil Sumo Cooking system
- The Jetboil cooking system is the ultimate in hiking gear. Its efficient, light weight and comes in various sizes. They make Aluminium and Titanium based systems. The system only boils water but they have attachments for pots and pans. It uses gas can's.
- Pro's -
- Efficient
- Can work with large number of attachment's
- Lightweight
- Packs into a small cup
- Con's -
- Cost
- When to use it
- In a small group when you have to carry all the gear.
Some stuff I have not used but have hear great things about
I have read-up on two other systems but have not used them
- MSR whisperlight multi fuel stove - This is a great stove which will burn anything you put into it. However as it is bulkier than Jetboil it is not something I conciser, given that fuel bottles can be obtained in India.
- Mountain house mountain oven - The mountain house mountain oven seems to be a great chemical based system but will only cook mountain house meal kits. I would like to get my hands on it and review the same.
So what do I use?
I use a Kerosene stove along with pots, pan's and all the stuff if its a big hike and is being operated by a staff of people. On the other hand if I am doing a hike all by myself I use a Jetbooil Sumo titanium model which comes with all the bells and whistles. I use the Sumo because it can boil around one liter of water and other models only boil around 800 milli-liter. Further the titanium model is lighter. I also carry if needed the Trangia pot and pan. I usually carry two 100 gms gas can's which boil a good twenty liter's of water.
What we should remember is that stove is just a part of your cooking system, you need to think about all the other things you would carry to eat to make the whole thing work.
Tips and Tricks (if you will carry your own gear)
- At night you may but some boiled water in your bottle and use it as a hot water bottle, this can be your drinking water next day.
- When taking cup-noodles / ramans conciser taking some jerky or freeze dry vegetables to be put with it
- Mountain house food's are great for one person trips
- Conciser taking staff and a cook in your hikes, great food is a must for a good hike. Freshly cooked food is any day better than freeze dried crap.
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