Your Choice of Stoves

Many decisions are in play when deciding what type of stove you are going to take on any given trip.  These include the availability of fuel; how many people are you cooking for; what is the duration of your trip; and what are your weight and size requirements.  I think out of all of these, fuel tends to be the biggest issue for most people.  On shorter trips availability is of no concern, while on longer trips, the ability to obtain fuel or to carry enough fuel, becomes a very big issue.

For most of my adventure travels I have relied on Iso-Butane stoves.  Little stoves from Snow Peak, Vango, or MSR have been my tool of choice.  I guess I have perfected the ability to both carry enough fuel and to identify the places throughout my travel regions where resupply was not an issue.  On my most remote trip, up the Inside Passage, I was in a kayak and thus able to carry quite a bit of spare fuel.  I often had 3 medium size cannister of fuel stowed in my skeg box, with a 4th cannister in my cook kit.  This effectively gave me 4 weeks of fuel, more than enough time to resupply.

However, being the traveler that I am, I often ponder ways of saving money and travelling in a simpler and more efficient manner.  I have watched with curiosity as the UL alcohol stove revolution has taken hold of the backpacking and bikepacking communities.  For some reason, these stoves have yet to appeal to me. While very light, they still require you to carry fuel. 

This past weekend, as we took a micro-adventure up into the western waters of Scotland, I was introduced to a very cool little creation called the Kelly Kettle.  I believe that some time ago I had seen one of these, but for whatever reason I had dismissed them as large, bulky, and inefficient.  After all, when I want to eat, I want to eat.  The thought of foraging for sticks and lighting and then building a fire was a bit off putting for me.  So it was with great surprise that I watched as Ollie pulled out his Kelly Kettle, grabbed a bunch of wet sticks and twigs combined with a little dry kindling fire starter and proceeded to bring more than a liter of water to boil in a matter of minutes.  Dang, I thought this was incredibly cool -- could this be the answer to my stove search once and for all?

Well, once I got back I did some research and found out that not only do they make a large size Kettle, but they also have a trekker version, one more to my liking.  Now, this is not UL, but it is pretty close when you consider that you no longer have to carry fuel.  Weighing in at a bit more than a pound, this is easily the equal to my current stove/windshield/fuel kit that I now carry.  Top that off with the fact that you can cook on top of the chimney while water is boiling, or even grill over the open flame once it is going, and you have an incredibly versatile piece of equipment.

I am so enamored with this little thing that I am going to get the Trekker model and put it to good use.  I must say, there have been almost no places that I have travelled over the last 3 years where I could not have found sticks and twigs to fuel the kettle fire.  If nothing, the vast majority of locations there has been an abundance of fuel to use.  There are some tricky issues to consider, such as areas where burn bans are in effect, but putting that aside, this is one very cool device.  The thought of being able to freely travel without the need for fuel makes this a worthwhile item to evaluate. Add to the kettle some of the cooking accessories, once again not very heavy, and you have the makings of a very utilitarian device. 

When mine arrives, I will put it through its paces and report back.  I can definitely see this for kayaking and multi-person hikes, but am unsure of how it will work on the bike.  Luckily I have a number of micro adventures in the next couple of weeks that will be a very good testing ground for the kettle.