350g Cook Kit

I am pretty excited to have gotten the weight of my cook kit down to 350g. This kit will represent my 3 season cook kit.  It is made up of a Snow Peak Ti pot; the Trangia Spirit Burner; the Trangia Triangle Wind Screen; and a home made Pot Stand.  Testing boil times yesterday with 20oz of refrigerator water did not deliver stellar boil times, somewhere in the neighborhood of 7-8 minutes.  For water that was at ambient temperature, I believe the times would have been in the 4-6 minutes, perfectly acceptable in my book.

The Trangia Spirit burner runs off of readily available denatured alchohol or one of the many other variants of accetpable fuel.  Winter camping is most likely the only time that I will not use this kit, especially for those scenarios where snow must be boiled.  Having spent the last 3 years using canister stoves, I am really anxious to go with a simpler, cheaper and more environmentally friendly way of cooking.  While I had delusions of going solely with wood, I will leave the Kelly Kettle for special outings.

In addition to the light weight, the total cost of this kit is quite small.  The Trangia Spirit burner cost me $20 and the triangle came in at $14.  I bought a $2 piece of steel rod to make my custom pot holder.  The Ti pot is the most expensive piece of kit, but that was provided to me by Snow Peak, and by no means is a Ti pot required.  Searches on the net reveal a whole host of DIY or inexpensive pots that do a perfectly fine job.

Advantages:

• Low cost
• Fuel readily available - Pharmacy, Hardware Stores, Gas Stations, etc.
• Approximately .8 ounces per 20 ounce boil, less if you cook with a cozy and just heat your water.
• No moving parts to break or foul
• Minimal waste

Disadvantages:

• Slower boil times
• Not suitable for extreme cold weather