After an enjoyable 30 day trip 1500+ miles down the eastern divide last january in which I had campfires 90% of the time I've vowed to attempt to go all wood this summer.
With no fuel necessary to carry it's the ultra in ultralight stoves.
I simply love wood. Love the smells, the joys of a campfire in the evening. Natural anti-bug qualities. The superb heat / cook times and extended multi-course cooking.... i.e. setting the coffee/tea mug/pot back on the edge of the fire between sips.
To that end my kit has reached a new level of UL craziness.
ultralight cook kit, 2oz stove, 2.3oz pot, .6oz mug/bowl by
mmeiser2, on Flickr
So, while my Supercat alcohol stove is .25 oz that does not include fuel which weighs atleast 5-8 ounces and usually 12 with container. Oh, and the need for a windscreen.
Besides, my wood stove can double as a windscreen if you want to use it in combination with an alcohol stove for versatility. At the very least it makes a great backup.
One might use alcohol in the morning or for a hot lunch and wood in the evening for extended length meals and the joys of a campfire.
Meanwhile in comparison to the alcohol, my wood one will probably weigh well less then 2oz when I'm finally finished with it. I need to perfect the joint and trim a lot of excess material.
Did I mention it can boil two cups of water in 2-2.5 minutes? Crazy, but that's pretty consistent. It's because the pot sits down inside the burner and the fire is all around it. This also btw turns the wide bottom pot vs. narrow bottom pot argument on it's head. Suddenly a narrow bottom pot becomes more effective then wide bottom, and narrow bottom pack way better too.
This configuration also works superbly with a trademark 700ml evernew or snowpeak pot. I like the high handles on my evernew 700.
As seen in the picture I'm experimenting with the venom energy drink bottle boiler because it and the stove fit easily in a standard water bottle cage and can be used during the day for water as well. Regular weight Fosters / Heineken beer or pop can pots melt even with water in them in this stove. It's too hot.
I guess I find the venom bottle a little small for real use as a water bottle during the day so the ideal pot for me would be a wide mouth 24oz kleen kanteen... if I could find one lighter made out of aluminum instead of stainless steel. Having multiple uses for things like a pot as a water bottle is one of the best ways to cut weight and packing size. Indeed even a stainless steel kleen kanteen probably weighs less then the lightest titanium pot and a traditional water bottle combined. Not to mention it's one less thing to fit in the pack.
Wire twine handle... rules. Simple enough, stays cool, easy grabing off the fire, ultralight, easily moveable from an old pot to a new pot.
Soot... stove rolls up around sooted pot. You can also use a small cloth kozy if you like but this is a complete non-issue for me, but others admitedly may be more soot obsessive.
