Ultralight hikers across the world are constantly looking for innovative ways to cut down on the heaviest part of any pack-your cooking system. From soda can alcohol stoves to forgoing a stove altogether, the name of the game is to carry as little as possible. The three backcountry stoves highlighted here enable you to use whatever is at hand for fuel, be it wood, sticks, pine cones, or brush.
The Hexagon backpacking wood stove from Vargo is constructed out of individual hinged titanium panels that snap to the base to form a conical shape stove, focusing heat upwards for quick and efficient cooking. A hinged access door can be opened or closed for air control, as well as re-fueling.
The Hexagon stove weighs 4.1 oz. and is designed for boiling water or cooking meals in pots up to 1.5 liters. The backpacking stove can run on any sort of flammable items you find in the backcountry. The Vargo Hexagon backpacking wood stove retails for $59.95-$63.95.
Similar to the Vargo Hexagon, the Vital Stove from SolHuma can use any dry, flammable, biological material as fuel. To make the backcountry wood stove even more efficient however, the Vital Stove uses a battery powered blower fan to increase the amount of air flowing into the fire, enabling the flame to produce up to 20,000 BTU of heat.
You pay for this added efficiency in weight, as the Vital Stove weighs 1.6 lbs. The SolHuma backcountry stove retails for $79.95.
Designed by Devin Montgomery, the Backcountry Boiler is modeled as an ultralight chimney kettle. Weighing around 8 oz. (which includes the cooking vessel), this backcountry wood stove is about the same size and weight as your wide mouth water bottle. Similar to the rest of the backcountry stoves seen here, the Backcountry Boiler can operate on just about anything flammable, meaning you don't have to lug along fuel with you.
The backcountry wood stove can boil 2 cups of water in under 5 minutes. The chimney kettle design enables the stove to burn fuel more efficiently and leave little ash to clean up. With the amazing success of his Kickstarter campaign, Devin will soon be ready to take orders.
We have previously written about the BioLite backcountry wood stove , but it unfortunately won't be out until March 2012. I would love to hear from all you ultralight hikers out there, what is your backcountry stove of choice?
