YGingras^.net

Back in the early days of New France, a coureur des bois would spend a little fortune for his ultra light birch bark canoe. Space era materials now abound in consumer products. The modern backpacker will also find many opportunities to trade a large amount of money for light gears. Every gram count. Tents have carbon fiber frames, fork and spoon are merged into titanium sporks, white leds provide dependable light sources, Gore-Tex and microfiber enable light, warm, waterproof cloths. The outdoorsman value light gears. It's part of his nature. It's enough work to carry oneself over rough portage; who would want to carry a hard wood boat?

The modern outdoorsman have it easy. His expeditions won't make him rich, but he will find all his gears at the local store. However, money won't buy him the ultimate stove. The ultimate stove cost only 20 cents of supplies but one have to make it himself.

• Full text (3054 words)
• Comments (127)

There I was, overlooking the Kilauea, one km above sea level, 3700 km from the closest continent, in the middle of a vast treeless lava field. There was a pleasant yet strong breeze making the tropical Sun easier to stand. It was lunch time and I was looking forward for a hot meal after all the rough hiking.

I was well prepared with my, mostly homemade, ultra-light backpacking gears: Cobra Stove, aluminum foil wind screen, mesh pot stand and camping saucepan. Everything was perfectly calculated: with 175ml of alcohol I was good for six meals, all what was needed for an overnight back-country trip with a generous margin for errors. I had a watertight matchbox with a capacity of 20, that was more than enough. Right?

Compared to other Zen Stove designs, the Cobra is more fuel efficient. Construction is as simple but you need a primer pan (video by Don Johnston) in order to reach the inner pressure that makes the jets burning by themselves. The principle of the primer pan is simple: you let your stove sit in a (really small) bath of alcohol that you set ablaze. If the bath is too small, the stove won't get hot enough and you have to repeat the procedure, no big deal here. If the bath is too big, the stove gets too hot and you might have noticed that design don't include a relief valve. If you are lucky, you waste all your fuel in a few seconds of 50 cm flames, otherwise the stove blow up. Obviously, I tend to make small primer baths.

• Full text (1148 words)
• Comments (1)