On a recent trip in Sweden I decided to take the the Ti Tri Caldera with the BPL 550 ml Titanium pot. At the beginning of the trip there was approximately 5 cm of snow on the ground and temperatures were around zero C, these conditions continued throughout the trip with snow falls increasing the ground coverage to about 10 cm whilst air temperatures remained below zero resulting in the production of ice in the water bottles. It was in these conditions that I used the Caldera.
When hiking I normally boil approximately 1300 ml of water a day and in these conditions I used an average of 40 gms of fuel per day. However, what impressed me was on the last morning when boiling approximately 450 mls of water some of which was ice with an air temperature below zero, 15 ml of alcohol boiled the water in less than 10 minutes. Whilst at other times 10 ml of alcohol was sufficient to boil 250 ml of water. To me this is a very impressive result in conditions that are not suited to the use alcohol stoves.
My setup is as follows, the Caldera cone, the titanium floor (now 2 half sections, thanks Trail Designs) the 12-10 stove, a TD Prime-Lite Primer Pan as well I use the caddy (an extra 75 gms in weight) and 2 cozies one for the pot and one for the larger caddy section. The pot slides onto the caddy so the whole stove packs up as a cylinder 20 cm long with a diameter of 10.5 cm including cozy. the weight breakdowns on my scales are as follows
Titanium Cone and Titanium Floor: 51 gms
Stove: 16 gms
Prime-Lite Primer Pan: 7 gms
BPL 550 ml pot with lid: 58 gms
Caddy: 75 gms
Cozies: 39 gms
MSR Litelifter: 29 gms
Total weight: 275 gms
The removal of the caddy would save weight, but I have found it useful as it provides flexibility in the preparation of freezer bag meals along with “hot” drinks.
That's the puppy for me this coming summer Nielsen. I like the ability to use three different fuels. Where possible I'd like to use dead wood with just a couple of ounces of alcohol and a few esbit tablets in reserve just in case.
ReplyDeleteThat is exactly my plan, though I may just focus on Metho and wood. It is my view that Esbit and Metho use and weight carried is about the same. The advantage of Esbit would also be a wood fire starter. My next trip (Easter) will be focussed on metho and wood, hopefully I will not have too many cold meals.
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