[pct-l] stove choices

[Gary Wright]

On Sep 7, 2010, at 2:47 PM, ned at mountaineducation.org wrote:
> And the stuff does work just fine when you have to cook outside during a snow storm. We have watched many of our students cook their meals around our "snow tables" while the snow piled up on their down jackets. The snow table didn't burn from fuel spillage, either, as the inside of a tent would, but what do you do when it's raining or storming so badly that you can't leave your tent? From what we've seen and heard, alcohol stoves aren't safe enough to use inside tents.

Ned, I really appreciate your input on this list but you keep answering questions as if people are winter hiking the PCT.

If you are caught in a snow/rain storm during thru-hiker season, set up camp and eat your food cold instead of using your stove.  In the morning, start hiking.  I really doubt that *any* stove is safe in a tent or vestibule anyway (at least when compared to using it *outside* the tent.  It wouldn't surprise me if it was safer than getting in car though, statistically speaking).

In most (all?) places on the PCT with cold/rainy weather you are going to be near trees and so I don't think it would be particularly difficult to operate a stove outside your tent and under the trees.  If the weather is so bad that even that doesn't work than you aren't really hiking during thru-hiker season and should probably get off the trail.

Radar