[pct-l] Add Salt to your Alcohol Stove Fuel

[Matthew Edwards]

This is under the heading of unsolicited advice. But it has come up
recently on another forum and I think it is important enough to bring up
here.
The addition of a pinch of table salt to your denatured alcohol (or Yellow
Heet) stove fuel will render and alcohol flame bright yellow and visible.
The PCT, particularly in Southern California, is a hot and extremely dry
environment. Having just hiked the PCT, CDT and AT I can tell you for a
fact that the driest, most fire prone area anywhere on those trails is on
the PCT in SoCal.
There is nothing even remotely as dry on the AT as the PCT in California.
Those little cat can alcohol stoves are great, light, and effective.
The downside is that they can be tipped or blown over easily and pure denat
alcohol or HEET burns with a nearly invisible blue flame.
You may not think it will happen to you, but a LOT of hikers have mishaps
with their stoves on a thru hike.
The ability to see the flames might make the difference between a bad burn
or setting a massive forest fire and being able to see the fire and put it
out.
Salting your fuel makes the flames visible. This can also help you avoid
trying to add more fuel to a lit stove that appears to be out.
The logistics are very simple.
Fill up your alcohol fuel container at a resupply and add a pinch of table
salt from the shaker while at a restaurant in town where you will no doubt
have a meal.. or three.
A pinch of salt being that which fits between your thumb and fore-finger.
You can add more if you like as it does no harm but a pinch will do the
trick.
I found that even if i forgot to add salt, the residual salt in the
container still made my stoves flames bright yellow between resupplies.
I used an aluminum alcohol stove (Trail Designs Caldera) from Mexico to
Echo Lake and a Brass Trangia 28 from Echo Lake to Canada, both of which
burned salted alcohol without any ill effects. YMMV.
Please forgive me for giving un-solicited advice.
When you go for alcohol or HEET in town remember the salt.
Cheers!
-Iceaxe PCT09, CDT10, AT11