[pct-l] Stoves, stoves and more stoves....

[Scott Bryce]

On 1/18/2013 8:35 PM, Randy Godfrey wrote:
> PCT friends,
>
> There is so much discussion over and desire to use the alcohol
> stoves. I feel like I'm missing something here. Are the advantages of
> using an alcohol stove that great over using a canister stove? My
> sweetie and I take a few 8-9 day backpack trips in the North Cascades
> and Utah every year and use an MSR Pocket Rocket canister stove.

There is a trade off. Because it takes about twice as much alcohol to
boil water as butane/propane, one must carry more alcohol fuel. If you
are cooking for one person, and resupplies are fairly close together,
the lighter weight of the stove makes up for the heavier weight of the
fuel. If you are hiking greater distances between resupplies, cooking
for two, or boiling a lot of water, at some point the weight of the fuel
becomes a greater factor than the weight of the stove, and a canister
stove is a better choice.