[pct-l] Alcohol Stove "winter" trip report

["Robinson, Brian A" <brian.robinson@compaq.com>]

Hi all,

For context, I'm one of the proponents of the Mayer-Robinson "tuna can"
alcohol stove, designs for which can be found at:

http://www.home.earthlink.net/%7Elscholte/jmstove.htm  (I'm the son of the
designer)

Previously I've confirmed the 5 minute boil times for 2 cups of water in
ideal conditions.  I've also thru-hiked with this stove for 800 PCT miles,
and taken this stove as a backup on weekend snow trips.

Last weekend (Friday through Sunday) I camped at Lassen Volcanic National
Park with the alcohol stove as my only stove.  Conditions were typical
California spring snow-camping conditions.  15-20 feet of snow, clear sunny
skies and windy during the day.  Temperatures were down to the mid twenties
at night.  I used the stove for two dinners, two oatmeal breakfasts, and for
all my snow-melt water for three days.  I brought 1 pint of alcohol stove
fuel that I buy here in the Bay Area by the gallon at Orchard Supply
Hardware.  The dinners used 1/4th of the fuel and the breakfasts 1/8th of
it.  It took approximately 4 tablespoons of fuel to melt and boil 2 cups of
water.  I didn't record the boil times, but I'd guess it was 10 minutes from
snow to soup.  It was certainly true that my Whisperlight toting friends
were still melting snow when I was eating.  Pumping, priming and lighting a
gas stove in cold windy conditions takes several minutes and they were
melting larger quantities of water for boiling pasta.  My dinners were ramen
soup and cous-cous which are more fuel efficient and require no simmering.  

Snow melting was by far the biggest fuel consumer.  I melted small amounts
multiple times to get what I needed.  I almost ran out of matches, but it
worked great.

The only addition to my summer set up was a 4 by 6 inch piece of cardboard
covered with aluminum foil to keep the stove from melting into the snow.  It
wasn't quite long enough to keep the wind screen from melting into the snow,
so I will lengthen it to 8 inches next time.

If I was doing the same trip with my MSR gasoline stove, I'd bring one small
fuel bottle, 11 fluid ounces, I believe.  So I carried about 5 extra fluid
ounces in fuel.  But I saved nearly a pound in stove and fuel bottle weight.
It would take about a week-long winter trip before the extra fuel weight
overcomes the stove savings. 

I summary, I see no reason why an alcohol stove can't be used in 4-season
conditions.

Brian 


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