A Bump in the Lightweight Road

Phoebus Stove. Not just for camping.

Last summer I used an Esbit stove on a weeklong trip through the Wind Rivers. The Esbit Folding Stove is a tiny piece of titanium weighing about 0.4 oz, just big enough to hold the fuel tablet with your pot or mug balanced on top. It brought to boil a 16oz cup of water in short time and seemed so simple, whisper quiet, though a bit smelly and sticky. I brought this along as an experiment, to see if I’d like using something so light and simple for warm-weather trips. I looked over at at my Jetboil original model with a rumpled look of dissatisfaction. About 1 lb in weight, it’s far heavier than the Ebsit, somewhat loud, yet extremely effective at what I need in a stove, boiling water. I wondered if I could lessen my load with a ultra-light stove like the Esbit, or even better, make my own stove. The Jetboil works just fine, no fuss, no mess, but it’s size & weight started to gnaw at me. 

After all, each trip I take is an evolution of my gear weight-loss program. I’ve been consciously dialing down my pack weight ever since I volunteered to take part in a lightweight gear article in a magazine published by the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) back in 2008. For the article I was told to pack for a hypothetical, 4 day backpacking trip with friends in New England during the month of June. Several days later I arrived at the AMC Trails Dept. building in Pinkham Notch NH, where an AMC Staffer and past thru hiker of the AT and PCT meticulously unpacked, weighed and carefully scrutinized everything I packed. I certainly didn’t walk away unscathed and neither did the newbie hiker-author. Some of my gear was heavy, redundant, or simply unnecessary. In the end, my base weight added up to a whopping 30 lbs, which is nearly the same as my total weight for the Wind River week-long trip!