The Pot Pal - Multi-use Stuff Sack

I'm no backcountry gourmet.  I carry a pretty simple mess kit and usually just boil water but still appreciate innovative cooking gear design (what kind of gear addict would I be if I didn't?).  So many of the new designs in pots or accessories that are hyped up by marketers these days are just rehashed ideas from the past and don't really contribute to the evolution of lightweight backpacking.  They all look the same and are marketed to solve problems we don't have while not solving problems we do have.  It's been hard for me to get excited about a lot of the new cooking gear coming out recently until I met the Pot Pal. 

Aside from being one of the most innovative designs I've seen in backpacking accessories in a long time, The Pot Pal is a true multi-use item that can help you drop weight while increasing convenience (rather than sacrificing it).  Here are some of the many hats it can wear in your backcountry kitchen:

• Stuff Sack
• Pot Cozy
• Kitchen Organizer
• Trivet
• Pot Grabber
• Towel
• Pillow?

Can your stuff sack do that?  Oh yeah, if you're a crazy Aussie (like the Pot Pal's inventors at Soul Trampers), you can also wear it as a hat (see the video).  Video review from me on the way...

In the meantime, here's an initial review from Sarah Kirkconnell over at Trail Cooking & the Outdoors.

Snow Peak Lids are Here!

I just got them tonight! Gear Talk followers get preference. This is the first run. The next run will be about a week out so if you miss this one, it won't be that long and I'm accepting pre-purchasing. You have a choice between a lid with strainer holes and a lid without any holes if you want to customize it. Click here to get one. Have fun!

BTW, I'm working on some Snow Peak 700 and 900 lids as well if anyone is interested. Let me know.

Trail Designs Caldera Cone for the Heineken Pot

I've always been a little skeptical of the Caldera Cone because of issues with storage, but I recently got one that rolls up and fits inside of a Heineken pot and am pretty impressed with the design. This initial kitchen test passes but I'd really like to get it out in the field and see what it can do in real-world conditions.

Trail Designs Vari-Vent Windscreen

Anyone who has ever built their own windscreen has, at some point, taken a pause to consider the following: Where should I put the ventilation holes? How many should there be? How big should I make them? It's a delicate balance. To many holes and you lose wind protection. Too few and you suffocate your stove. Check out this design...you'll get the idea.



The windscreens come in 3 sizes and you can easily trim them to size: Here are the available heights and their respective weights:

4" 1.1 oz. (31 grams)
6" 1.6 oz. (46 grams)
8" 1.9 oz. (54 grams)

The one shown in the video was a 4" Vari-Vent that seemed to fit the MSR Titan Kettle perfectly. Click here for more info. Also, here's a cool page with tips & tricks for using the Vari-Vent.

Lightweight Backpacking Pots & Mugs

I'm back from Argentina! The wedding was beautiful and Argentina was a truly amazing country. We even got to take a side trip to Uruguay. Thank you to all of you who sent us your regards--I wish you all could have been there. Anyway, the honeymoon is over and now it's time to get back to gear!


That's what I use. What do you guys carry? Do you have that one magic pot that does it all or do you have a small arsenal like I do and deploy the one that's best suited to each trip?

A Spork For All Seasons

I looked in my gear closet yesterday and wondered why I have so many sporks and other eating utensils for the backcountry. Why do we collect these things? The following might sound a bit like an Andy Rooney tirade pondering our daily minutia but it gave me pause for thought—I’m sure a lot of us have accumulated an unnecessary amount of these backpacking knick knacks. Maybe it’s because they’re so cheap. Maybe it’s because we just love gadgets. Maybe we are on an obsessive quest to reduce our eating utensil weight from 0.5 oz. to 0.3 oz. Whatever the reason, I am guilty of buying & trying every spork, spoon, foon, and fork on the market. I’ve had many others and have traded them, given them away, returned them or given up on them.

My current favorite has to be the GSI telescoping spoon. The Lexan “bowl” won’t melt in boiling water or scratch my titanium pots when stirring coffee. It folds down to an easily-storable size, and is cheap. Plus, you can’t beat the 0.3 oz weight!

My Cook Kit

So, I've been getting a lot of emails with people referring to cooking systems I no longer use and just wanted to show everyone what I'm using at the moment. This is my "go to" setup for 3 season use. In the winter, I still use my MSR XGK and a large Antigravity Gear pot for snow melting and reliability. Below the video is a list of the contents of my cook kit.



My cook Kit:

1. Backpacking Light 550 Titanium Mug
2. Brawney Towel
3. Tea Light Stove
4. Hardware Cloth Pot Stand
5. Aluminum Tooling Foil Windscreen
6. Mini Bic Lighter
7. Backpacking Light Folding Titanium Spork
8. Mesh Stuff Sack

Total Weight: 4.7 oz.

I carry a contact lens solution fuel bottle in the outside of my pack. For shorter trips like overnighters, a small plastic bottle that fits inside the pot.

Ultralight Folding Forks

Every backpacker has a favorite utensil--the most popular seeming to be Lexan or titanium sporks. I have my share of artillery when it comes to backcountry cutlery. Let me see…Snow Peak titanium spork, GSI Foon, Light my Fire spork, Taco Bell Spork, Dairy Queen long-handled spoon, BPL Firelite folding titanium spork, and REI Lexan spoon (just to name a few). Many appear to be wedded to their utensil of choice in a nearly religious devotion, yet somehow, will eagerly stray from their faith to test out new designs (I suppose that’s why they call us “gear heads”). Well, today, my friend Catzia sent me a care package which included a handful of folding plastic forks that led me to the temptation to sin against my beloved BPL folding titanium spork.



At 0.1 oz. and 3 ½" closed, these folding forks will fit inside even the smallest cook sets without even noticing their presence. Here’s a short video showing how they fold and unfold:

Food-product supply companies sell these folding forks all over the Internet (along with spoon, spork and knife versions) but you usually have to buy them in extremely large quantities (think hundreds or thousands). So, if you’re interested, you might consider getting some friends to go in on a group purchase and divide them up. They’re pretty nice but you should be sure to consider them disposable. That hinge is simply a thin piece of bent plastic that won’t last too long (but they’d be perfect for overnighters or short trips). Also, they’re not heat resistant like Lexan so they could melt if you’re using them in boiling water or to cook with.

I’ll probably stick with my folding titanium spork for now. These folding forks are not for everyone, but certainly worth a mention and someone out there might just find that these are exactly what they’ve been looking for.

Here's one source. If anyone finds a better one that sells in small quantities, please let me know!

New Wood Stove on the Way: The Bushwhacker

Jim Falk is at it again! This time, he's come up with a down-draft gasification stove called "The Bushwhacker". It's supposed to be much more efficient and produced less smoke than a typical wood stove without double walls. What's got me so excited about this one though is that it allows you to adjust the air intake and control the flame output. From the pictures, it looks pretty clever.

Like his other designs, the pot supports stow inside the stove for compact storage.

It's not availbale yet but you can get your name on a pre-order list and get an introductory discount here. When I get mine, I'll be sure to post my review.

Tips for Packing Condiments

Here's a really simple, yet surprisingly convenient way of packing your condiments on the trail. Click here for a short article I wrote about it.

My Newest Cooking System

After playing around with a variety of pots, windscreens, and stoves, this is the one I've finally settled on. It's a multiple-use system where the cookpot also doubles as a mug. At 4.4 oz. and with a capacity of just over 2 cups, it's a light, compact system that's perfect for solo use. If you want a Firelite 550, get one here.

A UL Measuring Stick

I came up with this easy way to measure water by making a "measuring stick" that weighs almost nothing and you can make with things you already have laying around the house. It's nothing more than a strip of paper with measurements for different volumes of water in my pot. To make it waterproof, I simply sandwiched it between 2 pieces of packing tape but if you want to get fancy, you can laminate it.

To use, simply hold the measuring stick against the inner wall of the pot and pour the water to reach your desired volume. Keep in mind, different pots will require their own individual measuring sticks. I write the name and model number of the pot on each measuring stick.