Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Best High Altitude, compact, light stove

Have a trip in April at about 14,500' for two weeks for a project in Peru. Temps will be relatively mild at mid 30's to high 50's. I need something fast, light, and it only needs to boil water, no cooking. I like isobutane stoves the most but not sure if the altitude will cause issues, pretty sure it will not be cold enough to bother the isobutane, but I do not have any experience for longer periods at this altitude so any advise will be appreciated. Once again, just need to boil water and I/2 liter at most and it needs to pack small.

I have no issues with ISO at the high 13’s. I’m not a physicist but the vapor pressure should relatively increase at altitude right? Cold is what slows them down and I regularly use a windscreen around the can, accepting the risk of blowing myself up. Hasn’t happened though.

Interesting read here about the effects of temperature (not altitude) on the old-style pure butane cannisters versus the modern mixes with isobutane and propane:

https://adventuresinstoving.blogspot.com/2017/04/does-canister-gas-work-at-high-elevation.html

This is right. I have had the same experience as Shooter71 and occasionally over 14,000'.

When heating water for just myself, I use an Optimus Crux with a 32oz. Halulite pot made by GSI. It will heat about 24 oz. of water.





When heating water for a small group I use an MSR Pocket Rocket and an Olicamp heat exchange pot. It will heat a full quart.





The Olicamp pot is a little too big to fit properly on a Crux stove. Or maybe the stove is too small

MSR Universal. Would probably use white gas, but if canister and temps drop below freezing, MSR brand fuel turned upside down on the included stand or insulate the lower part of the canister or put it in a shallow tray of water.

Take extra fuel.

Smokepole, damn useful link, thank you.

Looks like zero issue with elevation or temperature at 14,500' with a canister stove.

This trip involves heavy work during the day at altitude. I wake up early and need very strong coffee followed by Coca Leave Tea the rest of the day to counter the effects of altitude. Third season I have done this trip now and not doing it without my own beverage system this time so I can imbibe when I wish even when everyone else is asleep.

Need to now decide between an integrated water boiling system like the Jetboil or MSR Windburner or another setup. It would be great to have a stove that packs into itself but maybe buying individual components is the way to like some of the above. I have to carry this damn thing in through steep rugged rock and will sacrifice around 1 pound of weight to have this luxury.

Experiences and opinions on best setup most appreciated.

I like the convenience of a jetboil or similar for just heating water. With the built in heat exchanger you gain efficiency over the long haul (less fuel needed) over something like a jet boil.

Oops, that last one should have been "pocket rocket."

Pure propane isn't immune to cold either. I used to be a roofer and we used a lot of propane to run torches laying down membrane roofs. When it got below 10 or 15F, the propane tanks would start spitting drops of liquid propane instead of all vapor. We had to hang tarps over the tanks and put electric heaters under them to warm up the tanks.
Of course no backpacker is going to haul propane bottles up the side of a mountain but it is the best to use in the cold.

from the article:
Very true. I've tried a bunch of different BBQ lighters and haven't found any that will light reliably at more than 6000'.

Comparing canister stoves to propane torches is apples and oranges. I've never had a problem with iso- or propane mix canister stoves up to 12,500 feet, have you?

I still have a couple Whisper Lite's. But I have pretty much gone strictly Jetboil these days.

I used a msr dragon fly on Mt Elbrus for a week from 10000 to 16000 ft. Wind cold snow

Worked great

Thanks for this information!

ribka:

I own a Dragonfly and a Whisperlite. The white gas burns fine at cold temps in both. The Dragonfly does a better job of simmering but it seems to use more fuel than the Whisperlite. I used the Whisperlite at 17,200' on Mt. McKinley and it worked great.

Wind chill seems to negatively affect ISO stoves and I try to build some kind of windshield to counteract this effect. MSR windshields aren't tall enough to work properly. Too bad.

KC

The MSR Pocket Rocket Deluxe if you want something small or MSR WindBurner if you want the integrated system.