1. Get Cooking with a Backpacking Stove
Backpacking or camping stoves come in all shapes, sizes and weights. You can go simple with a sterno-type cooker or complex with a high-tech titanium butane/propane stove. The first thing you should do is look at your campfire cooking needs. For instance, what do you plan on cooking? If your outdoor cooking centers on boiling water, you might prefer a white gas stove like a Whisperlite that burns one temperature hot. If you want an adjustable flame, your best option is a butane/propane canister stove, which also gets high marks for saving backpack space.
2. Choose the Lightweight
In backpacking, weight counts. Ounces make a difference when backpackers look at how low they can go. The more bells and whistles you need, the more weight you'll carry on your back. Ultralight cooking stoves weigh in at well under a pound with alcohol stoves as the lowest. While the weight of a backpacking stove is of primary importance, you should also consider a space-saving compact system. Remember that camping stoves are useless without the fuel, so calculate fuel in with the weight of your stove. The Esbit Pocket Stove comes with fuel pellets that make it much lighter than a white gas stove.
3. For Every Stove, There is a Season
Another consideration for backpacking stoves is the weather. For most of the year, a canister stove like the Antigravity Gear stove works in rain or shine. However, when you're backpacking in temperatures below 40 degrees F, you may have better things to do than wait forever for water to boil. Liquid fuel (like white gas) stoves work well in winter, as long as you don't get snow mixed in with the priming fuel.
4. Easy Come, Easy Go
Your backpacking stove is light and works in varying types of weather, but is it worth it if it takes too long to set up or light? Backpackers enjoy easy-to-set-up-and-break-down camping stoves. Since canister stoves require no pumping or priming, they tend to be easiest to light as long as the fuel bottle doesn't get too cold. Look for a sturdy base and legs for cooking stability. Use less fuel when cooking in blackened backpacking cookware that absorbs heat faster. Consider adding a wind screen for lighting ease and cooking efficiency.
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