Cook Kit

Vargo BOT 700 (4.8oz)

This 700mL titanium pot is definitely not ultralight, but it's hands down one of my favorite pieces of gear. It has been in my pack and used every single night I've spent in the backcountry since 2018. That amounts to hundreds of meals cooked and countless hot cups of instant coffee. It's thread-on lid allows you to cold soak food with its water tight, heat resistant silicone gasket. Flipped upside down it fits perfectly on top, saving fuel by reducing boil time and covering food to more efficiently "hot soak" after a quick boil. Its slightly thicker than average walls combined with a threaded lid make it incredibly durable and after years of use it has hardly a ding. In a pinch, you could even store an extra 700mL of water if you found yourself short carry capacity.

The 700mL size is perfect for cooking for one, it's fits two blocks of ramen noodles and some extras with just a little room to spare, so consider the 1000mL option if your hoping to cook larger meals. Couldn't recommend the pot more and I've heard you can get creative with it and toast English muffins in the lid on your stove (not really an English muffin fan, so I haven't tried yet)!

Snow Peak LiteMax Stove (1.9oz)

Made of titanium and weighing in sub two ounces, this little stove is quick and efficient. It boils a liter in 3-6 minutes depending on wind and water temp. Its tiny regulator works well and fuel consumption is good, netting me about 12 boils of 500mL on a 4 ounce can of fuel. I want to say more, but it just works and works well and that's exactly what I need out of an ultralight stove.

Optimus Vega Remote Canister Stove

Ever find that your backpacking stove struggles to boil water on those real cold nights, especially snow camping in the winter? This might be a problem every backpacker suffers from, but we did! Modern fuel cans are a blend of isobutane, butane and propane which improves their four season functionality but when the mercury really dips they still suffer.

This stove allows you to invert the canister, enabling you to run the stove of the liquid fuel in the can, not just the gas. The fuel is then heated in a small metal tube before reaching the burner, improving BTU output. This has been a game changer for us when we need to melt large volumes of snow for water when winter camping.

The cable attaching the canister to the stove is a little stiffer then I'd like, so you need to be careful with canister placement or it can move your stove when you remove the pot from the burner. Otherwise, it has been a great addition to our winter kit. There are also some neat jigs that allow you to suspend the whole stove and canister to cook inside a tent or portaledge, but always provide adequate ventilation as carbon monoxide can kill!