[pct-l] Cooking with canned gas

[Mary Kwart]

After I hiked the Colorado Trail and the Grand Enchantment It seemed I
was getting quit a bit of use out of my isobutane canisters. I wanted
to avoid having to send my self unnecessary canisters via the mail
(allowed only by surface mail and labelled Consumer Commodity--ORM-D)
so I buckled down and kept track of my canister use:

I hiked the Oregon section of the PCT last August and finally got to
definitively figure out how much fuel I use. I packed an MSR isobutane
cartridge that had an 8 oz net weight. I boiled 1 3/4 cup of water
daily and put the boiling water in a freezer ziplock with the food in
a cozy to cook. I used a snow peak canister stove attachment and a
titanium pot. It took 6.1 grams of fuel to boil 1 3/4 cup water. I
still had about a quarter of the fuel canister left after I reached
the Washington border Now I know how to gage what's left in all my
partially used canisters at home. I can get about 37 days of 1 boil a
day from a larger 8 OZ. MSR canister. 

This has been my experience. It is just FYI--but I think you will be
pleasantly surprised by how long one canister of this type lasts when
you only use it once a day to bring water to a boil

I also second the opinion about keeping the canister in your sleeping
bag if the temps approach freezing. I did this in Colorado a lot. I
also found that if you spaced keeping the canister warm that holding
it for about ten minutes under your clothes next to skin would warm it
up enough to make it functional. I have also heard that keeping the
canister upside down helps with combating cold issues, but haven't
tried that.

MSR also came out with a fuel mix that is supposedly better for a
wider range of climate conditions. From the MSR website:  "MSR IsoPro
is a performance-boosting, 80/20 blend of isobutane and propane, with
the purest isobutane (5% or less n-butane) of any canister fuel. This
clean-burning formulation maintains higher internal pressure at lower
temperatures than standard butane/propane mixtures, delivering
superior cold weather performance and more consistent output over the
life of the canister."

--Fireweed