Speaking of alcohol stoves, I’m hiking south this year starting in a couple months and I’ve started thinking about putting one together, but I am wondering if it’s actually going to help.
I am currently using an MSR pocket rocket, which only weighs 3oz anyways. That’s pretty comparable to the weights of some soda-can stoves I’ve seen listed online.
So the question becomes fuel weight and, maybe more importantly, availability. I’m not concerned about finding fuel for the alcohol stove, but I am a bit worried as to how easy it will be to Find a new IsoPro cannister every week. I wasn’t planning on relying too heavily on mail drops, so I would need to find someone who carries them. Am I right in guessing that this will be a huge pain in the ass?
How much fuel (for a homemade [open jet] alcohol stove) do you suppose the average thru-hiker carries away from town, assuming 3-5 days between resupplies? How much fuel do you typically burn cooking dinner (i.e. lipton noodles & tuna) or boiling water for coffee? I think that, for the flexibility, I might switch as long as I don’t end up having to carry some ridiculous amount of fuel everywhere I go. It probably won’t be much worse than a 9oz cannister, right?
John