Author Archives: henryromer

In the mountains with a Kovea Spider Stove, Flat Cat Gear and blueberries

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In January I posted my first impressions and tests of the Kovea Spider stove.  I tested it in my backyard with my collection of pots and windscreens to bake bread and make reasonable pancakes.  This summer, the stove has accompanied me on a number of climbs and backpack trips and I have used it with some of Jon Fong’s Flat Cat Gear accessories.  It’s good stuff.

If you spend time in the field, you know that many things must come together for a good kitchen kit.  Weight, of course, is important.  Packing volume also counts.  And you must be able to do the cooking you want in real backcountry and mountain conditions.  My kitchen is built around three pots, the 1 L and .78 L Ti pots of a Snow Peak Multicompact set and a 0.6 L Snow Peak Ti mug.  I need windscreens to match the pots and the stoves I plan to use for any particular trip.  For solo and individual cooking on group trips, I usually stick with the .78 L Snow Peak pot.  For couples backpacking, the 1 L pot does most of the work, and I often take a second pot to have something clean for heating water after cooking.  So any new stove must be properly introduced to these pots and find a way to work and travel efficiently with them.

My first trials with the Kovea Spider were focused on baking and I used the big 1 L Snow Peak pot and its matching Trail Designs Caldera Cone Ti windscreen.  It worked well, but the windscreen doesn’t pack into a pot.  On some higher alpine climbs this summer, I took the Spider and my smaller .78 L pot, together with a split cone windscreen I had been using with an alcohol burner.  It worked, sort of.  Then I had a chance to try out some Flat Cat Gear windscreens designed just for the Kovea stove for a much better solution.

For larger pots, the Flat Cat Bobcat Kovea windscreen is a winner. Continue reading →

Tarp tenting

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“Almost tarp” tent

Tarp shelters are a common solution to ultralight camping.  They are simple, light and easy to build.  But they only provide a roof.  Walls (bug protection) and floor are extra or missing. “Almost tarp” tents address this.  My Six Moons design Night Wing tent is a good example.

The Night Wing is basically a tarp with netting closing the ends and edge.  It couples with a custom Tyvek 1443R floor.  But on a recent alpine climb approach, I was bothered by a lot of condensation that was wetting out my sleeping quilt.  Adding a bivy bag over the quilt or bag would give me both warmth and separation from condensation.  But that’s another pound!.

Alpine tarp bivy

The next outing involved two nights at a high camp at 7500′.  I decided to go lighter taking only an old sil-nylon tarp I made a few years ago and my very old Early Winters Gore-Tex bivy bag, to which I had recently added a waterproof zipper.  It worked, but the tarp had been designed only as a cooking shelter and was really not long enough to fully cover the bivy bag.  In practice this should not be an issue to have a waterproof bag sticking out into the rain, but….  In thinking about it, I wondered if I could easily improve things. A few hours of sewing and an ounce of fabric later, problem solved.

Continue reading →

Some more cool ultralight stuff

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Innovative, cottage manufacturers continue to offer great new ultralight products to make your life better in the backcountry.  Here are a few I have added to my pack recently.

For Better Cat Holes

I do enough off trail travel to camp at spots without established toilet facilities.  That means digging cat holes.  For a long time I carried a standard orange plastic digging trowel that weighed about 4 oz..  Mike Cleland’s Ultralight book converted me to carrying an extra aluminum “Y” tent stake – 0.6 oz.  It’s much lighter and can scratch out holes after a fashion.  But where there is dense vegetation root structure, the resulting holes leave something to be desired.  I found a new supplier of ultralight gear who makes some nice products.  Now a Lawson Equipment aluminum Potty Trowel – 1.3 oz. – comes on all trips.  It has a nice grip.  The blade cuts roots well and it really moves dirt to make a hole that is big enough to work properly.  That’s a lot of improved function for an extra 0.7 oz. and a best buy at $10.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Multipurpose titanium tent stakes

There was a time when I felt the cost of titanium tent stakes was not worth the weight saved.  Continue reading →

Backcountry bread and pancakes with a Kovea Spider Stove

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The Kovea Spider remote canister stove looks like a pretty neat concept.  It is compact and lightweight at 6.1 oz.  The remote canister setup works with a cone style wind screen.  Invert the canister for a cold weather liquid feed mode, enabled by the stove’s preheater tube.  Use two medium size binder clip handles support the inverted canister – a trick gleaned from the Internet.  With the legs folded for storage, it is compact enough to fit inside my titanium pots.

The stove is not widely available in the US, although Jon Fong at Flat Cat Gear carries it and sells integrated cooking systems for it.  My stove was made for the domestic home market and came with  Korean language instructions.  No big deal, it works just like a canister stove.  But it shines in its ability to integrate with ultra light cooking gear, pulling off tricks likes making pancakes and bread!  I had tried both these cooking chores with alcohol stoves getting somewhat mixed results. The Kovea Spider adds just the right final touch to make it all work.

Backcountry dry baking is a craft I learned from Jon Fong’s website and his YouTube videos.  I have used it with alcohol and Esbit cooking in the past, most successfully for biscuits as discussed in my old post: Dry baking.  But for good pancakes and bread, you need some additional help. Continue reading →

Tent tuning

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No matter how I pitched it my Night Wing tent from Six Moons Designs came out with a big wrinkle in the side. I thought it was my fault.  The tent is built from plans but I added some features.  Like all center ridge tents, the side walls sag claustrophobically into the volume of the tent.  So I added side pulls both at the bottom and midway up the side panels.  In a hurry to finish the tent, I did not get the pulls even on both sides.

Oh, well, the wrinkle was mostly an aesthetic issue.  But on a recent trip, I tumbled on a solution.

It turns out that the location of the middle stake loop on the panel lower edge is critical to getting a tight pitch. I moved one loop on one side of the tent. That aligned things so that now the the wrinkles are smaller and symmetric. And I still have the interior volume I like.

 

Here it is pitched on trekking poles.  Now I have my go-to solo tent, with 26 sq. ft. of floor space, good bug screening, an integrated Tyvek ground cloth, stakes and stuff sack all weighing in at 1 lb. 14 oz and fewer wrinkles

Snow camping

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While it may be spring in the lowlands, there is still 14 feet of snow on the ground at 5,000′ elevation in the Pacific Northwest.  A brief 2 day weather window provided a great opportunity to test a lot of snow camping gear and ideas.  How do lightweight backpacking solutions translate into this environment?  Are the solutions still lightweight?

As the Black Diamond Mega Light tent project progressed, I started a planning spreadsheet to see what the weight penalty would be adding a 4th season to comfort light backpacking.  The answer looked like it might be about 10 lbs.  But there were questions.  Would I be warm enough sleeping?  Could I use an alcohol stove to melt snow?

Snow cover transforms the wilderness experience.  Summer trails exist only in concept, sometimes continued between storms as well used trenches.  But otherwise you have freedom to go elsewhere.  Camp sites are no longer limited to established locations.  Adequate snow depth provides opportunities for creative site preparation.  And of course, in nice weather the scenery is stunning.  But the level of commitment is higher.  Weather windows and daylight hours are shorter.  Travel is slower and cold is the ever present concern.  None the less, my friend and I felt we had done our preparation well and were ready for some field time. Continue reading →

A 2.8 oz. backpacking chair

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Out in the wild I really miss a comfortable place to sit.  So here is my accessory that makes a Big Agnes or other air mattress into a chair.  Complete with a small storage pouch, it weighs 2.8 oz. Some sil-nylon fabric, 3/4″ webbing and two side release buckles, coupled with sewing machine time and presto. Slide the top and bottom sleeves over the ends of the partially inflated mattress.  Fasten the webbing straps together, adjust their length and the inflation level and you have wilderness comfort.

I have used commercial versions in the past that used stays to keep the back rigid.  They were a lot heavier and did not pack down well.  This approach solves the problem by Continue reading →

Ultralight Backpacking Fuels, Alcohol and Esbit – Insights from the field

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Alcohol stove fuel and Esbit tablets really can be the workhorses of ultralight cooking. The usual canister vs. alcohol vs. Esbit review doesn’t really capture practical or best practices approaches to these two fuels.  Here are my tips on how I make these fuels work well for me in my backcountry kitchen to boil water, to rehydrate a freeze dried meal or bake a chocolate cake. Even in the rain.

It’s not just the fuel, but really the whole system that counts.  That includes fuel, burner, pot support, windscreen, simmer control, stove lighting and extinguishing, burn time, outdoor temperature sensitivity, refueling ease, fuel storage and some factor for operating fussiness.  Add to this weight and cost considerations for both the basic system and for fuel and you will be well on your way to making choices.  Some popular stove products do a good job on addressing most issues, think Jet-Boil.  See how I do better. Continue reading →

Black Diamond Mega Light Project – Part 2

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BD MegaLite finishedSome projects take longer to finish than others.  But here it is, the Black Diamond MegaLight modified for 4 season use.  It now has bug netting, as well as optional bath tub floor and rain awning. While no longer in an ultralight category for 1 or 2 people, it is pretty light for 56 sq.ft. of floor space with a 65″ center height.  It sheds rain well and can be secured against high winds. I can pick and choose elements to include, depending on the trip, and pack a shelter system weighing between and 2 and 4 lbs.  Part 1 of this project covers the tent as set up for winter snow camping. This post describes making it suitable for rainy, summer outings with bugs. Continue reading →

A comfort light trip and a bright idea.

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Bilgy2This spring I am helping with our outdoor club’s courses on wilderness travel and backpacking.  To practice what I am preaching and  prepare for an upcoming trip, my wife and I took a leisurely backpack up a wilderness river valley in Olympic National Park.  Snow remains in the high country, but we had spring flowers, fresh bear scat just before camp and evening Harlequin ducks feeding in the river.

Since this was just an overnight family outing, I felt I could pack some extras. I even brought a small can of chicken!  Still, playing Sherpa, my walk-away-from-the-car weight  was only 28 lbs. and my wife carried 15. With two people, this was a trip for the Bilgy2 tent.  We had a large camp site all to ourselves and were joined at supper time by another couple who set up on an adjacent river island.

LuminAID-PackLite-16-Solar-Inflatable-LanternOne of the packed extras was a LuminAID PackLite 16 solar light.  Continue reading →