Group Backpacking Issues
One man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide stupidity there ain’t nothing can beat teamwork — Mark Twain
OK, then, so you finally found some friends. Then what? Well, a small, light stove is still a small, light stove. But you may want to practice groupitude and cook together on one stove, in one pot, at one time.
Generally, this is going to be difficult for the average shirtpocket-sized alcohol or Esbit stove to handle, or even for a small wood-burner. If we stick to our definition of an ultralight stove weighing no more than half an ounce (14g), or of a wood-burner coming in at no more than five ounces (142g), we’re kind of restricted. But one way to look at these numbers is “by person”. Remember now, you’re not alone any more. Start with a two-ounce stove, to be used by four people, and divide. Hmmm. Two divided by four is oh, let’s say half an ounce, which puts us back into the middle of the same ballpark.
Since a heavier stove of a given design uses the same materials put together in the same way, then a heavier stove has to be a bigger one, and will be putting out more heat. The exception may be the solid-fuel-tablet stoves. I’ve experimented enough with fuel tabs to decide that I didn’t like them. They work fine for some people, but not for me. Probably my fault, but then so much is, these days.
Maybe I wasn’t meant for these things because many people do like them, and use them all the time, but they will definitely pose a larger problem for group meals, since with fuel tabs you don’t get a bigger stove with a bigger burner. Each each fuel tablet is its own burner.
Larger alcohol stoves are a little on the odd side of things, too, but they scale up pretty well. They’re even used in the Iditarod sled dog race (yes, this is the one in Alaska, the cold place) to melt water for the dogs and mushers, and to heat water for cooking. These are much bigger stoves though. I’ve seen one, and it’s about the size of a gallon paint can, made of tough enameled steel, and it takes up to a pint of alcohol at one filling. A serious BTU generator.
Instead of making a stove from a 12-ounce aluminum soda or beer can, or even a 5.5-ounce juice can (for those who tingle at the thought of jewel-like tiny things), you can make the same sort of stove from a 25-ounce can. See the big Foster’s or Heineken beer cans, or any other large-diameter container that suits you, and hack away.
Wood-burning stoves scale up too. Use a bigger stove that can handle more fuel and get a bigger flame. Cook for more people at one shot. Simple physics.
What we’re getting at here is not that versions of ultralight stoves can be made to fit any circumstances, but that the concept can stretch if you want it to. Probably the practical limit is cooking for two or three people at a time, using a larger version of your shirt-pocket stove, and even that is a stretch.
As the group size gets bigger the requirements change, but so does the whole cooking landscape. If something fails, you have two, three, or even more heads to figure things out. If things go really bad and you lose the use of a stove entirely, you can depend on one another.
White gas and canister stoves have a bigger payoff in groups. They just put out more heat than any quarter-ounce alcohol stove can. Dinner for four may cook faster on a manufactured stove than a tiny and elegant home-made one. It becomes easier to manage fuel canisters if you know you’ll be draining one every four or five days while cooking for a group of four, versus using a sip of fuel on this trip and that, going solo, and never being quite sure when the dang thing is too low to depend on. It’s pretty easy to have a partner carry a backup fuel container for the group.
Then again, if each person in a group does their own cooking, the advantage snicks back a notch. Have more stoves, and they can just as well be smaller. Have an accident, lose one stove, and you still have two or three more in the group. You may have to wait in line to cook dinner, but you can still cook, and each person is still carrying only a small weight.
Pretty much up to you and your own sense of style, this one.
Exercises
- Practice being dumb for a while. Then practice being smart. Spend more time on the one you have less experience with, until you’re equally good at both. Then write up your experiences, and try to decide which one is better. If you have trouble doing this, then you need more practice at being smart. See if your friends can help. Try finding some friends.
- If you still can’t get any friends, then buy a sock puppet. You need someone to talk to, and sometimes these little guys can be just the ticket. Take your puppet to dinner and get to know each other. Ignore anyone who stares at you. This is your life, not theirs. My sock puppet and I can almost pass for identical twins now, but it did take practice.
- Remember, even if your sock puppet runs away, there’s still hope. Fake sanity and join a hiking club — they aren’t too discriminating. Over a period of years they may gradually come to trust you.