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  • Trip Report: GDT Section C August 2021 Days 7-9

    Trip Report: GDT Section C August 2021 Days 7-9

    It’s been a bit since I last worked on this report. Here we go again! If you aren’t up to speed, the Great Divide Trail is a stunning thru-hike in BC and Alberta, Canada starting where the Continental Divide Trail ends in Glacier National Park, MT and proceeding north for 600 miles of the wild Canadian Rockies. We didn’t do the whole trail: we only tackled 120 miles of the middle of the trail – Section C – the part that is perhaps hardest to book, though maybe easiest to hike, due to the popular National and Provincial Park trails that are well maintained. To catch you up on our trip so far, read days 5-6 here and follow the links back to our beginning.

    When last we left off, we had hiked 6 days and heavily modified our itinerary, adding a camp on the fly using our Garmin Inreach to get family to book a site for us, then using an optional site I had foreseen we might need to get a night in the astonishing Mount Assiniboine basin. But we made it to Banff on schedule!

    The plan was to get a hot meal and sleep the night in Banff in a hotel, then hit the trail bright and early the next day up Healy Pass. Like so:

    • Day 7 – Taxi up to Sunshine again, hike up Healy Pass, over Whistling Pass and camp at Ball Pass Camp (Banff) – probably 23km with two passes.
    • Day 8 – Ball Pass Camp to Floe Lake (Kootenay National Park) – 21km with a brutally steep ascent to start and end the day.
    • Day 9 – Floe Lake to Wolverine Pass – 20km over Numa Pass, Tumbling Pass, and Rockwall Pass.

    But we didn’t do that.

    (more…)

    admin

    April 16, 2022
    2021, GDT Section C, Multi-Day Trails, Outdoors, Trails
    BRS, Floe Lake, great divide trail, hiking, Numa Pass, Tumbling Pass
  • Battle of the UL Campstoves 2022

    Battle of the UL Campstoves 2022

    So last year I did a comparison of ultralight campstoves by raw numbers: weight and cost being the most salient factors, though I touched on ease of use and risk of failure as deciding factors for myself in selecting my own system. The winners from that “debate” were the super cheap BRS from Amazon (with accessories selected as needed – fuel choice and cookpot size may give more advantages) for both weight and price, but my personal selection was the then brand new Jetboil Stash, because I was willing to take a price penalty and slight weight penalty for reliability and efficiency on long trips.

    This year I have been put onto two further ultralight options: the alcohol stove system and the Firebox Nano. It seems to me that the idea of a cook system which runs on biofuel (ie. sticks), while it may not be the most heat-efficient approach would save on fuel weight and make less waste. The Biolite simply wasn’t light enough to make sense last year even with the potential to charge electronics. But the Firebox Nano intrigued me so I thought I would consider it here.

    If you didn’t click on the link above, (fair warning: all prices in CAD and weights in grams) here’s what I found:

    • Jetboil Stash ($160): 399g (includes fuel weight and pot with integrated windscreen)
    • BRS UL Burner w/ Toaks pot and MSR fuel ($78.50): 362g

    And now… let’s consider three other options: another stick-fired stove, a stick-fired supplemented with alcohol, and an alcohol based setup.

    (more…)

    admin

    February 4, 2022
    Gear, Gear Reviews, Outdoors, Uncategorized
    alcohol stove, BRS, camp stoves, campstoves, firebox, jetboil, skurka, UL, ultralight
  • The Battle of the Ultralight Campstoves: 2021

    I work for the Canadian Armed Forces, and as such, rucking is something that is an almost mandatory part of fitness for me. It doesn’t have to be I suppose – there are other ways to maintain operational fitness, but it dovetails quite nicely with my backpacking hobby.

    Ugh.  My back hurts just looking at it.
    Hurts my back just looking at it.

    Back when I joined in 2015, one of the first exercises we went on overnight, I loaded up my beastly 82 pattern ruck with all my issued kit and headed out. And once things got dark that night I began to see all the other troops come out with their “gucci” kit – aftermarket items that make everything easier in the field. I saw headlamps instead of the antiquated torch, overboots instead of mukluks, and I saw personal stoves, instead of trying to fight with the gigantic, stone-age white gas Colemans that I had first seen at my grandfather’s house, purchased some time in the 60’s I am sure.

    I think this is the one I have… looks like it anyway.

    It was then that I met the Jetboil. And what a sweet experience that was. Compact, simple, and just works. Like it was meant to be used by the army or something. I immediately saw that it would not only be useful when we go on EX and I want a hot drink, but it would also be a feature player in my overnight hiking kit (and winter dayhiking for that matter! Though I learned a lesson about that too… but that’s a blog post for another day.)

    However, time marches on and I began to question. Was the Jetboil the best option for my ever-lightening pack? Many people love the MSR Pocketrocket, and I also ran across the Biolite, which not only runs on sticks but also doubles as a power source and light. And then in the spring of this year, Jetboil upped their game and released the Stash. So, I asked myself, which would be the best for me, the average Joe backpacker/UL wannabe who isn’t quite ready to cold soak everything?

    Jetboil Stash vs Biolite Campstove 2+ vs MSR Pocketrocket vs BRS Ultralight Burner

    TL;DR: The BRS UL Stove that can be found on Amazon for $25 CAD or thereabouts, when combined with a Toaks Titanium cookpot and an 8oz MSR gas can is the cheapest and lightest cook system of the four analyzed, but it has limitations that should be considered before rushing out to buy one.

    (more…)

    admin

    May 14, 2021
    Gear Reviews, Outdoors
    BRS, campstove, jetboil, msr, rucksack, toaks, ultralight

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