Winter Stove Setup

The much-debated winter stove.  This has been a long time in the refining process, but I think we have it nailed.

It boils (ha) down to 3 components:

1) The Base Plate.  This is critical, or the stove will melt itself into the snow and fall over, which pretty much ruins your night.  There are lots of do-it-yourself systems out there with various types of foam, aluminum foil, plywood, etc.  They all seemed pretty complicated, large, and heavy.  We found this one at MEC for $20.

2) The whatcha-ma-call-it.  To trap a lot of the escaping hot air.  This is half the weight of the setup, but also seems to be the most very effective.  Again found at MEC, $36.

3)  The Muffin-Top.  Light and effective.  Also called a backcountry oven, and was taken from this set ($46 for the whole thing)

 
Total Weight: 327g.  So obviously more worthwhile for longer trips, where you would expect to save a pound of fuel or more.  But in any case, it does boil your water faster which is always good.

Future analysis: our next overnight we plan on boiling two pots of water, one with the full set up and one with nothing.  Maybe another with half the setup. I am betting the results will be very obvious, and will update this post with the info.