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Main Boards => Gear => Topic started by: richardh1905 on 08:01:14, 06/07/19

Title: Ditch the stove!
Post by: richardh1905 on 08:01:14, 06/07/19
After consuming disgusting rehydrated slop during last year's wild camp in the Cairngorms, I decided to ditch the stove and cookwear altogether last weekend when I camped high on Braeriach - I didn't miss it at all.

My main meal consisted of:

4 Orkney Oatcakes (100g, 450 kcal) - I took a 200g packet of 8.
1 'Alpengut' smoked venison and pork sausage from Lidl (75g, 350kcal) - I took a pack of two.
1 Austrian style processed smoked cheese from Tesco's (125g, 350kcal) - one of those long thin cylindrical ones

Total - 1150kcal, and I really enjoyed nibbling at them whilst taking in the austere beauty of Loch Coire an Lochan.
Bonus - no washing up!

For nibbles on the walk I took a 200g pack of Lidl mixed fruit and nuts (1000kcal) - I maybe ate my way through a quarter of the packet, and for breakfast I took 2 Stoat porridge bars (50g, 221kcal each); I only ate one, on my way down.

As for a hot drink in the morning, I don't feel the need for one in the summer - a sip of water from the loch is all that I need. Might be a different matter if I am sitting out bad weather in winter, of course!

Has anyone else made the decision to ditch the stove?
Title: Re: Ditch the stove!
Post by: gunwharfman on 09:30:07, 06/07/19
For me, I bought a stove when I first became a real hiker, but from day one its never been used, sitting in my garage gathering dust. I just never took it with me. I just buy nuts, choccy bars, cheese, etc to keep me gpoing and make I make do until I can buy a proper meal in a pub or restaurant usually at the end of each day. My present food 'like' is tortillas/wraps, eaten straight from the pack, filled with anything to hand.
Title: Re: Ditch the stove!
Post by: fernman on 10:16:48, 06/07/19
It is psychologically good to sit down at the end of the day and eat hot food when your body is tired and you're a little less warm than you'd like to be.

Have you tried Summit To Eat meals, Richard? I feel they reconstitute a little bit more like real food than the usual 'mush'. Try their chicken tikka with rice, it's the best in my opinion.
Title: Re: Ditch the stove!
Post by: Owen on 10:33:38, 06/07/19
I have tried this approach in the past, mainly when biving out in the Alps. It's fine for a night or two but beyond that I really need my tea.


On longer backpacking trips I'm afraid freeze dry meals are the only answer. I find the better meals are the more expensive Bewell/Expedition foods (which is the same company). Not tried summat to eat, I did try some Firepot one last time but wasn't impressed.


Should say I don't do low level stay in village type trips so eating in cafes or resupplying each day isn't often an option.

Title: Re: Ditch the stove!
Post by: andyapanel on 11:10:36, 06/07/19
I bought a woodburner. It is light (Titanium) and you only need to gather fuel shortly before you brew up.
The downside is you are ****ed if it rains, it needs constant attendance and you rapidly smell like a bonfire. I have used it in Northern France and Offa's Dyke LDP
On the whole it is good as it eliminates hexamine tablets.
Title: Re: Ditch the stove!
Post by: richardh1905 on 12:42:25, 06/07/19
For me, I bought a stove when I first became a real hiker, but from day one its never been used, sitting in my garage gathering dust. I just never took it with me. I just buy nuts, choccy bars, cheese, etc to keep me gpoing and make I make do until I can buy a proper meal in a pub or restaurant usually at the end of each day. My present food 'like' is tortillas/wraps, eaten straight from the pack, filled with anything to hand.



No pubs available 1000m up in the Cairngorms, I'm afraid, gwm!


..but I'm all for having a steak pie washed down with a pint or two if the opportunity arises  :)
Title: Re: Ditch the stove!
Post by: richardh1905 on 12:49:05, 06/07/19
It is psychologically good to sit down at the end of the day and eat hot food when your body is tired and you're a little less warm than you'd like to be.



Really doesn't bother me, fernman. In fact at the end of a hard walk the last thing that I want to start doing is faff around with a stove.


Might be a different matter in winter, of course. I would take a stove then.
Title: Re: Ditch the stove!
Post by: richardh1905 on 12:51:03, 06/07/19
I bought a woodburner. It is light (Titanium) and you only need to gather fuel shortly before you brew up.
The downside is you are ****ed if it rains, it needs constant attendance and you rapidly smell like a bonfire. I have used it in Northern France and Offa's Dyke LDP
On the whole it is good as it eliminates hexamine tablets.



I've thought of this approach, in fact I made a small 'hobo' stove that works well on sticks and pinecones etc, but no fuel at all where I was, and there is a fire risk in some areas at certain times of the year.
Title: Re: Ditch the stove!
Post by: fernman on 14:03:25, 06/07/19
there is a fire risk in some areas at certain times of the year.

Indeed there is. In abnormally hot and dry conditions in north Wales last May a big grass tussock next to my stove quickly caught fire, soon put out by stamping on it in my walking boots.

But a kilometre-long stretch of the area I was in had not too long ago been burned by a fire. Heather and gorse were blackened stalks though short grasses below them were still green (suggesting the ground had been wet at the time). It was clear that the fire had spread in wind, and it was obvious when I reached the car park at Llynnau Cregennen that this was where it had started.
Title: Re: Ditch the stove!
Post by: alan de enfield on 15:42:48, 06/07/19

I've thought of this approach, in fact I made a small 'hobo' stove that works well on sticks and pinecones etc, but no fuel at all where I was, and there is a fire risk in some areas at certain times of the year.



A 'pocketful' (small poly-bag) of those cat-litter wooden pellets is more than enough to make a couple of brews.


30 litre bag for £5.99 (last a lifetime) or 1 litre £1.29


https://www.bmstores.co.uk/products/cat-wood-litter-30l-336969
Title: Re: Ditch the stove!
Post by: gunwharfman on 16:08:50, 06/07/19
Thanks for that in information Richard, now I know, you wouldn't catch me in the Cairngorms!  :)
Title: Re: Ditch the stove!
Post by: fernman on 18:55:44, 06/07/19

A 'pocketful' (small poly-bag) of those cat-litter wooden pellets is more than enough to make a couple of brews.

Phew, it must smell a bit after the cat has used them  :D


I'll get my coat......
Title: Re: Ditch the stove!
Post by: alan de enfield on 21:15:27, 06/07/19
Phew, it must smell a bit after the cat has used them  :D


I'll get my coat......



But we need to make things multi-functional :


1) It was a tree, absorbed Carbon dioxide and excreted oxygen
2) It was chopped down to produce paper and the dust compressed into cat-pellets
3) The cat used as intended helping to keep our houses clean
4) Goes up in smoke and helps to keep you alive with warm food and drink.


What's not to like ?
Title: Re: Ditch the stove!
Post by: richardh1905 on 07:37:20, 07/07/19
A cat litter stove also not much use if you are confined to the tent by bad weather. I can contemplate risking careful use of a gas stove under the fly, but a real fire - I think not.

..and no need anyway, if you make the liberating decision do ditch the stove!
Title: Re: Ditch the stove!
Post by: archaeoroutes on 08:48:42, 07/07/19
Done plenty of long trips when unable to use a stove. Boil in the bags are designed so they can be eaten cold. Shove them in your armpit an hour before sundown and they'll be lukewarm when you stop. Then splash in some Tabasco to trick your mouth into thinking they're really hot and close your eyes.


At the other end of the scale, I met someone with his own freeze-dryer. The food he made was amazing.
Title: Re: Ditch the stove!
Post by: richardh1905 on 09:32:59, 07/07/19


 Shove them in your armpit an hour before sundown and they'll be lukewarm when you stop.


Yuk!
Think that I'll stick to my oatcakes, smoked sausage and cheese thanks, archaeoroutes  :smiley6600:
Title: Re: Ditch the stove!
Post by: Pitboot on 16:54:21, 07/07/19
I've lost count of the times I could not use a stove on my multiple trips OHMS!
You get used to it and it does you no harm.
It's just fuel for the body after all, but taking food you really like that does not need cooking is an intelligent thing to do.
I like cheese and jam on army "biscuits brown" , full of calories and delicious. Which reminds me I must replen my stock of biscuits, thanks Richard! O0
Title: Re: Ditch the stove!
Post by: ninthace on 17:13:16, 07/07/19
Biscuits Brown were a later development IIRC.  We had Biscuits Plain which brought a new depth of meaning to the word "plain" but could they be rendered palatable with the addition of the contents of a tube of condensed milk and a tube of jam.  The order of application depended on the side of the side of the Tamar you were on, but either way it could be done on the march.  I also remember Biscuits AB.  No one knew what the AB stood for but after 24 hrs they rendered the loo paper redundant so we had an idea that the B was for Blocking!
Title: Re: Ditch the stove!
Post by: sussamb on 17:29:42, 07/07/19
I was always told AB stood for Alternative to Bread  O0
Title: Re: Ditch the stove!
Post by: richardh1905 on 17:59:03, 07/07/19
Is it actually possible to buy Biscuits Brown?

In Orkney we can get "Cabin Biscuits" from Westray Bakery - the modern equivalent of Hard Tack, I suspect, but I like them -
calorie packed belly timber useful for conveying large quantities of delicacies such as jam, pate and cheese to the mouth. And their heavy duty Abernethy Biscuits with caraway seeds are lovely.

We can also get the delightfully named "Fattie Cutties", one pack would keep you alive on an ice floe for a month!
Title: Re: Ditch the stove!
Post by: zuludog on 19:27:46, 07/07/19
Sometimes I watch reviews of military ration packs on YouTube; they are strangely addictive (Who me, a sad old man?)

A comment by one soldier was that if you spread the biscuits with boot polish they make good firelighters
Title: Re: Ditch the stove!
Post by: Owen on 19:32:11, 07/07/19
I was always told AB stood for Alternative to Bread  O0


I think it was 'Ard B (a word for illegitimate person). The alternative was biscuits Air Bourne, as in thrown straight in the bin.
Title: Re: Ditch the stove!
Post by: ninthace on 20:51:29, 07/07/19
Or fill your webbing with them and use them as body armour.
Title: Re: Ditch the stove!
Post by: Patrick1 on 11:31:48, 08/07/19
Actually, I take a little meths stove even on a day walk. Even if I have cold food, making and drinking a hot brew when I stop is a real pleasure, and the whole outfit only adds a few hundred grams to my pack. Yes, I could go without the stove, but that moment when the stove's lit, the water's warming and you're forced to sit for a few minutes enjoying the view and anticipating a hot drink is definitely part of the enjoyment for me.