What does one do when they need to field test some new gear and a homemade stove in a cold Canadian climate? Walk out into the cold snowy field behind their house of course! I hiked for about 20 minutes before stopping to test out the stoves.

First off, the MEC Kokanee gators worked awesome with my Merrell Pulse IIs, no snow in the shoes what so ever. And my feet we very warm with smart wool and thick wool socks. Even when I was sitting for 30 minutes testing the stoves they didn’t seem to get cold at all. Hopefully that holds true for a whole night. Although I will also likely have a fire for most of the night in Duck Mountain.

I also wanted to test how long it takes to get 2L of water by melting snow with my MSR SimmerLite. It took quite some time, probably the better part of 30 min. This was using a 2L pot and the windscreen. Of note, always add some water first! I’ve always read this but I always figured it was just to speed things up a bit. But no, it’s definitely a necessity. I lifted the lid to check on the status and was surprised that nothing seemed to be happening. And then I noticed an orange glow coming through the snow. The pot bottom was red hot on bottom; looks like it kind of distorted the pot a bit even! Anyway, won’t be doing that again. It didn’t seem to take much water, maybe 1 cup of water or so and then things really started melting. There also didn’t seem to be much difference between running the stove at full blast versus low until there was nothing but a chuck on ice floating in the water. One thing I’ll have to consider on the Duck Mountain trip is how to get all the crap floating in the water out. Hopefully this was just because I had to scoop the thin layer of snow off the grass filled field.

The test I was most interested in was the Mini Zen alcohol stove. I wasn’t very scientific about it, but was very surprise how well it performed in the cold. Air temperature was -14ºC with barely any wind. I didn’t put anything under the stove, so it was sitting right on the frozen field. I did use the windscreen however, and I’m sure this made a fairly significant difference. I’m not sure how much fuel I put in the stove, but I’m estimating it was around 28ml based on how long it burned after I was done boiling the water. I used the MSR Titan Kettle filled with a little less than 2 cups of water (which was still around the room temperature). It took the stove a little longer than usual to prime, but that seems normal and once it did it only took about 8 min before the water was steaming. I didn’t let it get to a full boil, but it definitely would have given that it burned for another 2-3 min after I took the pot off. Of course I wasn’t going to hike all that way just to boil water, so I made some hot chocolate before heading back. I don’t think I’ll be taking the Mini Zen as my main stove in the winter, but I’m definitely considering taking it to make drinks or ichiban while I’m melting snow with the SimmerLite.

Here are some photos of the Mini Zen in action.

Oh, and lastly, the RidgeRest made a great seat while I was doing all the tests. It actually felt warm.

I also packed my pack with what I figure I would be taking on the Duck Mountain trip, minus food. And strangely, even with all the extra clothing it was only 25 lbs! I’m not really sure why, I have 2 sleeping pads, an over bag for my sleeping bag, my heavier North Face pack, and 4 heavy main layers, plus ski pants! Does a tent really weigh that much? Food for 2 days will only be around 5-6 lbs, and the only over thing I can thing of that I’m missing it a shovel to make a snow cave. I’m planning to purchase this shovel before I leave so even with that I should still be around 30-32 lbs (27-29 if I opt of the Vapor Trail).