Eddie Valiant: "That lame-brain freeway idea could only be cooked up by a toon."
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Lots of posts here, but for what it's worth, I sent home my stove after about 800 miles. I didn't miss it. Cooking/cleaning was a chore I didn't feel like messing with, and the saved weight allowed me to pack our food I usually wouldnt have (like fresh avocados). I say go stove less. I carried a tiny ultralight titanium pot in case I ever wanted to hear something over a fire. I only ever used the pot as a cup.
I met a guy who left Georgia in (wait...) December, before Christmas and he had no stove. I met him in Massachusetts in March and was astounded. He had a 25 lbs. pack but no stove and no cookset. Hiking through winter without even a hot drink?
The difference between having a hot drink when cold, wet and tired is hypothermia. If you are fanatic, take a small titanium pot and a cat food stove.
suffering will teach you who you are.
also, peanut butter is money!
There's no denying the value of a hot drink in quickly getting heat energy right into the core. But it's not very much energy when you look at the numbers. A Snickers bar has much more heat energy in calories than the typical hot drink. An experienced hiker who has enough insulation and can keep it dry has no need for a stove to stay warm, as evidenced by the winter thru-hiker who did it.
By definition, a winter thru-hiker is taking quite a bit of risk. Leaving the stove behind increases the risk incrementally, but that was his call and it worked out for him. I guess he had no need to melt snow for drinking water.
"Throw a loaf of bread and a pound of tea in an old sack and jump over the back fence." John Muir on expedition planning
Yes, Snickers has a lot of calories, but they do you far less good in my opinion that would a hot pot of tea with sugar while waiting for a hot dinner. Calories in the gut do not equal heat applied to the body through a mechanism like a hot drink.
I think that even fit, young, thin, athletic, the risks are more than incremental. And what about enjoyment? Maybe his enjoyment came from being alone on a normally well populated trail. Maybe he had a job he needed to get back to, but still, a light stove and a kettle and plastic bowl probably could still have been packed at around 25 lbs.
If I saw him in mid-March in North Adams, MA, he hit Maine in what, another two weeks? He had packed through the Smokies in the middle of winter. The Smokies are not, admittedly, the White Mountains, but I would not have attempted such a trip in winter no matter what my pack weight or stove situation.
I have hiked stoveless for periods up to 2 weeks. - but never in winter type weather. Personally, I agree with many other posters that I would want something warm at least once a day, which would warrant the need for a stove... In the summer - to each his own! No biggie either way!
Hike your hike .... make your own decision . Bring the stove you can always send it if you do not want it . It is only a pound of weight to have a cooked meal . Dude , the snicker bars and peanut butter tortilla diet is not good for your body . You will damage yourself doing it . Also , candy is a empty calorie and will get you going for a minute and you will crash . You need complex carbs and simple carbs to even out the energy ... a pound to eat good is not much . The typicsl hiker diet is not good for you bro .... have fun , escspe society , find you inner peace ... enjoy yourself . It is not a race ..
Start with a stove. If you find you don't use it, send it back. Then, your pack will feel a little lighter and you'll never wonder if you should've brought a stove when you didn't.