Winter Stove System 2013

Melting snow by a frozen lake at 11,000 feet.

My winter stove setup in 2013 consisted of a Monatauk Gnat titanium canister stove, a homemade titanium windscreen, a 850 ml titanium mug and carbon fiber lid. Although my usual stove setup is much lighter I found this to be the lightest option for winter camping where I would be using the stove to melt snow for water.

The Monatauk Gnat is widely available from most online retailers but finding the other items took a little more research. 

For the homemade titanium windscreen I used titanium foil available from TiGoat (http://www.titaniumgoat.com/windscreens.html). I used tin snips to cut the windscreen and a small pocket knife to puncture the holes used to mount the screen onto the end of the fold-out pot holder prongs. 

The titanium mug and carbon fiber lid are both available at Ruta Locura (http://www.rutalocura.com/Ti_Pots.html). The 850 ml size was a good compromise for one person. 

When camping with two people or more I use an old MSR Wind Pro canister stove (http://cascadedesigns.com/msr/stoves/gourmet-cooking/windpro-ii/product), a much larger homemade titanium windscreen and a 1.9 liter titanium pot and lid from Evernew (http://www.evernewamerica.com/ECA424.htm). 

The weakest parts of this design are the three attachment points where the windscreen attaches to the pot holder prongs from the canister stove. I'm considering using small 3/16" aluminum eyelets to reinforce these three holes in the windscreen. It worked as-is this winter but I don't see much long term reliability. 

The next improvement will be the addition of a small circular reflector between the stove and the fuel canister. 

A few photos may help: 

At first I used the windscreen to cover the portion below the pot. 

Turning the windscreen the other way helped to produce faster boil times. 

The small holes near the bottom of the windscreen are used to attach it to the prongs on the stove.  The larger holes toward the top help to keep some airflow. 

Everything fits in a small cuben stuff sack.

The windscreen fits inside. 

Windscreen attachment.

Size comparison with a 100g fuel canister. 

The whole system.

Obligatory UL scale photo. 5.4 ozs for everything but the fuel.