Ultralight cook set - I knocked it up another notch! (158g all in)
Welcome to my new ‘1 nighter’ ultralight gas cooking setup.
I want to start by saying I did a fair amount of research and double checking before I embarked on this potentially dangerous project. I am by no means inviting everybody to try and copy this. And I would caution anybody who does to take care.
In the kit is a mug, cosy, stove, gas, cleaning kit, lighter, tissue, stand and storage bag (breakdown is below).
**New ‘1 nighter setup’**
• 450ml mug — 48g
• Cosy — 7g
• DCF bag — 3g
• Stove — 28g
• BIC mini — 11g
• Mini gas — 53g (19g empty)
• Pegs — 4g
• Wash kit (and ziplock) — 2g
• Tissue — 2g
Total = 158g
Aside from doing the rest of the items ultralight as reasonably possible (450ml is about as small as I want a mug to get), the secret weapon in the kit is the ‘1 night gas can’ and this is where things get a little more unusual.
**Mini camping gas cylinder — 53g (full-ish)**
I discovered that certain boat airhorns come in a 40g size (net weight) with a canister with the right Lindal valve and pressure rating to work with camping gas. The empty cylinder weighs 19g leaving room for a theoretical potential of 40g of gas. As we know, a standard small canister with 100 g of gas will last for at least a few nights of liberal use. So 40g should be more than enough for a one nighter to do a dehydrated dinner meal and warm drink plus a morning coffee if not a hot breakfast too.
Using the adapter I already use to fill my small canisters from larger ones, I was able to flush out the 1,1-Difluoroethane that the air horn uses (you do not want to burn that stuff it produces hydrofluoric acid), I was able to put a safe 35g of gas in it (in theory I can go to 40g). It needed a fairly warm donor can and frozen receiver can to get the flow to work. This left the overall weight of the cylinder at just 54g.
I did a test run in my conservatory by the door with a fan aimed at the area for realism. Using the BRS stove I was able to boil 400ml of water 4 times fully and was on the 5th before the flame died down to ‘too weak to boil’ levels.
So I put it together with an small mug, no lid (I use the cosy as a lid when boiling), lightest viable lighter etc and we have a 158g cook kit!
**How does it stay standing up I hear you ask?**
Well after much consideration, as silly as it sounds I went with mini guylines and pegs! It’s the lightest way to do the job properly. So I clipped some titanium pin pegs short as possible and tied a thin anchor line around the rim of the can with 3 little loops. Then I made my mini lines, with a loop at each end. I loop them through the anchor loop and back through themselves to attach them to the can, then peg each one down in the grass with the pin pegs. The line weighs 0.3g in total and the 3 pin pegs weigh 3.7g so for 4g more I have stability over a wider area than a small gas can gives you. It’s actually safe and stable!
So there it is folks, it’s less than half the weight of my normal ultralight cook set and weighs less than just a normal small camping gas cylinder.
It’s not important to save this weight, I just enjoy the process of reducing the burden through attention to details. There’s no doubt, I may have taken it too far this time!