I've been using the wrong fuel for my stove for a year and only figured it out in the Wind River Range

I was boiling water for coffee at 10,000 feet and my Jetboil kept sputtering out. A guy at the next campsite asked if I was using the cold weather mix, and I had no idea what he meant. Turns out my regular canister fuel loses pressure way faster in the cold, and I've been blaming the stove this whole time. Anyone have a good cold weather stove they like better than a Jetboil for high altitude?

3 comments

3 Comments

wilson.anthony3mo ago

My buddy Mark had a similar shock on Mount Rainier last spring. He was trying to melt snow at Camp Muir and his canister stove just quit. A guide finally told him he needed to warm the fuel canister in his jacket, which he'd never heard of. That experience made him switch to a white gas stove for anything below freezing. He uses an MSR WhisperLite now and says the reliability is worth the extra fuss.

lucas633mo ago

Yeah, that "warm the canister in your jacket" trick is a lifesaver. I keep a spare fuel can in my sleeping bag overnight when it's cold. But @wilson.anthony is right, white gas is way more reliable in deep freeze. WhisperLite will boil water when a canister stove just sputters. The priming is a pain, but you're not left with cold food.

the_evan21d ago

Funny enough, I actually learned that jacket trick the hard way too, but not on a mountain. I was camping in my buddy's backyard during a weird cold snap in Colorado, trying to make coffee with one of those tiny isobutane cans. Thing just sat there hissing like a tired snake. I threw it under my arm pit for like 5 minutes and it actually roared back to life. My friend thought I was insane until his stove did the same thing the next morning. We ended up just sharing one warm can and calling it a win. Makes you wonder how many people have tossed perfectly good fuel just because they didn't know this simple trick.