RE: [Philmont]: RE: Alcohol stoves

MessageMy son has milk allergies and so we had to bring food to Philmont for
him in 2004. The rest of the crew used a single large pot and a white gas
stove for Philmont food. I got a Brasslite alcohol stove for my son to cook
on, with a small pot and a windscreen I made from some aluminum flashing. He
and I would alternate cooking and cleanup duties, and the whole thing worked
extremely well for the two of us. We had used this system during our
shakedown treks, and it got so that our dinner was almost always ready
before the crew's, even though the heat output from an alcohol stove is a
lot less than from a white gas stove. The Brasslite is about the size of a
pop can stove, but more durable (and of course a lot more expensive...unless
you buy your pop from the machine where I work!)

Philmont does not provide the denatured alcohol used in these stoves, so we
ground shipped an unopened can of alcohol from the hardware store along with
our alcohol and white gas stoves and empty fuel bottles. We packed a small
container of fuel with each of our "commissary care packages" (Philmont will
deliver special diet food to commissaries to be picked up on the trail along
with the regular food.) The smallest Platypus collapsible bottles worked
well for this purpose. We had more than enough fuel for the trip, including
borrowing it for morning coffee water for the advisors (much quieter in the
early morning than the "sound of jet idling" which our Himalaya stoves
make.)

Having spent the spring pounding LNT concepts into the scouts, I collected
the unused alcohol and returned it to the fuel depot upon our return to Base
Camp, so that it could be offered to another crew or disposed of in an
environmentally friendly manner. The staffer cheerfully accepted my
container, walked out the back door and emptied it onto the gravel drive.

>Ched Hudson
ASM Troop 994
Fairfax Station, VA
Philmont '67, '04, '06

  -----Original Message-----
  From: owner-philmont@troop47.com [mailto:owner-philmont@troop47.com]On
Behalf Of Vannerson, William G.
  Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2006 1:38 PM
  To: Multiple recipients of list philmont
  Subject: RE: [Philmont]: RE: Batteries and Jet Boils

  A little side trip...

  On our trek, I was tempted to bring my alcohol pop can stove that has been
briefly mentioned here before. But I decided against it because I wasn't
sure if alcohol would be available at Base Camp and I wasn't sure if I could
carry it on Amtrak.

  1. Does anyone know if it's available, or
  2. Could I have shipped it with our white gas stoves (purged and cleaned
prior to shipping), or
  3. Carried aboard Amtrak (it's not as volatile as fuels)

  I suspect there may be a source in Cimarron, but taking the bus from Raton
to Base Camp does not allow for a side shopping trip before heading on the
trail.

  BTW, I ended up foregoing coffee for the duration of the trek, except for
advisors coffee on occasion, which is likely the best choice anyway for us
coffee addicts! :-)

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Received on Sun Feb 19 08:42:25 2006