I got out yesterday for a quick overnight. A tad chilly but fun. Tried out a used bivvy I bought. Bivvy is too tight for a puffy bag and full size Thermarest. I used a summer bag (32F rating), but I wore a down sweater and down pants and was fine. Feet were slightly cold, but not so cold that I couldn't sleep.

Graupel:


The Presidential Suite:


Tea Time:


Fashion Statement: :lol:


Mount Lukens:


That's an MSR Dragonfly in the photo. More on that later.


HJ

You Got Your Photo-Zen down to a Fine Science,Jim!That Dusting of Snow,Really Beautifies the Landscape!I'll Bet it was Frigid at Night but Enjoyable,I'm Sure!Thanx for the Close-up Look at our Beautiful & Local Mountains!Good Stuff!

Photo zen. I like it. Thanks, Rich.

HJ

Nice photos Jim.

Looks like you were sleeping right in the middle of an exposed area? Much wind up there this time of year?

Not too bad on the exposure. The wind was probably 10 mph, pretty mild in other words, but not much fun on exposed skin. Had it been a less impromptu outing (snow's here; let's go!), I might have brought more in terms of shelter. 2600'/790m isn't particularly high hereabouts and the storm had already passed.

My main purpose for this trip was a gear test. I used a summer weight sleeping bag but augmented it with down pants and a down hoodie sweater. The combination worked well. I figure since I'm going to be bringing insulation to wear anyway, why not use that insulation at night and bring a lighter bag?

No interesting stove tests this time. I just used white gasoline/petrol rather than mess around with canister warming schemes.













HJ

Thanks for sharing Jim. Love the photos. Those spontaneous overnighters are so much fun.

My pleasure to share. Someone, in reference to one of my stove posts, asked to see photos of one of my camp sites. Well, there you are.

The oak grove I camped in is one of the sites I frequent for stove (and other gear) testing. It's also just a nice spot to hang out and make a cup of tea.

HJ

Just for fun, here's what the same oak grove looks like without snow.



HJ

Jim,

Can you give us some info about the pot?

Looks like your stove was more than adequate.

Blake
www.outdoorquest.biz
www.outdoorquest.blogspot.com

The pot in the snow pictures is a Primus LiTech 0.9L tea kettle. It's my preferred pot if I'm just boiling water to rehydrate food or to make drinks. It's super easy to pour from, requires no pot grabber, and has a nice wide bottom that captures flame well.


If I'm doing anything that requires something more than boiling water, then I've got a couple of other pieces of gear.

The pot in the non-snow photo is a Globetrotter pot set, which is the set of pots that comes with a Camping Gaz GT106 Globetrotter stove. It's a nice pot set that will hold one canister of gas, the stove, and a couple of odds and ends like a lighter. It makes a nice, compact set.




The stove is an MSR Dragonfly which is a pretty beefy stove for solo use. It's probably one of the more powerful stoves that MSR makes.


MSR refers to it as a basecamp stove, in otherwords, it's a larger, heavier stove intended for group use in a base camp. Interestingly, the US Army uses the Dragonfly as a squad stove. It's basically a good stove, and I love it's easy simmering ability, an ability which most MSR white gasoline stoves lack, but it is sensitive to fuel quality. Not a stove I'd want to have in a remote corner of the world where fuel quality might be suspect.

HJ

Jim -- You may have mentioned it in other posts, but what is the aluminum type foil you are using as a windbreak. It looks more substantial than foil.

Thanks. TW

That windscreen is made from a heavier gauge aluminum foil. I'm experimenting a bit with designs, but the size you see there is about 6"x30" and is held in place with a standard paper clip (the larger size). That size works well with typical remote burner type backpacking stoves (Optimus, Primus, Brunton, MSR, etc.). 6"x30" is roughly the same sized windscreen that you would buy if you bought one from the manufacturer.

I'm experimenting with an 8" high size for upright canister stoves. Since the burner sits atop the canister, the windscreen has to be higher. However, if you fully enclose a canister and burner, you can trap a lot of heat, heat which can build up and cause the canister to violently explode. I'm experimenting with a 20" length for approximately 3/4 coverage, which should allow for enough ventilation to prevent canister overheating. One must also be careful as to which stoves one tries this on. Some stoves have plastic or other components that can melt.

In cold weather, trapping heat can be a good thing, but you have to be danged careful and very attentive. If the canister feels hot, turn it down AND open up the windscreen.

I'm also experimenting with a "radiation shield" which is basically just a disk of the same aluminum material with a radially cut slot in it. The slot is slid around the burner column and then the ends are joined together and held in place by a paper clip. This causes heat to be deflected away from the canister, allowing me to use a windscreen with more coverage.

All of the above are strictly at one's own risk and are completely against the manufacturer's recommendations. Of course manufacturer's recommendations are put together by the legal department, a department that exists solely to protect the manufacturer against law suits. Such a department probably doesn't have to worry about going without dinner if the night is too windy to use a canister stove.

HJ