The stove is more than a way to heat water or food, for us at least it is part of a morning or evening ritual. Sparking it up during an evening while camping high above the world says ‘the day is over, sit back, relax’. In the morning, that first cup of coffee on the mountain is a moment to behold, the expectation of the day before you.
On a multi-day trip, it is also one of the most important items in the backpack. Warm water and food are, needless to say, an essential part of a long adventure, and without it, the journey would be cut short. The stove cannot fail, every part of it must be very durable.
On our trips to the mountains, we’ve long turned to Swedish manufacturers Primus who trace their history back more than 125 years. Roald Amundsen who, in 1911, became the first person to reach the South Pole, took one, as did Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary on the successful 1953 Everest expedition. The reputation Primus have for reliability goes back a long way.
Stoves tend to fall into three fuel-based categories: cartridges, liquid fuel and alternative-fuel stoves that run on wood or pellets. Most camping stoves fall into the first two categories, but the Primus OmniLite Ti spans the first two and is designed to work with gas, gasoline/petrol, diesel, kerosene/paraffin, and even aviation fuel (!), as well as cartridges.
“Easily one of the best multi-fuel stoves out there: lightweight and reliable.”
The screw-in gas canisters may be the easiest to use, but not when travelling long distances in remote areas where extra canisters may not always be available. They’re also problematic in extremely cold conditions – some simply won’t be able to function at all.
And it’s in those kind of situations that a multi-fuel option often comes up trumps.
