Fuel quotient for a 5 day backpack?

[Bantu Boy]

Hello folks,
I've read this site for a while and never posted. I am sixteen and havve been hiking with the scouts and friends for years, in harriman and the adirondacks. THis week me and one of my best friends will be doind or first adult-less backpacing trips. We were not sure of how much fuel is nessecary, we have white gas whisperlite stove with a liter bottle. So how much do we need? Any way thanks alot.
noah

 

[DougPaul]

IIRC, MSR recommends 2oz/person/day in summer and 4oz/person/day in winter (includes melting snow).

You might check their website to verify: http://www.msrcorp.com/home.asp

Doug

 

[Pete_Hickey]

Yeah, 2 oz per person per day is what is suggested, however, your cooking style can change it A LOT.

If you just want to boil a liter of water, make a tea/coffee and pour the rest in a freeze dried thing, you don't need much. If you like cooking, like to make soups, things that take simmering, have several teas, you can easily use twice as much or more.

If you don't know, I would suggest taking at least twice as much as is recomended. Far better to carry an extra pound or so than to eat rice soaked in cold water.

And look at how much you start with, and when you are finished, look at how much you have left, then you'll have an idea of how much you'll need the next time.

 

[percious]

Another question to ask is how you are treating your drinking water? Do you have a pump? Iodine? Steripen?

I found out last weekend that if you filter the water, and then heat it up, you can make 2x as much hot water than you could make if you boiled it. Boiling water is hard to drink anyway...

If you are going to be boiling all of your drinking water, you will need that 4oz per person per day.

-percious

 

[Nadine]

It definitly depends on how much cooking you do. If you plan on eating a cold lunch and only using the stove for breakfast and supper you can get by with a little less. I'm a fan of having a hot drink for lunch on a chilly day, so I tend to carry a bit more fuel than I think I need.

 

[Pucknuts61]

Hi Bantu Boy,
I was testing my stove this weekend to do exactly what you are trying to figure out too.
I came up with 3 minutes to boil 1 cup, and used 1oz of fuel from a cold start.
2 ounces per day will mean that you can boil at least a quart, so I would agree with Doug and Pete....consider 2-4oz per person per day to be safe....not including boiling to purify water.
Hope this helps,
Bill

 

[DougPaul]

I was testing my stove this weekend to do exactly what you are trying to figure out too.

Fuel consumption varies with the model stove, how you use it, and the (weather) conditions. For instance, a good wind screen is generally essential in winter and, while not essential in summer, will save fuel.

Your datapoint is useful, but if the OP wants a more accurate figure, he should do his own tests. Or as Pete suggested, take a trip with some spare fuel and see how much you use.

Doug

 

[Pucknuts61]

Hi Doug,

I totally agree and no doubt that even the same model stove can produce different results. Cleanliness, fuel used (I failed to mention I used white gas), and conditions are all contributing factors. My stove testing was for an upcoming trip and I used worst case scenario too...no windscreen, in the rain (sort of) and I was boiling water at sea-level. I figure the boiling point is reduce by about 2 degrees less per 1000 feet of altitude. No so much a problem in the east, but this trip is to the Sierras.
Hopefully Bantu will do his own testing as you suggest, but it was just coincidence that I was trying to figure out the same thing when he posted the question, so I figure I'd share my results.
Thanks for the MSR link too...I hope he uses that as general reference too,
Bill

 

[bobmak]

I learned this easy to remember tip when I bought my first whisperlight stove back around the time when Lewis and Clark were planning their first outing:

For winter:
22 oz fuel bottle = 2 meals / 2 people / 2 days

Double the days for summer; assumes "hot water" meals.

 

[LittleBear]

Bobmak:

I also learned that formula when I bought my Whisperlite. However, I used it for a five day backpack in the Grand Canyon - 4 people - and we had WAY TOO MUCH fuel. We could have done with about 1/2 the fuel we brought. And we had hot meals for breakfast and dinner (with at least 15 - 20 minutes of cooking time) and tea before bedtime.

Guess it pays to measure before and after to see how much you really use.

 

[bobmak]

Bobmak:

I also learned that formula when I bought my Whisperlite. However, I used it for a five day backpack in the Grand Canyon - 4 people - and we had WAY TOO MUCH fuel. We could have done with about 1/2 the fuel we brought. And we had hot meals for breakfast and dinner (with at least 15 - 20 minutes of cooking time) and tea before bedtime.

Ms. Bear, I am impressed! If I read this right, you had 4 people, 5 days and 2 meals per day.... that is 40 meals, plus drinks, with about 1/2 bottle left over. Even if you used 3/4 of the fuel, that is 17 ozs/40 meals = .43 oz. of fuel per meal including hot drinks with fuel to spare at the end. Using that logic it would seem that one 22 oz. fuel bottle should be able to last me 3 weeks at 2 meals / day including drinks with fuel to spare; somehow that doesn't seem right. My immediate thought is that you might have been cooking group meals, and it is probably much more fuel efficient to cook one meal that four people share than to cook 4 separate meals. But that's just a guess.

 

[percious]

Last weekend in wet/cold conditions 4 of us used exactly 22 oz of fuel.
We ate: 2 dinners, 2 breakfasts.

So, thats 16 meals on 22 oz. or 1.4 oz per meal. The water we boiled was very cold, and we were using a Primus Himilaya, which is not the most efficient stove. For dinners made pasta and fajitas, both of which require about 20 minutes worth of simmering. Breakfast consisted of oatmeal and tea.

After breakfast the last day, we had just a drop left.

We did bring an alcohol stove and used this for a couple of hot drinks, but nothing we could not do without. We used 6 oz of this fuel.

For alcohol stoves, if you want hot water (not boiling) you get about 1 liter per oz. of fuel. Remember to treat the water first by pumping or penning.

-percious

 

[LittleBear]

bobmak: we did do group meals, so that probably helped a lot. But most of the meals called for 10 to 20 minutes of "simmering". In fact, one meal (the one saved for the last night) was a dehydrated Mexican Corn Pie - planned so if we did run out of fuel, we could still rehydrate the meal and have something to eat - cold, but food and filling.

Interestingly enough, I spent four days (three nights) car camping in Zion and Bryce last fall (just myself). I used a canister stove and some of the recipes I used on the Grand Canyon trip. I was actually surprised at how much fuel I used for this trip. More than I had originally thought. I actually ended up buying a small canister on the third evening, as I knew I wouldn't have enough to boil water for coffee and oatmeal the following morning.

 

[bobmak]

Interesting LittleBear. I just got back from a 10 day solo trip out to the Sedona Az. area. I used 2 large Gaz canisters (16 oz) for the week. This included cooking two meals per day with hot drinks and using my lantern to read in my tent for 2-3 hours at night. If I was just cooking I could have gotten by with one with a little fuel to spare. Incidentally, the lantern did a very nice job of warming the tent. It was in the mid 30's at night and I was able to sit up comfortably in my tent in short sleeves (I had the doors partially open for venting).

Would you mind if I emailed or PM'd you for info on Bryce and Zion? I have another block of time off coming up in the fall and may head back out there for a week or two.

 

[LittleBear]

Bobmak:

Feel free to contact me - either by e-mail or PM. I'm happy to share info.