Gear Closet: Vargo Titanium Wood Burning Stove
This Vargo Stove folds up to a very manageable size of 6.4 by 6.4 inches in its protective case and easily stashes away anywhere in your pack. It is a great beginners wood burning stove because it has a door to add more fuel into and a floor to make sure you keep it’s fire at a manageable level. At 4.1 ounces this stove is quite light and fun to cook with to boot. I enjoy dinner time at camp much more now than I did when I used a canister stove. I unfold the stove on a durable surface like a rock or sand and build a tiny tepee style wood pile inside the center of stove and light it from its core sometimes with a bit of fire starter like a fuel tablet of lichen. I also like to gather a couple of handfuls of 4 inch pencil sized dry sticks ahead of time so I can sit and manage the fire without getting up and down for more sticks for my 400ml mug to boil. The stove also serves for a bit of ambiance as well and usually serves for any camp fire drive that I might have been feeling. Wood burning stoves are nice because the fuel is all around you in most wilderness settings and is fun to use. Some cons are the sooty smell and tar that accumulates on your pot and stove but I find that the smell does not permeate my other gear. Another thing is that your boil time is about seven minutes with a good flame in the hole opposed to a regular canister stove which is about four minutes generally. All in all, I find that the fact that this stove is so small and light and I don’t have to carry fuel outweigh the disadvantages. Make sure you keep an eye on the stove while it’s going and to make sure when you are done that the ground underneath is free of tiny coals.