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Every full length (longer than 60 seconds) video and accompanying blog post

How-To (08) Jason Kolaczkowski How-To (08) Jason Kolaczkowski

The Most Dangerous Place to Cook on the Mountain

When we get into challenging climbing in mountain environments space, weather, and other constraints might necessitate that we get our calories in while in the relatively secure confines of our camping tent. How can we do that given all the risks that come from cooking with a camp stove when enclosed? Well, here's what you should never do.

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DIY Hanging Kit for Your Camping Stove

Most commercial hanging kits for camping, backpacking, and climbing stoves are minimalist and light. They can be because they typically fit integrated stoves - where the stove and pot couple securely. This improves safety by containing the flame and creating stability. Can we design a hanging kit for a non-integrated stove that will bring us a similar safety profile?

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Camping Stove Survival Test | Cold Weather Breakdown

Integrated stoves for camping, backpacking, and climbing transfer heat very effectively, reducing fuel demands. But the integrated stove and pot are often heavy. There are people who prefer lighter backpacking stoves, but to make alpine-ready hanging kits, they often need a heavier and more robust design to transfer heat and keep open flames away from gear. So, I ran a test on some store-bought integrated stoves with hanging kits, and some DIY hanging kits with backpacking stoves to see where the weight and performance tradeoffs may end up.

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Winter Stove Test Results Will Surprise You!

I hear that canister stoves don't work in the cold a lot. But I've also used canister stoves in the cold a lot, and so have many other climbing teams who head to the coldest corners of the globe. However, it could be that there are times that canister stoves make more sense and times liquid-fuel stoves are a better option. This test of eight different stoves sheds some light on how the knocks on canister stoves are overstated as well as circumstances where liquid-fuel stoves might make a better choice.

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The Right Cook Pot Can Save You HOURS Across a Climbing Expedition

In the older days of gas stoves, conventional wisdom was that a larger pot would make turning snow into boiling water more efficient when on a climbing expedition. But new equipment may have changed the calculus. Here's an experiment I ran to see if smaller or larger pots would be more efficient given different stove types.

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How-To (07) Jason Kolaczkowski How-To (07) Jason Kolaczkowski

6 Tips to Stay WARM in a Cold, Snowy Camp

Our boys, Connor and Kade, have been gathering up a pretty good amount of cold, winter, snowy camp experience. So, they wanted to each share three tips - so six tips total - that they find to be the biggest difference makers when it comes to staying warm in camp.

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Using a Remote Canister Stove in the WORST conditions with a DIY Hanging Kit

Remote canister stoves often improve stove performance in cold weather when compared to standard canister stoves. But remote canister stoves can be hard to use in the harshest environments when there is no means to safely hang the stove. Well, here's a DIY(ish) solution for that problem.

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This DIY Hack Improves Your Canister Fuel Performance In COLD Weather

There are lots of ways to maintain a warmer temperature for your canister fuel, thus improving the performance of your camp stove when out climbing, backpacking, or camping in the snow. One way is using a bath for the canister, into which you can pour warm water. Here's how I made one and some options on how to use one.

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How-To (07) Jason Kolaczkowski How-To (07) Jason Kolaczkowski

Keep Your Drinking Water from FREEZING! Practices from High Altitude Climbing

Depending upon your part of the world, winter climbing can bring extreme cold that can make the seemingly simplest things complicated. I got asked a question about how we stop our drinking water from freezing when temperatures dip into the extreme. We can borrow lessons from many high altitude climbers who regularly face those types of extreme temperatures.

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How-To (06) Jason Kolaczkowski How-To (06) Jason Kolaczkowski

Backcountry Luxury: Making a Kitchen at Your Snow Camp Using a Pyramid Tent

If I'm going to be winter camping, on snow, in the same place for a while - think an expedition basecamp or a long-weekend outing - I will often make a dedicated kitchen in camp. With appropriate snow depth, a pyramid tent kitchen is my preferred version to make because it grants shelter, mobility, and better ergonomics. Here is more on why, and a lot more on how, I build them.

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Canister Stoves in Summer Conditions: How Many Days Before Heavier, Efficient Stoves Make Sense?

If we are out on a backpacking trip or an alpine climb, we are already counting ounces. More efficient canister stoves tend to be heavier. So, how many days of fuel use need to happen before that efficiency and saved fuel pays off when compared to carrying a lighter, less efficient stove with, therefore, more fuel? We did a first test in summer conditions.

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How-To, How-To (04) Jason Kolaczkowski How-To, How-To (04) Jason Kolaczkowski

Winter Camping is a Mountaineering Skill. My Kids Wanted to Try a Deeply Cold 48 Hours Out.

Climbing big mountains in anything more than a day, may demand that you cold-weather camp as well as you climb. It's the key to your recovery at the end of each day. My twin eight-year-old wanted to try winter camping in truly cold weather. It got down to -6 F (-21C). Here's what I was thinking about and focused on teaching them during these 48 hours out.

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Camping Gear, Kitchen Recommendations: What We Take With Us on Our Family Camping Trips

In this video, we are reviewing key items that round out our family camping kitchen gear. Having covered stoves and fuel in our How to Camp Cook video, today we are discussing the other items we take with us on family adventures when we have multiple mouths to feed so need light equipment but equipment that is also able to handle volume.

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How to Camp Cook: Finding a Balance Between Ultralight and Car Camping for Your Family

In this video, we discuss how to camp cook - at least, how our family approaches camp cooking when we need to be light enough to hike into our camp (we aren't car camping), but not so light (we aren’t thru-hiking) as to loose the pleasure of sharing real food with our family.

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