Crappy weather, flash-flooded roads, and weekend plans changed yet again. What to do? Make another wicked lo-fi gear video, of course!
No single backpacking stove is perfect. Different trips, seasons, and conditions call for different tools.
In this video, I walk through the stove systems Joan and I use in 2026, from lightweight canister stoves and alcohol burners to cold-weather remote canister setups, white gas, and going without a stove entirely.
The lineup includes:
- Fire-Maple Green Peak 1 — our three-season stove
- Fire-Maple FMS-118 — cold-weather canister stove
- Generic upright canister stove — backup option
- BRS-3000T and Fire-Maple FMS-116T — lightweight alternatives
- Cold food — sometimes the simplest option
- White Box alcohol stove — solo shoulder-season trips
- MSR SimmerLite — deep winter and snow melting
These aren’t necessarily the newest or fanciest stoves. They’re the tools we’ve found useful through years of backpacking.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
03:25 Fire-Maple Green Peak 1 — Three-Season Stove
05:42 Fire-Maple FMS-118 — Cold-Weather Stove
09:08 Generic Upright Canister Stove
11:55 BRS-3000T and FMS-116T — Lightweight Options
16:04 Cold Food and No-Cook Backpacking
19:40 White Box Alcohol Stove
23:21 MSR SimmerLite — Winter and Snow Melting
27:32 Conclusion — Which Stove Makes Sense?
Read the companion articles:
https://pmags.com/the-quiver-my-backpacking-stoves-in-2026
https://pmags.com/white-box-alcohol-stove-an-18-year-overdue-review
https://pmags.com/tbt-gear-msr-simmerlite
https://pmags.com/dirt-bagger-winter-stove-platform
My recommendation for someone who wants just one stove:
Fire-Maple Greenpeak 2 — an affordable, versatile, all-purpose canister stove with a microregulator that pushes into colder weather.
A couple of production notes:
Sorry for the occasionally wonky framing and focus. I only make gear videos when the weather is crappy. 🙂
And yes, I accidentally called the FMS-118 the 116 at one point. Sigh. Too many stove numbers!