After logging more than 11 miles on the scenic and often rugged Colorado Trail between Montezuma and Copper Mountain — I wasn’t just ready for dinner — I was absolutely ravenous. I had a couple of freeze-dried dinners burning a hole in my backpack and some freshly filtered water from a nearby stream. The only thing left to complete my backcountry gourmet meal was a stove that could quickly boil water. Enter the Primus Lite+ Stove — a lightweight stove with Laminar Flow Burner Technology that boils water in the blink of an eye. The compact stove packs up into it’s 500 ml hard anodized aluminum pot and also has room to store a 100-gram gas cartridge. Sans matches or a lighter, I sparked up the burner and watched as the still water rapidly turned to a boil. Clean up was easy enough, and I tucked the stove back in my pack until it was time to caffenate in the morning. The beauty of the Primus Lite+ is that it comes with a heat-resistant sleeve with felt lining, which is perfect for brewing up a serving of coffee in the morning and enjoying it right out of the aluminum pot. The sleeve and webbing handle made it easy to enjoy a cup of joe, and even easier to clean up, pack up, and get back on the trail again in the morning.
MSRP: $114.95
Pros: The Primus Lite+ stove lives up to its name. Not only is it lightweight (13.8 ounces) and easy to stash in your pack for long hauls on the trail, but it’s added features like the easy to use, no matches needed burner, heat-resistant sleeve and unique locking mechanism (which helps steady the stove on uneven surfaces) make this a versatile, all-in-one piece of gear that will quickly make it’s way into your gear stash.
Cons: Although having a heat-resistant sleeve and handle that convert the stove’s pot into a mug is a great feature for coffee drinkers, the handle leans on the flimsy side, which can be a little tricky when it’s holding up a steaming hot cup of coffee…
Where We Took It: Backpacking throughout the mountains of Colorado during the Fjallraven Classic.
