Greetings Hikers,
It has been fun to watch LiteTrail mature over the last year or so, Jhaura Wachsman, the founder of LiteTrail, has been investing a lot of time and money into sourcing some of the lightest gear available for SUL/XUL hikers. That alone makes them a company that is always on my watchlist.
About a week ago they announced a new set of titanium cook pots, that are suppose to be crazy light weight, so I ordered up one of their 550ml pots to give it a go and see how it compared to my existing setup, which is comprised of the hugely popular Evernew 600ml pot, and the always amazing TrailDesigns Sidewinder, and a DIY esbit stove/stand.
The order showed up tonight, and I am heading out on a hike tomorrow, so I wanted to get a brief pre-use article pushed out for those considering this setup.
Specs:
Pot: 54.71 grams
Lid: 17.33 grams
Screen: 4.48 grams
Groundsheet: 1.38 grams
TriWing stand: 12.59 grams
This totals up to: 90.49 grams (3.19 ounces).
Add in a FireMaple Folding Spoon at 16.71 grams and a mini-bic, 5 days worth of esbit, and ziplock bags, and I arrive at 171 grams (6.03 ounces) for a full (five day) cook kit setup weight.
Just the pot, compared to my Evernew 600ml (68.98 grams), is 14.27 grams lighter.
The lid on this LiteTrail setup is 17.33 grams (0.611 ounces), so a bit over a half-ounce just for the lid. Considering the lid does not snap in or onto, and stay in place, it is a bit more of a bummer. It does stay stable when you are boiling water, but it is not a tight enough fit to actually stay attached and hold the rest of your cook kit inside the pot. Going to have to either keep it in the supplied stuff sack, use a ziplock bag like I do, or use a rubber band like a lot of guys I know use. I like the design of the lid, it has a nice small handle and vent holes, it is just a bummer it weighs 31.67 percent of what just the pot itself weighs.
The pot and the lid put together makes a total pot weight of 72.04 grams (2.54 ounces) and that is impressive for a Ti 550ml pot & lid!
The windscreen was a bit shorter than I expected. Typically I am use to windscreens that go up the side of the pot about 50% of the way. I would say the windscreen might go up 2/5ths of the way, maybe. Will it be enough to handle a 30mph wind, or more, that hikers in some regions typically encounter, that I just do not know yet. The vent holes on the bottom of the windscreen are nice size, and go around it about half way.
All in all I am really looking forward to giving this smaller pot a try. I know a lot of folks are going to say that 550ml is not big enough. To each of us our own, or HYOH/YMMV as we say. For me, I am use to using somewhere in the 350-450ml range, so this 550ml is going to be nice, compared to the 600ml pot that I have been using recently.
The pot feels very solid and well built. Same with the lid and windscreen. I have bought enough pots and cook kits over the years to know when I am willing to give one a go and when its just going back into the box that it came in. This one is heading out with me tomorrow on my next hike, so that is saying something considering it just showed up a few hours ago. I will run a couple of pots of hot water through it just to make sure the handle rivets will not pop when it gets hot, and if it survives that, it is going into my backpack before I head out in the morning.
Where To Buy:
You can buy this pot, and the entire setup, at the TrailLite store:
http://litetrail.com/shop/litetrail-titanium-cookpot-with-lid-550-ml
Below are photos, not the best, but I am tired and leaving very early in just a few hours, so until I can get back and get a chance to share more thoughts on this new setup, enjoy the pictures, have a great time, and let me know your thoughts!
+John Abela
HikeLighter.Com
In accordance of USA Federal Trade Commission 16 CFR, Part 255: I hereby declare that the products mentioned within the content of this article were not supplied to me in exchange for services.