~5L Pot for Denali

Without buying something like this:
amazon.com/EVERNEW-Evernew-…

Whats the best pot for the weight for extreme snow melting for a month? Seems like there is no standard "expedition snow melting" pot out there.

Our idea is to use a spray painted black pot, pot parka, huge windscreen, and insulated stove board. Just need the ideal pot for melting snow for two people for a month.

how many people? How many stoves?
Go big. BIG. You're melting water constantly up there. If you have more than 2, bring a big lightweight pot...like a 2 gallon pot. Seriously.

amazon.com/Open-Country-Alu…

that's the one.

Two People. And weve been testing with a 5L pot and we have pretty much settled on that size. If not maybe 6L, but bigger wont be necessary we believe.

agreed. no need for a $160 titanium pot though. good luck!

5 Liters of pot should be sufficient, depends on how quickly you smoke it. Tends to burn slower at altitude. Hot boxing snow caves is a great way to conserve.

pro tip: buy a 25 liter pot from costco in anchorage, return for a full refund after your trip. Let's be real here, who the hell needs a 25 liter pot?

Another thing, bring at minimum 2 white gas stoves, 3 would be better. You can put 2 under a pot (go bigger than 5 liters) at a time, and use the third to make pancakes/fry bacon/ingest as many calories as possible.

I have one that size, great for four people when lots of snow needs to be melted. For two people overkill.

Get the smaller pot: traildesigns.com/cookware/e…

For a stove platform get a 12" x 24" piece of ensolite foam and glue some newspaper tin or copper sheet metal (30 gauge or so) on to it. The foam will insulate while the sheet metal will prevent a melt down and and some rigidity to the foam. I have one that I made years ago that has been on several Alaska trips.

Ok obviously there seems to be some discrepancy in the pot size.

25L? Stupidly big for 2 people.

2.8L? Too small for a month of melting snow. But I would agree that this size pot is what I would take on shorter trips where snow needs to be melted. We use a 2.35L Esbit Heat Exchanger pot and it works well.

We will be bringing 2 whisperlites. I think 2 stoves for a two person expedition is sufficient. We already have a fiberglass insulated reflective stove platform.

What Im working with currently.

Pot Parka

Stove Setup

I'll chime in here as well. I'm looking for a 5-6liter pot also. Preferably cheap, light, aluminum. Open country sells a 2,4,8,and 10 quart kettle. Why oh why not a 6quart I don't know. Does anyone have a lead on a 6quart?

Denali 2017- 3 guys.

2 stoves - whisperlite & XGK
2 pots - 2.5L reactor & ??? (hopefully a 6quart)

CurlyFry wrote:2.8L? Too small for a month of melting snow. But I would agree that this size pot is what I would take on shorter trips where snow needs to be melted. We use a 2.35L Esbit Heat Exchanger pot and it works well. We will be bringing 2 whisperlites. I think 2 stoves for a two person expedition is sufficient. We already have a fiberglass insulated reflective stove platform.

Well...you're not melting a months worth of snow all at once...

I think only once on a trip with a party of 3 we had a 3L pot. Was handy. We were towing sleds to a high camp, though. For just two people? Have always just used a single 2L pot.

This looks sweet:

cascadedesigns.com/msr/cook…

I suppose there's snow melting and then extreme snow melting... Not sure what the difference is.

If I was in a big group, living out of a sled, I'd find a 3-5L pot and nest three Whisperlites together for the extreme snow melting championships...but...for two climbers?

For fuel conservation, I've used a heat exchanger:

cascadedesigns.com/msr/cook…

For two people on Denali, a 2L pot is fine. Especially when you ditch the sled and move to a high camp (and worked fine for me on 10 trips to the AK and St. Elias range).

Have the XGK's gotten any quieter? Two Whisperlites and you got spare parts in case you need to keep one going...(why bring two repair kits for two different stoves?).

I'd hit up the local Goodwill/Thrift shops.

There's a cheap texsport aluminum set on amazon. It has a pot that worked great for my group of three people. You definitely *don't* want that titanium pot. Titanium has terrible thermal conductivity.

Goodwill is also a good idea.

Cheers,
Dan

Brian in SLC wrote: Well...you're not melting a months worth of snow all at once... I think only once on a trip with a party of 3 we had a 3L pot. Was handy. We were towing sleds to a high camp, though. For just two people? Have always just used a single 2L pot. This looks sweet: cascadedesigns.com/msr/cook… I suppose there's snow melting and then extreme snow melting... Not sure what the difference is. If I was in a big group, living out of a sled, I'd find a 3-5L pot and nest three Whisperlites together for the extreme snow melting championships...but...for two climbers? For fuel conservation, I've used a heat exchanger: cascadedesigns.com/msr/cook… For two people on Denali, a 2L pot is fine. Especially when you ditch the sled and move to a high camp (and worked fine for me on 10 trips to the AK and St. Elias range). Have the XGK's gotten any quieter? Two Whisperlites and you got spare parts in case you need to keep one going...(why bring two repair kits for two different stoves?).

The second whisperlite was entirely useless. One whisperlite and an expedition repair kit with a spare pump is all we needed. The pot parka boosted efficiency and allowed us to bake corn bread and muffins etc. We just used that setup pictured the whole time with an alpine frybake and it was perfect. Really nice when you can shovel snow into the pot. We never planned on using a 17k camp, and didnt, and summited.

CurlyFry wrote: The second whisperlite was entirely useless. One whisperlite and an expedition repair kit with a spare pump is all we needed. The pot parka boosted efficiency and allowed us to bake corn bread and muffins etc. We just used that setup pictured the whole time with an alpine frybake and it was perfect. Really nice when you can shovel snow into the pot. We never planned on using a 17k camp, and didnt, and summited.

Good on ya!

Too funny...didn't notice that your post was over a year old...

I have some old fire shelters which are thick two ply aluminum with fiberglass sandwich. You could make multiple pot parkas out of one shelter. Plus insulation and wind screen.

Nick Turtura wrote:Denali 2017- 3 guys. 2 stoves - whisperlite & XGK 2 pots - 2.5L reactor & ???

It’s not a good idea to use a Reactor pot with anything except a Reactor stove. I've tried it at home and here's what I found.

1. If you don’t use a Reactor stove then you won’t get snug fit between the burner and the pot. A lot of the hot air from the stove will flow up the outside of the pot, instead of into the gap between the inner and outer pot walls. The gap between the walls functions like an insulator, and the heat transfer is less efficient than if you used a regular single-wall pot costing 80% less.

2. The 2.5L Reactor pot has quite a narrow base that makes it prone to tipping if it’s not standing on a Reactor stove.

Since you’ve got the pot, why not bring a Reactor stove? It’s got many advantages:

- Melts snow and boils water in 2/3 the time of an XGK, even in windy conditions. I didn’t believe it until I used the two side-by-side.
- Much easier to get started (and you don’t waste fuel leaving the stove running when you’re not using it)
- Combined weight of fuel and canisters is less than white gas, per unit of water melted/boiled. (That’s if you use 16oz canisters. 8oz canisters are about breakeven).
- Can be used as a hanging stove

The downsides are
- Fuel is more expensive
- Bulkier
- Gas canisters need TLC in cold conditions. But they work fine if you keep them warm in your sleeping bag or jacket, and stand them in a pan of lukewarm water when in use.

We used a Reactor system on Mt Logan (Yukon) last year and it worked like a charm, even at 17,000’.

Martin,

Thanks for the info!

I think I'll ditch the reactor pot as per your advice as well as well as the XGK. I think I'm going to stick with the white fuel just for simplicity sake and I'm using Expedition Support. They'll supply the food bags and white gas when I arrive in AK.

So this is where I am at.

For three people:
2 Whisperlite stoves + 1 repair kit
2 pots: 4.5L and a smaller 1L

I would love to take my reactor stove but I think I want to stay away from butane.

Thoughts on this set up?

I like light and fast

Just make sure your pot is large enough for the blade of your shovel so you can just shovel snow in while both whisperlites are cranking underneath. Also buy a pot parka, itll reduce fuel consumption and youll have hot water much faster.