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

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I want to be clear, cooking inside of your tent can be dangerous. Flames can catch your tent, your clothes, and other gear on fire. A lot of stuff we use in the backcountry is highly flammable. And we can melt things, too. Just the heat from the stove, not an open flame, can melt sections of any of those same pieces of equipment. Finally, there are the fumes and the possibility of getting lightheaded, a headache, sick, or even asphyxiating (in the extreme).

So, cooking in your tent is dangerous. Do not do it unless you know how to mitigate all of these risks!!!

But most expedition climbers do know how to mitigate these risks, and so cooking in one’s tent becomes a powerful tool in the climber’s arsenal. What it allows us to do is still brew and cook even when the weather is at its worst. When the storms roll in or the temperature is so low that instant flash freezing of skin becomes possible, we need to stay sheltered. And yet, we still need to be able to do all the things we need to do to maintain life an energy - like eating and drinking.

I read a blog by Feed the Rat that pointed out that if you are willing to take on all of the other objective hazards of an expedition, you should probably grow to become comfortable (enough) with cooking in your tent. If you are not, then maybe you aren’t really ready to take on the worst that an expedition can throw at you.

One thing that pretty much all tent cooking requires is being able to hang our stove. We can’t have the hot stove near the meltable, flammable floor of our tent or near our often equally meltable, flammable gear that is strewn about the tent floor.

Hanging kits can be bought, commercially, for many standard canister stoves. But once you start having the fuel source be remote to the stove - either through a satellite canister or a liquid fuel container, now we have a more complicated setup needed in order to hang both the stove and fuel.

Hence, this video. Take a look at how I built my setup and see what you can borrow from or modify to fit your specific stove of choice.

If you are interested in using any of the supplies (parts) and tools that I used, here are some links.

Supplies (parts):

• Obviously, the Optimus Vega stove https://sovrn.co/185o2dn;

• the Optimus Stove Stand https://sovrn.co/76ipqtw;

• the MSR WindBurner hanging kit https://sovrn.co/1jor8c4;

• the Jetboil Fuel Can Stabilizer https://sovrn.co/tgvd8ku;

• Sterling Rope 1.5mm diameter Mini Cord https://sovrn.co/wvmd3fn;

• a Camp Dyon wiregate carabiner https://sovrn.co/td64eja;

• a Metolius FS Mini Carabiner https://sovrn.co/osp2imh;

• three 28mm safety pins https://sovrn.co/1j0ypx7;

• and a single-hole cord lock https://sovrn.co/1n44upx;

And for tools, I used: 

• A drill https://sovrn.co/tkn7q4b with a ¼ inch or 6mm bit that is appropriate for drilling aluminum https://sovrn.co/tkn7q4b;

• wood blocks to elevate the materials while I drilled;

• scissors https://sovrn.co/cjsmlvx;

• a lighter https://sovrn.co/d04v5et;

• a mallet https://sovrn.co/1ik3f3q;

• a T-square https://sovrn.co/1j1dl8y;

• a permanent marker https://sovrn.co/1ifs431;

• a steel scratch awl https://sovrn.co/qky02pl;

• and general purpose sandpaper https://sovrn.co/vbqd7gg.