I received a Caldera Cone today from Trail Designs. Man that little booger is really light. Directions say only denatured alcohol. Can we use Heet in alcohol stoves also? But man the thing is light. With some alcohol or fuel it won't be much heavier. I guess I just dropped some weight from my pack. Efficient thing. That's what impressed me with it. I was talking awhile back here somewhere on WB about how my PR and others like it are so unstable and inefficient. This things pretty good. Well, I've added it to my little collection and plan on starting to use it. Hope to use it on CDT this Summer and etc. The entire pkg-I have not weighed yet. It came with a two-piece plastic cannister to store it in (everythign goes in it). Pretty handy. I wish we'd had this years ago.
I've had some crazy stoves in my life. For example, anyone remember the Grasshopper stove? (I think it was called that, it kinda looked like a grasshopper). You screwed it to a long propane cylinder. Two legs were supplied by the stove and the third leg by the cylinder of propane itself. It was a blowtorch of course. We thought it was great!
My introduction to really cool backpacking stoves was the MSR Whisperlite. I still have it of course. I take it out once in awhile and check it over. Cool thing, it seems tons heavy compared to the Caldera Cone and stove. Any thoughts on stoves past and present?