I was on a winter hike in Gallatin National Forest, snow on the ground, cold enough that I’d stopped taking my hands out of my pockets.
I stopped walking, picked up a handful of twigs, and had a fire going in a stove the size of a coffee mug. Ten minutes later I was holding a cup of tea with steam coming off it. No fire ring, no picnic table, nobody else around.
This was years ago now — pre-Tootsie. I still think about it.
Why I recommend it
Two reasons, and the first one is practical.
Every other portable stove I’ve used runs on fuel I have to buy, carry, and ration. I’m always doing the math — is there enough left, did I pack a spare, what happens if I’m wrong. The Solo Stove Lite runs on what’s already on the ground. Twigs, pinecones, bark. I have never been anywhere I couldn’t find enough to boil water.
The second reason is harder to put a number on. A fire changes a hike. You’ve been walking past those sticks all day, and now you’re using them — you stop being someone passing through the woods and start being someone using what’s in them. Ten minutes of that in the middle of a cold day is worth carrying nine ounces for.
It also cooks a real meal with a pot on top. And yes, you can hold a marshmallow over it.
What you’ll need
Not much, which is the point. Dry twigs and pinecones — that’s your fuel, and it’s free. A lighter, plus something that catches fast to get it started; a cotton ball works. A pot if you’re cooking — Solo Stove’s own 900 nests inside the stove, which is how I pack it. Long skewers if s’mores are the plan.
What you don’t need: a fuel canister, ever again.
One thing to check before you count on it — a wood-burning stove is often included in a fire ban, even though it isn’t a campfire. Restrictions vary park to park and change through the season. Look it up before you go.
One more thing
Most of the time it isn’t a winter hike in Montana. It’s the driveway, or the backyard, or a picnic table at the end of an ordinary day when nobody feels like building a real fire.
Twigs, ten minutes, a bag of marshmallows.
That’s usually all it takes.
Get this gear
The Solo Stove Lite is for people who want a real fire in something that fits in a jacket pocket. If you need to cook fast in bad weather, a canister stove will beat it every time — wet wood is wet wood, and you can’t argue with it.
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