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I finally gave up on my old camp stove after a ranger in Yosemite showed me his.
It was at the Tuolumne Meadows campground last fall. My ancient two-burner was being fussy again, and a park ranger named Mark saw me struggling. He walked over with his little single burner and said, 'This thing has boiled water for me at 10,000 feet in a 30 mph wind. Reliability beats features out here.' He let me use it to finish my coffee. It wasn't about having the biggest or most powerful stove. It was about one piece of gear you can absolutely count on. What's your one piece of gear that has never let you down?
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daniel47017d agoMost Upvoted
i mean people act like a camp stove failing is some kind of life or death thing. you're just making coffee, not performing open heart surgery. if the ranger saw me struggling i'd probably just ask to borrow his for thirty seconds and move on with my day, not turn it into a whole philosophical thing about trust and reliability. i've got a ten dollar lighter that's been through two backpacking trips and still works fine, but i'm not about to write a eulogy for it. honestly, half the stuff people call "trusted gear" just means they haven't lost it yet. that headlamp that outlasted three tents probably just wasn't used as much as the tents were.
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fiona_murphy27d ago
What gear do you trust so much you'd bet your coffee on it? My old headlamp has outlasted three tents and still works every single time.
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