Jetboil Out There

Backpacking

Dan Last, March 2008: I will admit that I was a skeptic when I first heard of your product as it seemed too small to be able to function under tough conditions. I just returned from a two day hike down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon where my new Jetboil fed three men for the duration of the trip. Soups, Pasta, and countless cups of coffee were served, however, the favorite was by far my spicy vegetarian black bean burritos! Thanks for such a great product – one that has quickly become a must-have in my pack.

Richard Hare, November 2006: The Jetboil proved ideal for long term heavy use on my PCT thru hike. It is a neat design, amazingly reliable, easy to use, and once the weight savings in gas are factored in, comparable with any lighter stove system.

Sarah Metzger, November 2006: I just wanted to let you know that I really love my jet boil… I just got back from a 3 month hiking/kayaking trip and it worked perfectly. I hope to be thru hiking the PCT this spring and will def be taking it. There is a photo attached of breakfast with the jb and denali in the background.

J C Von Schimmelmann, July 2006: My family and I just completed a four day, 22 mile backpack trip in the beautiful Oregon Cascades. I received for Christmas a new Jetboil, and this was its maiden voyage. WOW! What a great stove! I have been backpacking over thirty-five years have used a variety of stoves. The Jetboil out shines all of the competition. The only down side was cooking for a group. I received my REI catalog upon our return and on the back cover… voila, the solution! Jetboil group cooking system! BRAVO! I am looking forward to many trips with my Jetboils! Thanks for such a great product!

Michael J. Pond, June 2005: I would like to thank you for combining modern day technology with simplicity. I am an Upward Bound instructor specializing in introducing high school students to an 11-day wilderness experience. In our travels, students are exposed to rock climbing, whitewater canoeing and kayaking, sea kayaking, expedition canoeing, backpacking, and the benefits of a high ropes and low ropes team course. Based on years of experience and having access to almost every stove on the market, I have no reservations in saying, “I love the Jetboil!” The creators of Jetboil have gotten it right. The best features of the system are its simplicity, weight, and cooking efficiency. Last year, I introduced the system while backpacking in the Porcupine Mountains of Upper Michigan. The students’ look of total bewilderment was unforgettable. The students raved about the speed and functionality of my system versus the stoves they were issued. Upon our return back to civilization, I witnessed several students and their friends purchasing their own Jetboils at the local mountaineer store at which I work. It was nice to see my former students entering back into the wilderness with a stove that will provide them safe and reliable service for many years to come. Thank you Jetboil, for creating the best canister-based cooking system on the market, that continues to evolve!

Mark Bogan, March 2005: My wife and I just spent 5 days in the Big South Fork eating 3 meals a day cooked in our Jetboil. We found several interesting recipes in a book called “Lipsmackin’ Backpackin’” by Tim and Christine Conners. We also dehydrated our own favorite chili recipe in our food dehydrator. With help from the book and a little imagination plus the efficiency and portability of the Jetboil we ate better in the back country than most people do at home. We also bought the French press accessory and had great coffee with our oatmeal every morning. Breakfast with coffee, a hot lunch and a hot dinner. And all of this for 4 days on one fuel canister! Incredible! We were very pleased and are recommending the Jetboil to all our friends.

Michael Vealey, July 2004: My other stove is an MSR Whisperlite and has been with me for decades. It’s bomb-proof but setting it up just to boil water has made me think there should be a better way. Looks like you had the same thoughts too. Congratulations on the best backpacking product to hit the shelves since shock-corded tent poles!

Dave Nethaway, July 2004: Wanted to drop you a line to, first and foremost, let you know that I am friggin’ loving my new Jetboil. I am a solo hiker who hates to expend energy cooking and really appreciates the simplicity of your stove and the lightweight, easily storable design. It is really one of the best pieces of gear I have owned in quite some time.

Kevin Craig, July 2004: Our group of six (3 couples) backpacked into Lower Ice Lake Basin outside of Silverton, CO for a long weekend of peak bagging. Two couples brought canister stoves, one of which was my new Jetboil. The remaining couple brought an MSR Dragonfly stove with an MSR XGK fuel pump (or was it the other way around?). Anyway, the pump didn’t fit the stove (a big surprise to all of us). So, we were in quite a quandary as to what to do until I hit on the idea to use my Jetboil for all our “cooking” (fortunately, we all were doing the dehydrated meal thing). As it turned out, one large (450g) Primus canister coupled to the Jetboil served all six of us for almost the entire trip – 4 days, 5 1/2 ‘meals’ (one ‘meal’ = breakfast or dinner for six) plus hot drinks! Although designed as a personal cooking system, the stove boils fast enough that all six of us were able to meet our needs with minimal waiting around or other ‘down time.’

James Hoover, July 2004: Just a note to tell you your product is the coolest, most practical backpacking purchase I have ever made! I wish I had all the money back I have spent buying liquid and canister stoves and cooking equipment! Wish you had come up with the idea years ago. I am a church pastor in north Louisiana and I regularly take groups of college students backpacking in Arkansas. I have started a ‘Backpacking Ministry’ called AdventureLife, and after our last trip a few weeks ago, there are 21 college-age men and women who are excited about getting their own Jetboil. If I had to go into the woods with only one item, I’d leave the tent and sleeping bag and just take the Jetboil! Thanks again for the best piece of backpacking equipment out there.

Dino Nardini, June 2004: I just had a chance to test out my new Jetboil stove on a two-day hike here in Nova Scotia, Canada. The stove exceeded my expectations. I set up the pot to heat some soup, then turned to finish setting up my tent. No sooner had I turned my back on the stove, and it started to boil over. That’s some kind of heat monster you got there…awesome! A great replacement for my old MSR cartridge stove that never did work all that well.

Victor Fitzjarrald, April 2004: First off I would like to say thank you. You product is amazing and I really enjoy showing up MSR stoves on the trail. I have been backpacking for eight years and this is the first product that seems to be completely tailored for efficiency on the trail.

Joe Yarmac, AT thru-hiker, April 2004: Even on my first night, right out of my backpack, the Jetboil was turning heads. While others primed their white gas or doled out denatured alcohol, at the push of a button, I was fired up and cooking . . . I have used the stove to boil an average of four cups of water a day. The first canister of fuel lasted 200 miles.

Bill McEntire,: I can remember years ago as a teenager on my 1st backpacking trip. Big bulky canvas tents that were so heavy, and a stove that once you got the fuel stopped leaking all over everything and got it pumped up, you started it up and it looked like the main engine of the space shuttle taking off. Comparing my days starting off in backpacking and my 8 year old son’s backpacking trips of today, so much has changed. Our tent now is less that 3 lbs and our stove of choice is our Jetboil. It’s nothing to be on a trail and just decide to cook up something while we take a 5 minute break. One of Ben’s favorite things to do after the tent is up is making “Ben’s trail popcorn” as he likes to call it. With the Jetboil it’s so simple and by looking at the smile on Ben’s face it’s also fun to do. When I was a kid I was just happy not to burn myself while cooking. With Jetboil there is no fuel to spill or leak out on everything and cooking meals couldn’t be easier or safer. Its a stove I can trust to work time and time again no matter where it takes us.

John Weible, teacher, leader of hiking&camping club

John Weible, teacher, leader of hiking&camping club,: A couple of months back JetBoil generously donated 2 GCS to our hiking/camping club for the purposes of hiking to Havasupai Falls. Our trip was a huge success and the JetBoils were excellent.

Lorne Peterson,: I took my family (wife Julie son TY daughter Kayla) into the Eagle Cap wilderness for our only vacation this summer and we cooked solely with our JETBOIL system. We had coffee and hot cocoa and heated all the water for our Mountainhouse meals. I’ve also used it a lot snowshoeing in cold temps and it works very well we are very very pleased!! Thank You for a product that makes my family warm and cozy on the inside.

Derek Flanagan,: Dear Jetboil, I am a novice backpacker. My two boys and I have been learning together about the great outdoors. We recently purchased a Jetboil to prepare the water for our Mountainhouse meals. Wow. It truly is incredible. A salesperson at told me about it and of course I was skeptical. I was truly impressed and would never think of returning it. We were in the Tahoe National Forest at about 7000 ft. I thought you might enjoy seeing your product at work. Thanks again for a great product. Worth every penny!

Katie Jackson,: My father taught me how to camp before he taught me how to talk or walk! Thanks to my dad I have been hooked on the outdoors since I was a toddler. I married a wonderful man 4 years ago who has the same passion for the outdoors, especially backpacking. We purchased a Jetboil PCS two years ago, which we share. It has made camping, backpacking and day hikes a dream. My other passion in life is cooking. It has been a fun challenge to create recipes using the Jetboil.

Sam Jackson,: Served 4 years in the military where their idea of backpacking included a rucksack with at least 75lbs. of gear inside. I loved being outdoors, yet hated lugging the bag of rocks around. I am now entering the 7th year of lightweight backpacking. Purchased the Jetboil PCS 2 years ago to help lighten the load of cooking “gear”. I have been thoroughly impressed with the simplicity of cooking with the system. I am always looking for new recipes to take on the trail that are lightweight and filling.

Marty Wilson,: (Jetboil saves the day for a coffee lover)- “I purchased my first Jetboil because our son and I thought it looked pretty cool and the other white gas BP stoves were getting up in age. We were floored the first time we used it. Next trip, I took our daughter up to the Larimer River, northern central Colorado. Well, Dad likes his coffee- grind my beans by hand in camp and use this Coleman drip coffee maker… The problem was that that old Coleman stove died that morning. Caught in a sudden panic attack, I came up with the following solution… No more Coleman anything in this family. My next purchase will be the Jetboil coffee press”.

Danny Last, Mt Gorgonio, CA,: I recently climbed Southern California’s Mt Gorgonio. At 11,500 feet we rested for a lunch of soup and coffee. I was concerned that the elevation might come into play on this hike but my Jetboil roared to a boil in no time at all. This stove is the best piece of equipment that I own!

Christina Rivera and KT Homes- Nepal,: A note from Christina- As it is in the nature of most explorers to shun instruction pamphlets, I considered it an auspicious sign that it took us only minutes to assemble our entire “kitchen” on the tiny porch of our guesthouse in Kathmandu. And it really was only a few minutes later that we were clinking metal cups full of wine and celebrating, not only the success of our Jetboil trial run, but the pad thai we had just whipped up wherein. Of course, what defines success on a guesthouse deck is entirely different from the test of what will survive in the tiny and ancient villages perched at 15,000 feet, on the edge of the Tibetan plateau, in the Dolpa of rural Nepal. And perhaps more importantly, what would ultimately survive the three 17,000 foot passes and weeks of walking that we would have to travel to get there. As we were also carrying 200 pairs of shoes to deliver to the remote communities (often isolated by the Himalayas from aid) we had employed four ponies to help us with our load; a load that was significantly lightened by the missing full stove, kitchen and fuel of which I’ve seen expeditions accustomed to carrying. Not only our bags, but our moods, were notably higher for the simple stats of the modest, compact and ultralight set of jetboil gear that packed down into the corner of a single bag. With multiple 10-hour days, the ease of our Jetboil tools not only made coffee fast, soup hot, and dinner easy, but these adjectives earned us some of the most precious minutes of our day: an earlier start, a hot lunch on a cold day, a longer break for a priceless view, a second evening hot drink, less time between getting out of our boots and into our sleeping bags. The tools served not only practical, but entertainment, purposes, as word would quickly spread and a modest crowd of local villagers would accumulate to witness the, “magic fire,” upon which we produced their same staple of life, “dhal bhat,” or, “lentils and rice,” without a single patty of yak manure or log of high altitude desert brush. Few people venture into the Dolpa. As two young females with limited high-altitude trekking experience, we were probably in a little over our heads. But thanks to exceptional gear, we know little of the great problems that COULD have befallen us. Thank you, Jetboil, for sponsoring our outrageous expedition and helping us to safely and easily navigate a host of potential problems to assure a totally seamless, light, safe and tasty adventure. The next time we head again to where few have gone, along with our curiosity and courage, we will not forget to pack our Jetboil gear.