Hacker News Reader

The reason some experienced hikers (not talking about noobs here) carry small stoves on the AT and other trails is not because they haven't evaluated what they need. It's because "what you need" is about tradeoffs. Sure, you can consume raw food for the entirety of your hike, and some experienced hikers do this, but food aversion is a real thing. Avoiding it is worth the weight for some hikers.

View on HN

You generally get more calories from cooked foods too. I suspect the raw food thing has more too do with being cheep/lazy/hard-core.

'Laziness' was a big part of my switch to stoveless.

At the end of the day I never wanted to waste time boiling water/cooking food I just wanted to eat and sleep. I found myself eating cold even with a stove so I just dropped the stove.

I don't know anyone that has done it just to be hard-core.

Dropping the stove certainly does simplify things, that's the main benefit. I've tried it but I just couldn't eat cold/raw all the time, especially in cooler weather. I use one of these brass alcohol stoves, it's light and dead simple: http://brasslite.com/

Reply on news.ycombinator.com