Gaiters?

@pipeking: sorry, I meant a wood stove! Yee ha! Janet and I were naughty. We cooked inside the tent for 32 nights as the sandflies were so bad in Fiordland. It was an MSR and my job was to sit there watching it, knife at the ready for the fireball!

oh wow so like one of these in a tent? http://www.titaniumgoat.com/cstove.html

http://www.aarnpacks.com/#!pacer-tents/c204h There are some images at the bottom of the page. I didn't realize Aarn were making tents now. Don't know why, but when I think of Aarn packs I think of Dyson vacuum cleaners - overpriced and over-rated. I have never owned one so my opinion counts for zip, but if they are so innovative then why aren't all the other manufacturers following a similar approach? To me it seems they are just up-selling the obvious i.e. if you put a counter weight in front of your body it naturally improves your center of gravity. Any of us can do that with a daypack clipped off our shoulder straps, I know I have.

It was an MSR and my job was to sit there watching it, knife at the ready for the fireball! Bigger issue is just falling asleep because of the carbon monoxide. Compared to the sandflies though I can understand cooking in a tent. I am told though they are quite nice cut in half and dry fried on a hotplate for a few seconds

i got an MSR XKG , big mistake, it has two settings, off and full after burner, have to fire it up in short bursts and turn it off or everything boils over and burns... embarrasing when you turn it on in a hut.. sounds like a jet aircraft taking off...

I got banned for using my dragonfly because of the slight noise issue. The people outside the hut complained but that is the best simmering white gas stove ever made but will melt the bottom out of a billy full of water if you let it sing. Still a good stove to take to party huts to make early breakfast

really? I thought the whisperlite was the best at simmering and also the quietest. Or maybe its just the quietest? anyway my whisperlite simmers as good as any canister stove when its clean.. I have seen people light liquid fuel stoves too early before they have heated the fuel in the generator enough, and then compound the error by not re-pressurising before beginning to cook.

"Still a good stove to take to party huts to make early breakfast" Stoves can be good for early morning white noise so the noise is steady and you can't hear intermittent annoying noises.

"really? I thought the whisperlite was the best at simmering and also the quietest. Or maybe its just the quietest? anyway my whisperlite simmers as good as any canister stove when its clean.. " The early whisperlites pre shaker jet were very good at simmering. When they fitted the shaker jet the next coupple of models had a generator that was furthher from the flame and they could not achieve a low simmer to save themselves. The last of the whisperlites they fixed this to some extent and the new whisperlite universal is an excellent all round stove. They were all still fiddly to make simmer though as there was a lag between moving the control and it actually happening. The dragonfly had a second valve incorperated into the burner and any change was instant. You can put one litre of water into an unlidded billy and bring it to the boil in just over 3 minutes then turn it down till bubbles are not forming on the bottom of the pot then leave it at that setting for 15 or 20 minutes. No other white gas stove can do that. Some gas stoves cant even do it. "Stoves can be good for early morning white noise so the noise is steady and you can't hear intermittent annoying noises." I dont think youve heard a dragonfly stove. In a small hut you need earmuffs. I can run an angle grinder in the garage without upsetting the wife watching tv but I cant run the daragonfly. I have been told a optimus Nova is louder just

@1strider Aarn's packs won't suit everybody. I started tramping in the 60's with a wooden-framed 'Trapper Nelson', progressed onto some metal-framed horror and finally moved to frameless with an AlpSports monster. Probably the best pack I used in that period was a Macpac Ravine, which I still have. Eventually however the cumulative effect of all these packs was that my neck began to hurt so much that by the age of about 40 I just gave tramping away. I never expected to carry a pack ever again. Then one day I ran into Aarn Taite in Wellington selling some of his first packs ever into a mates shop. Ten minutes later I had one. Now while I cannot claim the neck pain was completely eliminated - it was hugely reduced to the point where 6-10 hour days were possible again. And every time I try a non-Aarn pack on - it's back to the old hell within minutes. And while the front-pockets are the most obviously different feature, it's not the most important one. There are lots of less visible aspects to his packs that make the real difference. And for sure clipping on a daypack to the front does work, but it's not so practical that many people regularly do it. While Aarn's approach makes it normal. I've owned three of them now and I doubt I will ever purchase anything else. We still use the Ravine from time to time, but always the one using it can easily tell it ain't as good. Certainly us trampers whose bodies aren't 21 anymore tend to gravitate to them. But as I said above; not everyone will find they suit, for any number of reasons. And that's just fine. As for 'overpriced' ... well I think they're a bargain given that the alternative was never going out overnight at all.