UKC

Hi,

Planning on doing the JMT from Yosemite to Mt Whitney later this year and would welcome any advice on what fuel is most easily available once we are out there. Flying out to San Francisco so hopefully can obtain some there and at some food collection point.

Thanks

Pete

In reply to pjj:

It's gotta be alcohol, all the long distance bloggers* use it.


*By which I mean people who walk long distances and then blog about it, as opposed to people who just ramble on... er, oh you know what I mean!

In reply to pjj:

De-natured alcohol for use in a Trangia is cheap and available in any hardware store.

https://www.ldwa.org.uk/library/practicals/food.php

In reply to pjj:

We are going in early August. I was hoping to use Coleman resealable gas. Any view on that option?

In reply to pjj:

climbing shop at Yosemite used to sell Coleman fuel. Which is where I got mine when doing the JMT.

If you want to make sure you could probably order in advance and they'd hold it for you. Remember that the USA is not the land of the free, but the land of the MSR and nearly everyone has a Whisperlite and many will have a Coleman Tilly lamp as well for thier 'back woods experience', so nearly any outdoor store, REI and large Walmart will have Coleman fuel.

Plus if you talk to people leaving the trail in you're best British, or for bonus points Scottish accent, you can probably blag what they haven't used. Obviously not to be relied on.

In general I found the American Trail/ hill goer to be refreshingly more diverse, friendly and talkative than your typical munro party, or uk backpacker.

In reply to pjj:

We just took MSR gas canisters (posting some ahead to JM ranch with a food drop) and a tiny stove. Seemed simpler than going down the petrol/meths route. Bought the gas in San Fran at the massive REI where we stocked up on other stuff including freeze dried meals and 100's of clif bars (well felt like 100's) that we had pre-ordered from the UK for collection. Its a great hike, enjoy.

In reply to Pedro50:


Yes, that would be fine - it was for us. We took MSR canisters and a Pocket Rocket. We took 17 days and if I remember correctly we had one 500g and one 250g canister. We had one food drop at Vermillion (it was October and it was the only resupply place still open). I think we could have bought extra gas there but we had sufficient - just boiling water for coffee, oatmeal, mashed potatoes and couscous. Make sure you have some sort of windshield and use the gas on a low setting and you'll use a lot less than you'd expect. For me it's so much better than liquid fuel - easy, quick, readily available... etc.

In reply to jon:

Thanks Jon. That pretty much all ties in with my thinking

Peter

In reply to pjj:

We used standard gas and jetboils on Whitney a few years ago - I've never had problems getting most types of fuel in the US.

In reply to london_huddy:

Same about 5 years ago