I’m enjoying this. I was looking for an old Camping Gaz (as it was, now it’s Campingaz and much harder to say, and indeed look at) canister top stove and found this Coleman Alpine instead.
This was a great stove in its day, low and stable so excellent for use in a tent porch. The remote canister adds to the stability and means you can keep the gas can warm or run it upside down (very carefully so it doesn’t flare) as the burner has a preheat tube to evaporate the the liquid fuel into gas before it gets to the burner.
The pot stand is wide and grippy, just not as good for the smaller pots I use these days. The burner is well shaped, great on the smaller pots I use these days. Hmm.
It’s chunky with a large pack size and getting a little heavy, don’t know the grammes, I can just feel it, but it doesn’t look too far away from what would catch my eye today.
No idea about fuel useage, I’ll see what happens. In general though, I think this will work just fine.
Age is mid 90’s, this went to Morvich camp site on my first ever Five Sisters trip around ’97. Some trips stay with you. I do think the hose is newer though, the original might have been the orange rubber that always cracked and the hose clips look like I did them: rough.
Pots are going to be a problem. I had a kettle thing I used with this. It died tragically years back when on an engineering contract with no power and no water.
I was heating the kettle for our tea with an oxygen/acetylene torch because we didn’t have anything else on the first day. It went well at first, then it went all wrong.
Sleepy times will be familiar indeed, from the mid 90’s is this Ajungilak Kompakt 3. From Ajungilak of Norway made in England by Snuggledown of Norway UK, now of course made in China by Mammut of Switzerland. It’s a small world.
I loved this bag when it was new, silky smooth inside and cut a little wider than I’m used to now which will be nice and comfy but it’ll probably make it a little cooler than I’d like.
Smooth running zip, terrible old school shoelace style adjusters, a well shaped hood and a huge pack size due to the beefy synthetic fill. It’s still pretty fat feeling so I think it’ll insulate well enough.
It’s a wee bit fusty, so I did think about getting it washed in giant washing machine somewhere. Might just air it outside for a few days, see if that freshens it up.
Just in case it is a bit cooler, I have this rather old Rab fleece sleeping bag liner. I think it’s karisma fleece, the wind resistant stuff used in among other places, the front of old Karrimor Alpiniste fleece’s, old Mountain Equipment Ultrafleece jackets and currently by Hilltrek on a rather nice looking smock and some er, joggers too.
The shape fits the Kompakt (maybe I bought it for it?) and the drawcorded opening is wide enough to wriggle out of quick enough for a pee at 1am.
Simple, even dull bit of kit which I’ll use if I need to. The weather will decide.
The stuff sack is teal. Where did teal go to?
Let me know if you struggle for pots. I still have a Field and Trek Lightline Billies set from the early 80’s, the good(?) old days when you waited eagerly for the new catalogue twice a year and then posted off your order form! I’ve definitely got the 1l, 1.5l and 2l aluminium pans from it, each with a lid. I think there should also be a 0.6l one kicking around somewhere. They all work with a Trangia pot-grab, which I also have along with various 80s and 90s vintage Trangia 27 pans and kettle.
Ah Matt, the field and Trek catalogue. Loved that, used to sit with it in the van at lunch time and plan how to blow my week’s wages.
I may just call upon you if I can’t find anything other than the minging old aluminium mess tin that was in the garage. I used to regularly burn mince in it or stick pasta to it at campsites up north. Don’t want to go back there…
I still have a Coleman Powermax, which might have superseded the Alpine. Got it in 1999, so a shade young for your purposes. Still got about 12 full PowerMax canisters, as I panicked and bought every one left in Tisos when I heard they were discontinuing the system (about 12 years ago) ! Does gas go off…?
I had to Google powermax! Never used it, it actually looks like a decent format. Does gas go off? Hmm… Light it up and let me know :)
The PowerMax system was really good, especially in winter – the big selling point was that the canisters were supposed to keep their pressure to the end in all temperatures and – by and large – they did. The b***er was getting a hold of canisters as not all shops stocked them (and very few by the end ) , so you had to grab what you could if you saw them.
I haven’t used it for 4-5 years (went to the meths dark-side), but i am sure the technology still works fine. It is the condition of the 19year old rubber hose and seals that I would worry about – not being a boiler engineer :-)
Don’t get me started on the Field and trek catalogue. Then there was the Snow and Rock one, the Cotswold one, Rock and Run… No wonder I’ve got dodgy eye-sight.
The old rubber does rot pretty fast. The black stuff lasts but isn’t as flexible, I think the hose with the metal braided outer has better flex.
Loved all of those catalogues. Pages and pages of possibilty. The internet just isn’t the same.