Compact, fast boil, first of its kind

Original Jetboil £100 gets you something similar

I can remember when these stoves came out – 2001! I wasn’t a cool enough member of the Trail team to be given one straightaway, instead I had to wait a few years before I nabbed one. Since then, that stove (the original version I think) is pretty much a go-to for me, as it’s a reliable workhorse of a portable kitchen appliance. For those trips when all I need to do is boil water, this is the stove I take. I once (and only once) tried to heat up some beans in it. Oh my god, it took about three years before I got rid of the burnt remains of those beans from the inside base of the pot. Stick to boiling water! Jetboils need to be used with those orange stabilisers, otherwise they’re top-heavy when in use. I often baffle the stove from any breeze, and this always speeds up boiling times, saving gas. I know a few people who’ve broken the fragile white part of the ignition system, but once you know to be careful with it then it’s not an issue. Mine just seems to go on and on, just like me.

A design classic. If you want your wild camp to have that ‘old school’ vibe, get your hands on one of these suckers (you do see them on eBay from time to time). Just make sure you’ve got a couple of decades of mountain stories to go with it… USED BY Tom Bailey, Trail photographer

USED FOR 15+ years