| NATIONAL PARKS QUICKLINKS |
Also on Backpacker.com
Backpacker Magazine – 2010 Editors' Choice/Gear Guide
Toughest Gear: MSR XGK-EX Stove
A masterpiece of no-compromise indestructibility.
Rocky Mountain editor Steve Howe has cooked a year’s worth of meals on this burner, and that’s just counting camps he’s slept in above 14,000 feet. Gear editor Kristin Hostetter says, “If you told me I could only have one stove, I’d pick this one.” Here’s why: It burns diesel, kerosene, leaded, and unleaded, and while the flame isn’t always pretty, we never fail to get best-in-class boil times.
When the XGK-EX clogs, we disassemble it, clean it or replace a part, and fire it right back up. Those strengths could be a lifesaver. “In deep cold, when snow is your water supply,” Mike notes, “a reliable stove is survival.” $150; 13.2 oz; msrgear.com
Subscribe to Backpacker magazine
Sign up for our free weekly e-newsletter
Reader Rating:
-
Editors' Choice 2013
412 trail-tested products
Boost Your Apps
Add powerful tools and exclusive maps to your BACKPACKER apps through our partnership with Trimble Outdoors.
Carry the Best Maps
With BACKPACKER PRO Maps, get life-list destinations and local trips on adventure-ready waterproof myTopo paper.
FREE Rocky Mountain Trip Planner
Sign up for a free Rocky Mountain National Park trip planning kit from our sister site MyRockyMountainPark.com.
Get 2 FREE Trial Issues and 3 FREE GIFTS
Survival Skills 101 • Eat BetterThe Best Trails in America
YES! Please send me my FREE trial issues of Backpacker
and my 3 FREE downloadable booklets.
Free trial offer valid for US subscribers only.
Canadian subscriptions |
International subscriptions
and my 3 FREE downloadable booklets.
READERS COMMENTS
tough. i bought my xgk, used, 10 years ago in peru (with a used plastic pump too). i have no idea how old it was when i bought it. it was already bent and worn in.
it promply went in a duffel and the duffel went on the back of a burro for 5 days. i don't speak burro but there was apparently a disagreement with the burro in front, because my duffel was kicked off its host several times over the next five days and my xgk was stepped on once by burro feet.
i bent the metal back into shape with two rocks. my stove then spent two months at high altitude in the andes. it once got clogged running god-only-knows for fuel - i took it apart with my ice axe and cleaned the jet with a safety pin. it fired right back up.
nightly, after extended climbing above 18,000 ft the sweet sweet jet engine sound of the xgk boiled liter after liter of water for us. it never failed.
when i spent a week in winter high in the canadian rockies the temperature hovered at -20, then at night dipped to -40. my xgk didn't notice, and neither did the plastic pump. i've carried that stove on dozens of expeditions and dozens of backpacking trips all over the world.
i always carry a rebuild kit and an extra pump on expeditions, because explaining to saint peter i died because an o-ring failed and i subsequently dehydrated to death would be embarrassing - even if i did save 5 ounces on the approach. i've never needed it though.
if hell freezes over i'll bring this stove.
tough. i bought my xgk, used, 10 years ago in peru (with a used plastic pump too). i have no idea how old it was when i bought it. it was already bent and worn in.
it promply went in a duffel and the duffel went on the back of a burro for 5 days. i don't speak burro but there was apparently a disagreement with the burro in front, because my duffel was kicked off its host several times over the next five days and my xgk was stepped on once by burro feet.
i bent the metal back into shape with two rocks. my stove then spent two months at high altitude in the andes. it once got clogged running god-only-knows for fuel - i took it apart with my ice axe and cleaned the jet with a safety pin. it fired right back up.
nightly, after extended climbing above 18,000 ft the sweet sweet jet engine sound of the xgk boiled liter after liter of water for us. it never failed.
when i spent a week in winter high in the canadian rockies the temperature hovered at -20, then at night dipped to -40. my xgk didn't notice, and neither did the plastic pump. i've carried that stove on dozens of expeditions and dozens of backpacking trips all over the world.
i always carry a rebuild kit and an extra pump on expeditions, because explaining to saint peter i died because an o-ring failed and i subsequently dehydrated to death would be embarrassing - even if i did save 5 ounces on the approach. i've never needed it though.
if hell freezes over i'll bring this stove.
tough. i bought my xgk, used, 10 years ago in peru (with a used plastic pump too). i have no idea how old it was when i bought it. it was already bent and worn in.
it promply went in a duffel and the duffel went on the back of a burro for 5 days. i don't speak burro but there was apparently a disagreement with the burro in front, because my duffel was kicked off its host several times over the next five days and my xgk was stepped on once by burro feet.
i bent the metal back into shape with two rocks. my stove then spent two months at high altitude in the andes. it once got clogged running god-only-knows for fuel - i took it apart with my ice axe and cleaned the jet with a safety pin. it fired right back up.
nightly, after extended climbing above 18,000 ft the sweet sweet jet engine sound of the xgk boiled liter after liter of water for us. it never failed.
when i spent a week in winter high in the canadian rockies the temperature hovered at -20, then at night dipped to -40. my xgk didn't notice, and neither did the plastic pump. i've carried that stove on dozens of expeditions and dozens of backpacking trips all over the world.
i always carry a rebuild kit and an extra pump on expeditions, because explaining to saint peter i died because an o-ring failed and i subsequently dehydrated to death would be embarrassing - even if i did save 5 ounces on the aproach. i've never needed it though.
if hell freezes over i'll bring this stove.
The MSR XGK-EX is a very tough stove, but I am not convinced the plastic pump is as tough. I would feel a lot more comfortable if the pump was a metal pump like the Optimus Nova. Until I have the same level of confidence in the MSR pump, I will prefer the Nova stove.
What about the Primus OmniFuel? It will take the same fuels, and also compressed gas.
ADD A COMMENT