10-oz octagonal trigger stove targets extreme backcountry conditions

Finding the modern backpacking stove market unfit for its hard-charging, bushwhacking, peak-scrambling hunts, Colorado's Roughridge Stove Co. determined to make a tougher, more inextinguishable breed of all-in-one backcountry cook system. It reached for the lightest, toughest materials available and reconfigured a few critical specs to create a system that travels lightly, holds up to use after abuse, and works in all weather. It's the Highcountry stove, and it's built to work when and where you need it, every time.

Diehard hunters since childhood, brothers Chris and Josh Neville grew up hunting in Iowa and eventually migrated westward for bigger wilderness and bigger prey. When they began pursuing more ambitious hunts into deeper wilds, they ran into reoccurring problems with stoves. Having left powerful, robust car camping stoves behind in favor of lighter, more packable backpacking units, they struggled to find any single kit that could perform reliably in the extreme conditions they faced while traveling light and fast.

"Every cook system we owned was either heavy, bulky, broken, or failed when it mattered most.," the Nevilles frame in introducing the Highcountry. "And if we wanted to go ultralight, we had to piece together a setup from five different brands and hope it survived a backcountry hunt."

Those piecemeal setups often didn't survive, and after years of charred food, blown-out burners, broken plastic and other critical failures, the brothers reached their breaking point. They set out in 2022 to build a cook system from the ground up for demanding backcountry hunters like themselves – not car campers, not weekend backpackers, not overlanders and definitely not glampers, but determined hunters who are out in rain, snow, wind, frigid cold, near-impassable terrain, and, sometimes, all of the above.

As it turns out, that's very good news for other hunters and hardcore backcountry adventurers. Because the Neville brothers had a pretty damn long list of gripes, and they addressed all of them, one by one.

After their experience piecing together the best components from different brands, Roughridge wanted a single set of rock-solid components built to work and function as a cohesive unit. They eschewed the usual cylindrical pot in favor of a unique octagonal design that better fits all the components inside.

The 9,500-BTU folding stove, round windscreen, spork for meal prep and eating, and a single isobutane fuel canister all fit neatly inside the pot, keeping everything together for fast, convenient access when it's dinnertime – no rummaging through every corner of your pack or realizing your utensils dropped out miles ago. Even the included microfiber towel stuffs inside the pot and then works to prevent any annoying rattling.

At camp, the components quickly build into a secure stove system. The pot bottom locks into the wind guard, and the stove secures to the gas canister. The stove's pot supports fit securely in corresponding notches on the windscreen, made easier to find with arrows.

The pot's octagonal shape also adds a little extra structure so it doesn't bend or dent as easily while being used on rocky terrain or carried through dense forest in a backpack. It also helps to form a natural spout at the front for easier pouring through the integrated lid slots.

Speaking of dents and dings, another big (understandable) pet peeve of Roughridge's fraternal founders was broken cooking gear and accessories – cracked plastic, bent aluminum, ripped neoprene, etc. So while they had a tightrope to walk between rugged, backcountry-grade construction and minimal weight, they started off by getting rid of plastic parts.

Roughridge leans heavily into titanium construction for its high strength-to-weight ratio. The 30-fl oz (900-ml) pot, windscreen and spork body are all crafted from titanium, while the stove includes titanium components, an aluminum alloy body, and a stainless-steel burn head and pot supports. The spork's wiry handle is steel, as well.

If you're wondering how those bright-yellow bits play into the no-plastic strategy, they're high-temperature silicone, serving as non-structural burn protection on touch points like the pot handles. The silicone surround on the lid, meanwhile, is there to secure inside the pot so the lid doesn't constantly fall off during use or travel.

Roughridge's titanium-focused construction creates a robust system that weighs in at just 10.2 oz (289 g) for the pot, windscreen, stove and spork. If you're really looking to slash weight, you can save another ounce by taking your chances without the detachable windscreen. The spork also comes in just under an ounce, so if you leave that at home next to the windscreen, you're down to just 8.3 oz (235 g). Packed size is similarly convenient at an easily manageable 4.3 x 5-in (11 x 12.7-cm).

Jetboil is the all-in-one backcountry cook system specialist, so it's the brand that immediately comes to mind for a weight comparison. Jetboil's 7.1-oz Stash system is the lightest it makes and is commonly cited as one of the lightest all-in-one gas stove systems on the market, period. It undercuts the Highcountry's weight by 30%, but it doesn't include a windscreen or a spork, and it's built around a slightly smaller 27-fl oz (800-ml) pot. It does package in gas canister stabilizer legs, but Jetboil does not calculate those into the 7.1-oz (201-g) weight figure.

Leave out the 2 ounces (57 g) of spork and wind guard, and the Highcountry is 1.2 oz (28 g) heavier than the Stash. Factor in the larger pot, and the Highcountry comes in about as comparable to the lightest all-in-one stove system out there as Roughridge could have ever hoped for.

Other Jetboils have integrated wind protection, added features and 33.8-fl oz (1-L) pots but weigh between 12 and 16 oz (340 and 454 g).

The 9.8-oz (278-g) MSR PocketRocket 2 Mini Stove Kit might be the system that comes closest to the Highcountry's exact weight, and it again has a smaller (25.4 fl oz) pot without a windscreen or spork. It does, however, come with a hinged pot lid lifter and 16-oz plastic bowl.

Before we get too weighed down (easy pun!) with weight comparisons, it's worth circling back to the fact that Roughridge didn't set out to make the lightest stove possible – it set out to make the best stove for hunters, with lightweight construction being one of many attributes.

Case in point, it adds a bit of extra weight by way of a pressure regulator that neither the Jetboil Stash nor the MSR PocketRocket 2 Mini include. Roughridge's four-season regulator is designed to deliver fuel at a consistent pressure to improve performance and efficiency. Backpacking stoves without a regulator rely solely on the pressure from the gas escaping the canister, which can fluctuate based on ambient conditions and fuel level, resulting in inconsistent performance.

For lighting, Roughridge has installed its piezo ignition hardware inside the stove body casting to help alleviate weather-induced lighting issues or breakage. In place of the tiny push-button ignitions seen on other stoves, it uses an oversized trigger meant to provide glove-friendly operation. The wire dial, meanwhile, delivers fast, confident flame adjustment, from low simmer to full blast.

The Highcountry stove's $250 price tag runs above the typical $100 to $200 range of other backcountry cook systems, but it's not as much of a premium we expected based on Roughridge's obsessive treatment of small improvements, its three+ years of development, and its repeated mention of words like "titanium" and "backcountry hunters."

Pricing for the two other stoves we compared above: The Jetboil Stash retails for $165, the MSR PocketRocket 2 Mini kit for $105.

If you want to dive all the way down into a rabbit hole of Roughridge's thinking behind every improvement and feature, hit play on the 12-min video below.

Source: Roughridge Stove Co.