> a liter of water to boil on a canister stove (MSR Pocket Rocket) in about a minute.

Ahhh ... really ????????

Perhaps you got it as far as a few bubbles and thought that it was about to boil? But bubbles can happen as low as 80 C.

Cheers

Regarding Walter's experience:
"You will cook Philmont style (in the pot) with your ranger, so you'll probably end up carrying a big pot that you get from Philmont services."

I'm preparing now for a Philmont trek in 2011. I'm curious if any other crews were required by their ranger to take a large Philmont issued pot as Walter reports?

I would prefer to get by with a couple of 2 - 3 L lightweight pots for heating water and then rehydrate meals in our GSI FairShare mugs or maybe inside the plastic meal envelopes propped up inside the mugs to keep the mugs clean. Thanks,
Chad

We took our own pots in June 2010. We had no issues. Sometimes it depends on the "Ranger" that you get.

Regarding Walter's experience:
"You will cook Philmont style (in the pot) with your ranger, so you'll probably end up carrying a big pot that you get from Philmont services."

I'm preparing now for a Philmont trek in 2011. I'm curious if any other crews were required by their ranger to take a large Philmont issued pot as Walter reports

There IS variation among the rangers. The other crew in our 2010 contingent had a tough one (to the point of not allowing them to pick up a rock to use as a stake hammer!) but he did let them use their own pots. Apparently at least one has been even tougher!

Our own ranger insisted in showing us the "Philmont way" of cooking the first night. After that there was no objection to us using whatever method we wanted to use.

The key needs for cook pots are to be able to submerge your cooking and eating utensils in boiling water (not all at the same time) and to be able to heat enough water to rehydrate your meals.

We've had good success getting approval of things that might be questioned by contacting Philmont well in advance of their busy season (as in early January) with very specific questions. Example: we wanted to use a Golite Shangri-la 4+ tent with a separate MYOG bathtub floor. Our ranger was unsure if it would be OK but that was cleared up quickly by showing her a printed email exchange we had with Mark Anderson (the final arbitrator of all such things) OK-ing exactly what we brought.

I wouldn't expect to get such an appeal heard at that level of responsibility on the fly while they are busy checking in you and 29 other crews all on the same afternoon!

Our trek didn't even check out a pot from the commissary.

We just boiled water with our MSR Reactor stove (highly recommend this stove for altitude) and added the water to the bag holding the food.

Each crewmember had a bowl/spoon and a pair of crewmates would split the contents of the rehydrated food.

So only cleanup was licking the bowl and spoon off followed by sterlizing with boiling water.

Regards,
Greg