I like having fires in the backcountry for
warmth, light, entertainment at night... might as well cook on the fire as well
if you are going to have one right?
If you have ever tried to take a ‘normal’
car camping type of grill into the backcountry, you will likely find three
problems with them – they are heavy,
they don’t come with a back for storage to keep soot off of your gear,
and they also likely have sharp pokey edges from the ends of cross wires welded
to the main frame. These things make
bringing these grills into the backcountry a nuisance, chore and
undesirable. Looking around for a better
grill for either paddling or backpacking, I was surprised I could not find many
decent product options on the market that solve these problems. However, a small company called Purcell
Trench sells grills with excellent features to eliminate the problems with
traditional grills.
Purcell Trench is a small welding shop
in Washington state. Since 1994 they have been making a wide range of well
designed grills for the backcountry which addresses the issues with your
standard grill. They come in many sizes,
from their ‘stix’ (just two simple pieces of tubing) to the Voyageur grill,
good for cooking pancakes for an army.
Most are fabricated from TIG welded thin wall small diameter tubular
stainless steel, normally used for hydraulic
lines. Using this material results
in a lightweight yet stiff and high temperature resistant grill. These grills are meant to be supported by the
rocks on the perimeter of your firepit, overhanging the fire. The grills have no sharp edges and each come
with a stow bag so your gear doesn’t get all sooty when packing it away. The standard grills feature all welded tubing
construction and is suitable for supporting pots or even firm meats, toasting
bread and cooking sausages. The
variation of what they call a streamside grill feature an expanded and
flattened stainless top which allows you
to cook fish or other soft or delicate items directly on the grill. 
The one that attracted me most for
backpacking is the Titanium Packer’s grill, the only model they make in
titanium. It is extremely ultralight at
53 grams, rivaling the lightest available usable stoves, and features a
slightly tapering trapezoidal bent frame with one crosstube. It’s certainly possible, but I am not sure if
I ever would solely rely on cooking over a fire while backpacking but you can’t
beat this and a titanium mug for weight.
I’ll be bringing this along even just for an option to use, it’s
lightweight enough. You do pay a bit for
the slightly extra weight savings of the titanium – the Ti version is $66, the
stainless is $34 and 41g extra at 94 grams.
The grills also come with a choice of bag
types, I opted for the ultralight bag..
No protection against sharp edges are necessary, I just need a barrier
for soot. Total for bag+grill is for my
Titanium Packer with ultralight bag is a scant 61 grams.
Some of the grills come with a more robust nylon bag option as well. Ultralighters and MYOG people can even possibly use the grill itself as a backpack stay to serve a dual function.
My new grill is another piece of gear I am
looking forward to using this year. I
would also like to get a streamside Traveller’s grill for paddling trips for
the flexibility it offers when ultralight isn’t a necessity.
Canadian Outdoor
Equipment offers a good range of these grills, but they don’t carry some of the
specialty grills such as the Titanium Packer grill I got directly from Don
Tryon at Purcell trench. Check ‘em out
if you think you’d like to do more fireside cooking on your trips and want a
good tool to help you do that.
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