Aluminum lighter than Titanium – i.e. Imusa Aluminum Mug vs Snow Peak 700 Trek in Titanium?

In my seemingly never-ending quest to lighten my pack I continually look for ways to cut weight.  Excluding food and water I’m down in the low 20’s for MY winter hiking/backpacking – which is a vast improvement, but I’m aiming for sub 15 pounds.  As a note, my “winter camping” consist of lows below freezing and daytime highs above freezing.  (If the temperature is projected to not meet that criteria during the winter, I stay home.)

So far I am proud of the progress of lightening my load thus far.  I have dropped over 10 pounds in weight!!!  Some of that was done by purchasing new/lighter gear but A LOT of it was done by leaving things at home that “I might need.”  While I am no means roughing it, I do want to be comfortable and have the items I deem necessary.  I may cover my packing list in a blog in the near future.

ANYWAY, back to the subject at hand.  One of the items I have been upgrading is my cook kit (which I wrote a review about previously in this blog).  I purchased a Snow Peak 700 Trek in Titanium as my main cookware and it has served me well.  My cook kit is right around a pound – not t0o shabby….

I recently acquired an Imusa 0.7 Quart Aluminum Mug with a homemade Aluminum lid as I have heard many great things about these and have been unable to find them in my area.  Upon initial inspection, it was my  impression that the Imusa was much smaller.  After some actual liquid capacity test, I discovered the Imusa is only 0.25 cups smaller than the Snow Peak 700 Trek.  I was surprised by that.

How do they compare by weight?  I was even more surprised to discover the Imusa Aluminum Mug (with homemade Aluminum lid) weighed only 2.75 ounces while the Snow Peak weighed in at 4.5 ounces – approx. 1.75 ounces heavier!

While this is not a huge weight savings, when you are trying to get your base weight (no food or water) under 15 pounds, every single ounce matters.  Ounces make pounds…..

So how does the Imusa Aluminum Mug compare to the Snow Peak 700 Trek?

Price?  The Imusa wins.

Capacity?  Nearly even (1/4 cup will not make a difference to me)

Durability? The Snow Peak wins, but you could purchase a LOT of the Imusa Mugs for the price of one Snow Peak….

Performance?  I don’t expect to see much difference here.

So if you are trying to lighten your load, a very economical (cheap) way is to replace your cookpot with an Imusa Aluminum Mug.  They make several sizes and for the money, you can not beat the price!

Advertisement