Stove specialist Optimus has been busily expanding its range and – in one case reviving an all-time classic as well – with new stoves, pans and cutlery due in the shops shortly. Here’s a quick run down of what’s new for spring 2008…
Optimus Crux Lite
We’ve covered the Crux Lite already but aparently we screwed up on spelling and pricing, so here’s the accurate info. The stove is a simplified Crux and saves vital grammage by doing away with the original’s folding head making it slightly less compact but also slightly lighter at 77 grammes compared to the original’s 93 grammes.
Otherwise it shares the Crux’s effective burner design and two-and-a-half turn adjustable-friendly control knob for added cookabilitty. Definitely worth a look if light is your priority. Price is £40 versus £50 for the Crux so you save dosh as well as weight… Note: the stove in the pics is a pre-productions sample, in the production version the black block at the base of the burner is machined down to reduce weight.
Return of the Climber 123R
If the new Optimus Svea looks familiar, that’s because it’s actually the hitherto defunct Climber 123R, one of the most reliable mountaineering stoves ever and proven reliable at altitude.
Made completely from brass, the 550-gramme stove burns only white gas from its integral tanks, can boil a litre of water in around seven minutes and chuck out 1400 watts for 50 minutes from one tank of fuel when running flat out.
The self-pressurising burner means no dodgy pumping and the stove’s inate simplicity is a godsend when you need your water boiled no matter what. Above all though, it’s a little slice of history and a thing of classic beauty and all for £80 complete with lid that doubles as a mini pan.
Pots And Pans…
There’s a lot of cunning stuff going on with Optimus, their alpine pan set, the Terra for example, features an insulated carry sac so you can keep one pan warm while cooking in the other, and two new smaller pan-sets carry the ingenuity over.
The Terra Solo and Terra Weekend hold 0.6 and 0.95 litres respectively and are hard anodised for extra durability. Both comprise a small fry pan clipped onto a pan with a mesh storage bag.
That’s just the start though. The weekend, for example, has been sized to hold a 220 gas canister inside, along with a packed and folded Crux stove and a folding Optimus titanium spork. The Solo version does the same with a 110g gas canister. Very clever, very neat and a great way of saving space in your pack.
Weights are 222 grammes for the Terra Weekend (£25) and 166 grammes for the Terra Solo (£20). We also really like the cute new Terra Kettle which holds 0.7 litres and is designed to sit neatly inside a Terra pan-set. Costs £15 and weighs 153 grammes. A luxury maybe, but a rather neat one….
Titanium Cutlery
Last but not least, Optimus has also launched a range of titanium cutlery. Ti is great stuff being light and strong and you get a choice of a folding spork – 18 grammes, £10 – a conventional spork weighing one gramme less at the same price and two and three-piece sets for £15 and £20 respectively. Weights for the latter are 34 grammes and 52 grammes and both include an Optimus mini-karabiner to keep them tethered together 
All available shortly from your local, friendly Optimus dealer. Online information at www.optimus.se. For information on UK stockists contact sales@arkconsultants.co.uk.