Remember the Russian “matrushka” stacking dolls, where you opened one, and there was another inside…and another…and another? Well, the GSI Pinnacle Dualist
First, the kit fits neatly into a protective carry bag that just happens to be waterproof and seam sealed, so can be used as a washbasin, or to carry water back from a nearby stream. Very handy, and reduces the equipment redundancy that adds an ounce here, an ounce there. Smart thinking.
Next, the aluminum pot itself has a folding handle that stays attached; no looking all over your campsite when you need it. It wobbles a bit, but we’ve had zero problems with it. GSI makes a number of claims about the pot’s Teflon with Radiance nonstick coating. We have no reason to doubt them based on our experience with it; it’s been effective and damage-proof in our tests. We’ve boiled water, cooked soups, made couscous, sauteed sausages, scrambled eggs, used temperatures low and high, and even with our sometimes ham-handed techniques, haven’t been able to burn food on yet, which fits with the way Radiance is supposed to spread heat. The cover even has a built-in strainer, making it easy to drain pasta, etc., and a useful flip-down handle that makes it pack small. Thoughtful touches all around.
A pair of bowls made of Infinity plastic, BPA-free, nestles inside the pot. Tucked inside those bowls are mugs with neoprene “cozies”, and covers with sippy holes. The bowls are large enough for a decent meal, and the mugs not only are large and comfortable to hold, but virtually impossible to tip. The second trip out with this set, my sweetheart Susan knocked my cup about a foot away while doing some packing. With my regular mug, my oh-so-valuable coffee would have been splashing around on the tent floor, along with my tears.
Details on The GSI Pinnacle Dualist Integrated Cooking Eating System
Here’s where GSI’s attention to detail really kicks in. Put one mug cover in the bottom of the pot, then put the bowl/mug combination in on top. Then, drop in your fuel canister, your mini stove, and the little bag with the Foons in it, put the other bowl/mug and cover on top, put the pot lid on, snap the folding handle over the top…voila, one neat little package!
Oh, wait, the Foons! I hate sporks…soup drips through the tines, and the tines never actually pick anything up. A “foon” is a folding fork & spoon; a spork by another name. I knew I was going to hate them, but product testing is product testing. And…I was wrong. These silly things actually work. We ate sardines with them, using the fork end to pick out whole ones and the spoon to get the little pieces. The tines are strong enough to pick up steak, and sharp enough to stab romaine lettuce. Don’t put too much pressure on, though; they will collapse. That’s a small price to pay, though, for something that works this well, weighs this little, and takes up virtually no room. We even used them at home for a sort-of-elegant date night dinner, just to see how they’d do…they were fine. They’re available separately for $2.95 each; I’m going to buy one to keep in my glove compartment, plus a couple to keep in my picnic basket…they’re that useful.
I do miss a frying pan; there are some camp meals where a fry pan makes sense. But, the GSI Pinnacle Dualist
Nice review of the Pinnacle system. What stove do you use that fits into this, and app. how long does it run on the fuel canister you show? I assume the stove is NOT included in the cook set? One other question – if you decide you don’t want the “foon” is there room to substitute some other regular Lexan or other normal sized utensils?
Thanks.
Good questions! You are correct, a stove is NOT included. For stoves, we used the Brunton Raptor (shown in the article in its little bag), Snow Peak GS-100A, and Coleman F1 UltraLight. All of them fit easily inside the Dualist. Fuel canister life is a function of BTU output of the stove, plus how much you use it on high. The Brunton is an 11,000 BTU unit and is rated to get about 1.5 hours per canister on high. On our last overnight, we used a half empty canister, cooked dinner (including a rice couscous that took 15 minutes, and sauteeing sausages), boiled two pots of water, cooked a nice scrambled egg breakfast, and still had fuel left over. Since the only time you want to use one of those blowtorches on high is when you’re boiling water, it’s not unreasonable to expect 3-5 hours of real cooking out of one…but we’ll try to do that real-world test one of these days! Putting regular Lexan utensils inside…no way. It’s hard to tell from the photos, but the Pinnacle Dualist is only 5 1/2″ high by 5 1/2″ wide…it’s TINY. The Foons only fit in because they fold. You’ll have to carry your other utensils separately, but try the Foons before you decide to do that!