Sea to Summit’s Frontier Ultralight Collapsible 1L 3-Piece Pot Cook Set 

A fortnight ago, I did something outdoors that I haven’t done in years. Many years. Decades, in fact. Actually make that multiple decades—I went on an overnight trip without my trusty billy. I’ve owned my dented, blackened, aluminium billy since I was thirteen or fourteen; it may well be not just the oldest piece of outdoor gear that I own, but the oldest thing I own … period. There are many things about it that are not perfect. The lid doesn’t fit on cleanly. The handle is broken. Most crucially, it doesn’t collapse down. And while I can live with the first of those two flaws, the third is something that has been niggling me for a long time. Finally, on that trip a fortnight ago, a sea kayaking overnighter where space was at a premium, I decided things had to change. And so I took out Sea to Summit’s Frontier Ultralight Collapsible 1L 3-piece Pot Cook Set.

The ultralight part of the name is right; I weighed the pot, cup and spork at just 257g, slightly under the claimed weight of 259g—weight weenies rejoice! Size weenies, too, should rejoice. The cook set is impressively small; the whole thing packs down to a sub-15cm diameter, 4cm high package. Tiny! Bikepackers, fastpackers, paddlers and ultralight hikers wanting to carry low volume packs will all love the space savings here. The pot’s size, I should add, is perfect for solo adventurers. I measured its max-fill volume at 750ml, large enough to rehydrate even the most water hungry of freeze-dried meals. But it’s also not so big that won’t double well as a bowl.

The pot’s anodised aluminium base transfers heat efficiently; I don’t think it boiled water any slower than my regular all-aluminium billy. The collapsible mid-sections of the pot and cup are made of BPA-free, food-grade, heat-resistant silicone. I should add stain-resistant, too. I made a cooking mistake at dinner on that sea kayaking trip, and had to heat an Indian butter chicken curry not in its bag, but directly in the pot. I was sure it was going to forever stain the silicone a lurid yellow. But once cleaned, there was not the slightest hint of discolouration. I also really like the pot’s stainless-steel handle. It’s detachable for space-saving, but nonetheless feels super solid, making you confident it’s not going to detach halfway through a transfer of boiling water.

The only thing about the cook set I was less than convinced by was the spork. Yes, it weighs just 8g. But it’s only 13cm long, making it difficult to dig deep into a freeze-dried meal pouch. I think all but the most diehard weight weenies would happily suffer the 3g weight penalty to upgrade to Sea to Summit’s 11g, 21cm Frontier Ultralight Long Handle Spork. 

It’s a minor complaint, though, because you’re not buying the Frontier Ultralight Collapsible 1L 3-piece Pot Cook Set for the spork. You’re getting it for its incredible space- and weight-savings, both achieved with no loss in performance. Good things, as they say, come in small packages.