• Material: Steel
• Burn Time: Depending on canister size, 228 g, 1.5 hr, and depending on altitude
• Boil Time: 3 minutes
• Fuel Types: Canister
• Simmer: Yes
• Auto Ignition: No
• Fuel Bottle: Canister
• Windscreen: No
• Heat Reflector: No
• Parts Kit: No
• Cleaning Tool: No
• Stuff Sack: No
• Hard Case: No
• Size: 3" x 3" x 3.5"
• Weight: 4.6 oz
• Warranty: Lifetime

It is hard to test a stove if you don't have any fuel. You can comment on its weight. You can describe its stability and if it has a wind shield. For a reach you can even pontificate on its auto starter and the style of the carrying bag it comes with. When it comes down to it, people don't care how light it is if it will not produce cup after cup of boiled water.

So began my November December dilemma. I took a MSR Superfly stove out on numerous ice trips to the Alaska Range, hoping for quick hot drinks only to find myself falling back on the old stand by, a spruce branch fire. The stove was light and it seemed the auto-start would have started the fuel, but the fuel was not gaseous enough at 20 below F (or ten below for that matter) to vaporize.

Luckily for my soaking wet climbing partner and me, I had a lighter in my inside jacket pocket. After I sucked on it (the lighter not the fuel canister) for a few minutes we had a ragging fire going in no time. I thought of using the fire to heat the fuel canister so I could use the stove, but this seemed like an idea that could go bad, real bad. This isn't a review of spruce branch fires so I won't go on about how hot cocoa and dark Jim Beam bourbon goes so well with Alaskan winter ice. I guess in the end it was a good thing the stove was light, even if it wouldn't lite, because it wasn't much of a hassle to carry.

I decided to give the Superfly an other try indoors. Setting the stove on my kitchen counter the lack of windscreen was not an issue. The fuel canister was now well heated to a wood stove fired room temperature of 85 degrees. The autostarter worked like a charm. Soon I had a rolling boil and started cooking a pasta and sauce meal.

Unlike my stove of choice, the MSR XGK, I was able to control the flame and only burned a little bit of sauce on the pot rim. The tall MSR canister (go with the short fat one) I used combined with the small wings of the stove did not create the most stable platform, but the lack of wind and having a flat cooking surface kept everything in control. For warmer weather backpacking, racing, climbing or kayaking trips, the nonhanging Superfly would be a fine tool. With a little kindness, I will say that all canister stoves fail the muster at 20 below temperatures. I've bent copper wire around the canisters and put lighters under them, and still got lame to no performance out of them at frigid temps.

To summarize

• Light hassle free, maintance free design with simmer option
• Relatively affordable
• Well crafted carry bag with slide feature on drawstring
• Bag comes in every color you would ever want if you want black

• Stove needs a windscreen and larger wings would help stability
• Hanging option would be a bonus
• Autostart is over rated unless your forget your lighter, which would mean there is a good chance you forgot the pot or the stove also

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Editor's Note: To match the right MSR stove with your trip, go to http://www.msrcorp.com/cooking. For a comparison of all MSR's stoves go to www.msrcorp.com. I regretfully did not match the gear with the trip on this review assignment, the Superfly should have gone to a light/fast trip vs a sub zero Alaskan venture.

Editor's Note: To match the right MSR stove with your trip, go to http://www.msrcorp.com/cooking. For a comparison of all MSR's stoves go to www.msrcorp.com. I regretfully did not match the gear with the trip on this review assignment, the Superfly should have gone to a light/fast trip vs a sub zero Alaskan venture.