When space is at a premium and versatility is key, GSI Outdoors has you covered with the Pinnacle Dualist Complete. This kit features everything you‘ll need for a two person excursion or even a family getaway with the addition of a couple more “foons”.
The Pinnacle Dualist is an ultralight and versatile cooking set designed to fit in a 1.8 liter pot. It has a number of cool features which will be covered in more detail throughout this review.
First up to discuss is the aforementioned pot, which itself is plenty big enough to boil water for meals or mix up some hot chocolate. It features a coated folding handle to protect you hands when the pot is hot that also doubles as lock to secure everything in place when stowed. To prevent sticking, the pot is made of hard anodized aluminum that is teflon coated.
A nylon lid with a silicone ring makes a nice seal when cooking and can be easily removed and cleaned. It also has a folding handle. The coolest thing about the lid, is that it is also a strainer. This makes straining easy and clean.
Next up are the bowls and mugs – the Dualist features two of each. A blue set and an orange set. Both the bowls and the mugs can hold 20 ounces of food/drink. Each mug has an insulated sleeve to protect hands when drinking hot drinks and to provide grip. Along with the mugs there are also two sip-top lids.
GSI has their own version of utensils. They have what they call a “foon.” You‘ll probably look at it as a spork. What makes these special is that they are telescoping, making them compact for easy storage.
The Pinnacle Cannister Stove makes short work of heating water in the pot. In my tests, it was able to boil water just under 4 minutes with an aggressive flame or about 5 minutes with a more moderate one. For convenience, the stove features three folding arms and a folding valve knob. Luckily, when designing this set, GSI also made sure to consider cooking in windier conditions and included a windscreen that is designed to seat onto the stove.
Naturally, all of this gear will not only fit into the pot, but the sack that all of this sits in is also a welded wash basin. It‘s a lot of bang for such a tiny footprint. The whole thing weighs in at around 26 ounces. Of course, it will weigh a little more when a fuel cannister is added. Yes, GSI even included some space to stow the fuel canister inside the set.
Sure, this set is obviously designed for two travellers. However, we‘ve used it for our family of four. We purchased a couple of additional foons and I used a smaller 110g fuel canister so the additional foons could fit. Because of the generous size of the mugs, we just used them as bowls for the kids.
I want to warn you that there is a little bit of a learning curve when using the windscreen. It can be a little tricky getting the base to fit on the arms properly. I suggest practicing before you head out. After a few excursions, you will become adept at it.The breakdown of goodies included:
1.8L Pot with folding handle
Strainer Lid with folding handle
A pair of sip-top lids for cups
Two 20 oz bowls and 20 oz Insulated cups
2 Telescoping Foons
1 Cannister Stove
Stove Bag
Windscreen and Base
Sack/Sink Welded
All in all, this set is absolutely awesome. It is incredibly compact and light considering what you get. The stove boils water quickly and makes meals fast to prepare. And it’s very versatile. If you are heading out solo, removing the extra set of goodies will make room for your freeze-dried meals. For a compact family solution, just add an additional pair of foons.
For more information on the Pinnacle Dualist Complete, please visit GSI Outdoors.
Andy
A huge thank you to GSI for sending this out for our review.