I bought my first MSR stove in 1993, soon after I started backpacking. A buddy and I just returned from a trip in the Southern Sierra where his stove exploded while we cooked dinner. I can’t say that we escaped unfazed. But, thankfully, we were unharmed. My friend’s stove was a cranky, burner-over-tank model from a well-known camping gear manufacturer. I was in the market for a stove at the time, and didn’t know what to buy. But our experience on that trip certainly narrowed the brand choices! Christine and I had yet to marry, but I already knew her to be a trustworthy source of gear information. Her backpacking debut preceded mine by several years, and she had already checked off some impressively long expeditions. She owned a Whisperlite…