The JetBoil stove, possibly the lightest camping stove yet, seems heaven sent for backpackers. There’s no more thumb cramps from priming a nearly empty fuel bottle. No more toting of extra stove parts for trouble shooting. No more balancing a heavy pot of boiling water on a rickety base that threatens to dump your pasta and no more fooling around with pot handle grippers. You won’t even need matches or a lighter anymore.

The Jet Boil stove has a self-igniting fuel canister and burner that unscrews and fit down inside a cylindrical cooking pot.

“They call it a personal cooking system,” said Kelly Henry of Mast General Store. Given the amazing advancements in pre-packaged one-pot camping meals — some of which easily surpass the taste of meals prepared with a slew of individual ingredients toted into the woods — that one pot is all you really need for cooking, eating, and making your coffee.

“People have even made pancakes in these things,” Henry said. Also in the ultra light gear arena is a new sleeping bag, the Western Mountaineering Alpine Light sleeping bag.

“The benefit of this bag is it is really light and yet still really warm and can be compressed down really small,” said Israel Putnam with the NOC outfitters store. “Most hikers these days are so focused on lightweight backpacking that those two things are their most critical requirements: lightweight and packable.”

A fun stocking stuffer on the shelf at Mast General Store is the Freedom Flashlight. It doesn’t require batteries. You simply shake the flashlight to generate energy. A clear plastic handle lets you see how the mechanism works, storing energy created by the shaking in a copper coil.

Another stocking stuffer: a light-up Frisbee sold at NOC called the Flash Flight.

“It just kind of illuminates the whole Frisbee, so even if everything else is dark you can see the Frisbee really well,” Putnam said.