Hikers and mountaineers enjoy a special relationship with their gear that is not commonly found in other sports. Sure a golfer may have a favourite club and a tennis player a particular racket that makes them feel lucky. But when you are out hiking or mountaineering your very life may depend on the quality of your gear. This may seem obvious with bits of equipment like climbing harnesses and ropes. There you literally have your life hanging by a thread. But it is also true of other bits of equipment like your boots or your stove and it explains why I am so passionately attached to my Karrimor KSB 300 hiking boots, which have held up to amazing abuse, as has my MSR DragonFly stove.
Boots may not seem mission critical in the same way as a climbing rope, but the truth is that if they fail you at 20,000 feet there is very little you can do. Sure, at lower altitudes if your boots fall apart or get lost you can wrap your feet in whatever is to hand and walk out, but once you are above the snowline the odds of you getting off a mountain barefoot are pretty remote. And if you managed to do it, it would probably be at the cost of bad frostbite and amputations.
And a stove is equally critical under extreme conditions. You may think that the loss of a stove just means eating cold porridge instead of hot for breakfast, but above the snowline on a big mountain your stove is your main source of water. If, for some reason, you are unable to melt snow to produce drinking water you are in very serious trouble. Dehydration sets in quickly in cold and high conditions so be sure to take care and choose a reliable stove that is up to the job. When high on a mountain, even the most mundane piece of equipment becomes a vital life preserver.