I recently discovered an ultralight folding backpacking table called the Alpkit Splitta. It is among the lightest solid top camping tables available today, weighing just 388 grams when packed away. Almost half the weight of my Helinox Table One. It was also very cheap, at just £19 ($25.70) with free postage, over five times cheaper than the Table One, so I quickly bought one online to try it out.
I used it for the first time on an an stealthy overnight camp on the summit of Leith Hill in Surrey (the highest hill in South East England) and it was the perfect place to rest my ultralight Esbit Titanium solid fuel stove, with my ultralight Titanium windshield, and cook up food with both of my Titanium mug/pots.
Because it has a non-flammable solid Aluminium top I didn't have to worry about cooking on it, whereas the Table One has a mesh top that would either melt of catch fire if I tried the same thing on it.
OK, I know the Splitta is only 100mm (about 4 inches) high off the ground (compared to 390mm with the Table One), but when you are also sitting low down in a Helinox Chair Zero, as I was, it is the perfect height.
It assembles in seconds, once you work out how to do it.
The only two cons with the Splitta are that it could be even lighter, if the solid top was instead covered with small holes.
But then again that would let wind get under the stove, either blowing it out, or reducing the heat getting to the pot above, making coooking more difficult and longer, so I am prepared to live with that issue. The second issue I was not prepared to live with is the colour of the pouch it comes in...It's bright orange!
I like stealth camping so that is a complete no no.
In order to solve this major problem I bought some medium weight, water resistant, dark olive green Polyester fabric, some olive green Polyester thread and a new Brother sewing machine...Then I spent most of an entire day both working out how to use the sewing machine (I had never used one in my life before) and how to make a new, low-viz carry pouch for the Splitta with it, that would fit horizontally across the top of my Scrambler RT35 back back, via the concealed daisy chains.
By 1:30am the following morning I had finished the job...I was very proud of myself at having mastered the sewing machine and also incredibly pleased with the resulting pouch! Unlike the original pouch design, I went for a full width top flap, held closed with two 15mm webbing straps, which also allows the loaded pouch to be cinched down...A feature I deemed was necessary to stop the four parts of the table rattling around annoyingly as I walked.
More webbing is sewn onto the back of the pouch to enable it to be attached onto the top of the daisy chain on each side of my RT35, via two specially made 15mm webbing straps.
The sides of the pouch are slightly expandable, allowing it to carry not just the Splitta, but other awkward to carry items as well, such as my Qi-Wiz Ultralight Titanium cat hole trowel (it's quite sharp so I didn't want to put it in my main pack or in the mesh pocket on the back, in case it sliced through them).
Amazingly, even with the amount of webbing sewn onto the new pouch taken into account, it is actually 5 grams lighter than the original pouch!
I highly recommend buying the the Splitta, as a cheap, high quality, ultralight, compact, cooking table for camping and hiking...Now made even better with a camo green pouch!