Burning Man cooler and ice

The food note is what to cook. This one is the box it rides in. A hard cooler in the shade, a lid that stays down, and ice that started as a block. The city's potable-water page says you can buy ice on playa and you still bring the liquid water. We are not going to publish an ice price. Their page can. The melt is food water. It is not the gallon count.

We are an independent outfitter. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Burning Man Project. The event name is used so you know which week this gear is for.

The box

A hard cooler with a real lid beats a soft bag in the sun. Put it in the shade, up off the playa if you can, and open it with a plan. Every minute the lid is up is the ice you meant to have on Friday. Pre-chill the box at home if the drive is long. A warm cooler melts the first bag before you reach the gate.

The cooler we list is a Coleman hard cooler. The button opens that listing. Sizes move. Pick one that fits the car and the shade, not the biggest box that looked serious in the photo. A soft bag is a lunch, for a day, in the shade. It is a sad week if it is the only plan.

Ice

Block ice lasts longer than cubes. Frozen water bottles do the same job and become drinking water only if they held drinking water and you kept them clean. Label them. Drain the melt into the gray-water jug once it has touched food. Do not pour it on the playa, and do not drink the soup at the bottom of a food cooler. Cube ice is for a drink you will finish today. It is a poor week-long plan.

Ice in the city is a top-up. It is not permission to arrive empty. Buy it when you need it, get it into the cooler, and get the lid down. A bag riding on a bike basket in the noon sun is a bag you already spent.

Two coolers, if you have them

One cooler for food, opened once a day. One for drinks, which takes the traffic. If you only have one, pack food you can eat without a treasure hunt: a sealed meal, a bar, something you will boil. Digging for a yogurt while the lid is up is how the ice becomes a puddle and the yogurt was the only thing you wanted.

What goes in

Meals you will finish when it is hot. A shake you mix with water you already counted. A bar in the day bag, and the box in the cooler. A stove outside the tent for the thing that wants boiling water. A bowl and a spork you will actually wash. A cup with a lid. Their precycle note asks for simple food and less trash. The packaging still comes home.

Protein bars are the pocket meal. Meal shakes are the one you mix. The Jetboil and its fuel stay outside the tent. A bowl and spork and a lidded cup are the dishes. Gallon zip bags hold the leftovers you are willing to admit are leftovers, and then they come home.

The only ice math

The cooler we list is a 70-quart Coleman. A quart is space. Ice, food, and drinks share those 70 quarts. A meal you pack is space that is not ice. We are not going to tell you a number of pounds per day. We did not measure a melt rate, and we will not copy one from a forum or from a listing.

The maker says the ice can last days around 90°F. That is their test, not a playa promise. Days out here can clear 100°F, which is already hotter than that test, and a lid that stays up spends the ice. Pre-chill the box at home. Keep it in the shade, up off the playa if you can. Shut the lid. If you have two coolers, the food one opens once a day and the drink one takes the traffic.

A frozen bottle is the water you put in it, once it melts, and only if it was drinking water and it stayed clean. Label it. That bottle is water you hauled, not ice you bought in the city, and it still does not let you skip the gallons in the jugs. City ice is a top-up for the cooler. Their page can publish the price. We will not. Melt that has touched food goes in the gray-water jug. Do not drink it, and do not pour it on the playa.

• —A hard cooler, pre-chilled, in the shade.
• —Block ice or frozen bottles, labeled.
• —The food cooler opened once a day, if you have two.
• —Melt in the gray-water jug, not in your mouth, and not on the playa.
• —Ice kept out of the drinking-water count.
• —A meal you can finish without a project.
• —The stove outside the tent.

What to cook, and what to skip, is what food to bring. The gallons, separate from all of this, are how much water to bring. A powered cooler, and why the small station cannot run one, is camp power. Their precycle note, simple meals and less packaging, is the precycle page.