Sea to Summit
Sea to Summit Frontier UL Pan (20 cm, ceramic non-stick aluminium)
- Weight for its size: 6/10 How much it adds to your pack for the amount it holds.
- Cooking and ease of use: 9/10 How evenly it heats, whether food sticks or burns, cleaning, and the handles, lid, pouring and steadiness on a small stove.
One or two people frying or sauteing fresh food on short trips
- Type
- Pan
- Capacity
- 1.5 L
- Weight
- 366 g
- Material
- Hard-anodised aluminium with ceramic non-stick coating, stainless steel handle
Where to buy
Ellis Brigham £39 In stock. Delivery £4.95. Free delivery over £100; £4.95 under.
View at shop: Ellis BrighamUltralight Outdoor Gear £59.99 In stock. Free delivery. Free tracked UK delivery.
View at shop: Ultralight Outdoor GearSea to Summit £65 Out of stock. £4.50 delivery under £75, free over £75.
View at shop: Sea to SummitPrices checked 8 Nov 2026 on each shop's own page; shops can change them. We earn no commission on these links; shops are listed by price. More
Our ratings (out of 10)
1 to 10, compared with the whole market. Each says what it's based on. How we score
Weight for its size
From maker's figures 6/10How much it adds to your pack for the amount it holds. 6: A bit better than average.
Sea to Summit's UK page gives 366 g (its US page 365.7 g) and its US, Australian and EU pages give a volume of 1.5 L (the UK page gives none). 366 g for 1.5 L = 244 g per litre, in the 220-299 g/L band. Ultralight Outdoor Gear lists 371 g, which is 247 g per litre, the same band.
Cooking and ease of use
From reviews 9/10How evenly it heats, whether food sticks or burns, cleaning, and the handles, lid, pouring and steadiness on a small stove. 9: Among the best you can buy for this.
Three hands-on sources rate it well. Ian Slack (5) calls it head and shoulders above the other backpacking pans he has used (a Keith titanium pan and an MSR Windburner pan), because the thicker metal spreads heat better and no scorched spot formed over a few months of steady use. Backpacking Gear Nut (5, pan sent free by Sea to Summit) had never used a pan this non-stick and cleaned a seared steak out with a wipe. Trails Magazine (4) cooked rice, Spam and eggs with nothing sticking and found it very non-stick, but the tall straight walls made flipping harder. The Trek's review is a Sea to Summit sponsored post, so it doesn't count.
In short
Good for
- One or two people frying or sauteing fresh food on short trips
- Easy clean-up with little water, thanks to the ceramic coating
- Packing with a Frontier pot: the handle reverses to lie inside the pan
Strengths
- Ceramic non-stick coating that Backpacking Gear Nut and Trails Magazine both found very easy to clean
- Thick base spreads the heat better than a thin ultralight pan (Ian Slack)
- Click-Safe handle removes, or reverses to lie inside the pan for packing
- Sea to Summit says the coating is PFOA-free and the pan nests with its 3 L Frontier pot
- Sturdier than most backpacking pans (Ian Slack)
Weaknesses
- About 1.7 times the weight of an MSR Windburner pan (215 g, Ian Slack)
- The tall, straight walls make food harder to flip (Trails Magazine)
- Ceramic coating needs soft utensils (Backpacking Gear Nut)
- Not for induction hobs, and not dishwasher safe (Sea to Summit says the anodising is damaged)
Sources
We haven't tested this ourselves. Every score comes from these specs, tests and reviews.
ShowHide sources (5)
- Sea to Summit (UK site): Frontier Ultralight Frying Pan (366 g)
- Sea to Summit (US site): Frontier Ultralight Pan (365.7 g, volume 1.5 L, 21.8 x 20.7 x 5.6 cm packed)
- Ian Slack Blog: Sea to Summit Frontier Ultralight Pan Review (used for a few months)
- Backpacking Gear Nut (YouTube): Best Lightweight Frying Pan for Camping and Backpacking - Sea to Summit (sent free by Sea to Summit)
- Trails Magazine: Review: Sea to Summit Frontier Ultralight Pan