3 Day Backpacking Course Planning

Meet Times & Transport

Arrive in Seattle the day before your course begins and depart the day after your course ends. If flying into Seattle, SeaTac (SEA) is the closest airport to our office.

Getting from the Airport to the Office

Our office and nearby hotels are 30-50 minutes from the airport depending on traffic. Most climbers take a rideshare or taxi.

Climbers may also take the Light Rail (public transit) from the airport station to Westlake Station, followed by a rideshare or taxi the last 1.8 miles to the office. The Light Rail is $3 for this one-way trip.

Your course begins at 6:30 am

We meet at the Alpine Ascents Office at 6:30 am on Day 1 of your course for Gear Check. Please be on time and come prepared following your Gear Check information.

After Gear Check we take an Alpine Ascents shuttle to the trailhead. This drive takes 2.5-3 hours. We will stop at a grocery store on the way for any last-minute food purchases.

Parking

Transportation is provided by Alpine Ascents on this course; we strongly encourage commuting to our office via via rideshare or carpool drop off the morning of your course.

Due to our location in the heart of Seattle, free parking can be difficult to locate. Most parking near our office is 2-hour metered street parking. Multi-day parking options include pay-by-day lots or limited 72-hour free street parking several blocks from our office.

Your course ends between 4pm – 8 pm

You will return to the Alpine Ascents Office between 4:00 pm and 8:00 pm on the last day of the course.

We strongly recommend flying out the day after your course concludes. Course schedules will not be adjusted to accommodate return flights.

About Food in the Mountains

Food Shopping

For this course, you will be responsible for bringing and cooking your own food, including lunches. Please purchase your foods before we meet. There are several large supermarkets near our office including Trader Joe’s, Safeway, and Metropolitan Market. If you plan to incorporate freeze-dried meals, purchase these ahead of time.

A comprehensive menu planning guide can be found on the next tab on this page under “Menu Plan.”

Overview

Food is one of the basic pleasures of wilderness travel. There are countless options for putting together healthy and delicious meals for long wilderness trips, depending on how much time, effort, and money you have to spend on preparation before the trip. Thorough meal planning and preparation is a must!

While our summit climbs and expeditions include meals, our educational courses aim to teach sustainability and self-sufficiency in the mountains. Guides will review all food items at the gear check, but you will be responsible for cooking your own meals.

For the 3-day Backpacking Course you will need:
2 Breakfasts
3 Lunches
2 Dinners

Basic Principles

Nourishment and backcountry travel are inseparable. Backpacking requires higher daily energy expenditure than many other strenuous activities. Eating well (and frequently!) sustains energy levels, keeps us happy, and helps us to combat the cold conditions and inclement weather we will likely encounter in the mountains of Washington. One of the most challenging parts of a guide’s job is advising backpackers on the types and quantities of food to bring on a trip. Unlike items such a sleeping bag where you have it packed or not, food is subjective.

Some backpackers eat large quantities of food, some eat less. Some love dehydrated meals, while others do not as a result of digestion issues. As guides, we can’t tell you what you are going to like or how much you are going to eat. There is no way to tell you if you’re going to want 2,500 or 3,500 calories per day.

With that in mind, here are some general thoughts on food planning:

Too little food is terrible, but too much food is not the answer
Going hungry and/or having to live off the extra food of other backpackers and guides is not fun. On the other hand, you don’t want to haul around food that will go uneaten. Consider the weight and volume of what foods you are bringing.

All food selection is a compromise between taste, weight, space
A block of cheese is easier to pack than a similar amount weight of shredded cheese because it is denser. Dehydrated meals are the lightest meals to pack and easiest to prepare, but if you don’t like them it doesn’t matter how light and easy they are.

Bring food that you like
3 days is a long time to be unhappy with your food choices. If you don’t like a particular food in your home, it is unlikely you are going to start enjoying it in the mountains.

It’s your responsibility to check food preferences and amounts prior to your trip
Is 1 cup dry cereal with 3 tablespoons of powdered milk enough for one breakfast, or will you be happier with 1.5 cups? How much pasta should you bring for one dinner – 1 packet or 2? Trying out a few mountain meals at home will give you a much better sense of what to bring. Test out snack/lunch options before your course, too.

Condiments
Salt, pepper, mustard, hot sauce, sugar, etc. are all great additions to any meal plan, especially if you are not using dehydrated meals (as they are already high in sodium). The lightest option is to pick up individual serving packets from the deli section at the grocery and store them in a Ziploc bag. Also, very, very small (1 oz.) plastic storage containers with screw-on caps can be purchased at most outdoor stores for condiment storage.

Hot Drinks
An essential part of breakfast and dinner for both hydration and well being. Coffee drinkers take heart – there can be decent coffee in the mountains! Starbucks VIA’s have become standard on mountaineering expeditions. A small portion of powdered milk and sugar can be added. Black tea, yerba mate, herbal teas, hot chocolate, and powdered chai are other options. Plan on bringing enough for 2 to 5 hot drinks per day!

Food Storage
Meats and cheeses are great foods for this course as they will not spoil – nature’s freezer (snow!) will be close to hand. Reduce excess packaging. Get rid of boxes, extra wrapping, etc. Ziplocks are great for repackaging food. A few medium-sized stuff sacks are great for organizing food while in camp.

Drinking Water
Consider bringing Nuun hydration tablets or other cold drink mixes to add to drinking water for electrolyte replacement during your course. *Please note the emphasis on hot drinks and other liquids in the menu. Staying hydrated while climbing is very important, and this issue is addressed in-depth while on the course.

Breakfast

Breakfast (~300 – 600 calories) x 2

Having a hot breakfast is important, especially in cold weather environments. Most backpackers go with instant or quick cooking hot cereals like oatmeal or Cream of Wheat, or dry cereals and powdered milk mixed with hot water. All of these meals taste better and provide more calories when fortified with dried fruits, nuts, honey, butter, even chocolate chips! Tastier (and heavier!) breakfast ideas are included below.

For your course you should have 2 breakfasts.  Don’t forget your hot drinks!

Breakfast Ideas
– 1 cup of granola + freeze dried fruit + 3 tablespoons of powdered milk mixed with hot water
– 2 packs of instant oatmeal + dried fruit + nut butter
– Dehydrated breakfast meal (check serving and calories)
– 2 packs of instant grits + bacon crumbles + cheese + butter + salt and pepper to taste
– 2-4 powdered eggs + 4-6 strips precooked bacon + tortilla

Lunches

Lunch (~800 – 1600 calories) x 3

Lunch begins just after breakfast and ends just before dinner. It is the most important meal of the day and needs to have enough variety to keep you happy over your trip. Continuous eating of small quantities will keep up your energy levels for the whole day, especially on big travel days where we will be on the move for 8 hours or more.

For your course you need lunch food for 3 days. Determining the amount of lunch food to bring is difficult to gauge on your first backpacking trip. General guidelines are given below. The rule many guides work with is the weight of your lunch food should be equivalent to the weight of your breakfast and dinner food added together.

Each day it’s nice to have a “real” food item. You may consider some of these tasty sandwich/wrap combinations:
1. Start with a hearty bread product: flatbread, bagel, naan, flour tortilla, croissant, or pita pocket
2. Add protein: hard cheese, Laughing Cow cheese wedges (no refrigeration needed), cured meat, black beans or hummus, nut butter (we like Trail Butter because it comes in a squeeze pouch), tuna pouch, or smoked salmon
3. Add flavor/texture: dried fruit, chips, hot sauce, mustard, or pesto. Also consider, a hearty pre-made sandwich, leftover pizza, or a burrito for the first day of the course

In addition, pack snack foods to supplement any sandwiches or wraps, such as:
– Nuts (cashew and almonds personal favorite – can buy in 1lb quantities at Trader Joe’s)
– Jerky – beef, turkey, bacon, salmon, and tofu jerky are all great options
– Dried fruit (Trader Joe’s has an excellent selection prepackaged by weight)
– Peanut butter filled pretzel chunks
– Trail mix
– Cheese sticks/squares
– Plantain chips

For big travel days (approximately 2 on a 3-day Course) focus on energy rich food. On these days we travel for roughly an hour between breaks. At each break you should be eating 200-300 calories (or about 1 energy bar). These days can have 4-8 breaks. These foods include:
– Energy bars – focus on bars with real ingredients. We love Probars, Pure Organic, Kit’s Organic, Larabar, and Chia Bars. If you are ambitious, try making your own!
– Energy chews (Shot Bloks or the like)
– GU’s, Cliff Shots, etc.
– Candy bars (Snicker’s are a favorite of most climbers)
– Gummy bears

Dinners

Dinner (~800 – 1200 calories) x 2

For the greatest preparation and cooking ease, freeze-dried food is an option. Usually, these foods only require adding boiling water, and are ready within minutes. Downsides to freeze-dried food are the cost, an increase in single-use packaging which must be packed out, uninteresting flavors or textures, gut issues from poorly re-hydrated meals, constipation, etc.

With slight more effort but vastly reduced cost, any supermarket can be tapped for a wide variety of wilderness-ready prepared foods. Items like Knorr rice or pasta entrees in envelopes cook in 5 to 10 minutes, and are very tasty. It is best if you experiment ahead of time at home, so that you know which you prefer. For those with a culinary creative streak, very tasty meals can be made up from scratch with only a minimum of additional effort. Items such as quick brown rice, quick or instant white rice, bulgur, instant precooked or dried beans, dehydrated vegetables, packaged or bulk sauce mixes, smoked salmon, exotic cheeses and whatever spices and herbs you like or want to experiment with can be combined for tasty meals.

You will need 2 dinners for your course. Many guides bring soup packets, like instant miso soup, for each meal (unless the meal is already soup-based). These make great pre-dinner hot drinks and help us hydrated. Don’t forget your hot drinks!

Dinner Ideas
– 1 packet instant ramen noodle soup + sweet and spicy jerky (shredded) + parmesan cheese + dehydrated vegetables
– 1 pre-pouched Indian Meal (we like Tasty Bites) + boil in the bag rice + coconut oil (vegetarian/vegan depending on meal choice)
– 1 box mac and cheese + sundried tomatoes + tuna packet + red pepper flakes
– 1 box cous cous + sundried tomatoes + pine nuts + chunks of salami

Leave No Trace

Alpine Ascents International practices Leave No Trace principles on all expeditions. As guides, we spend time teaching the environmentally appropriate Leave No Trace principles and practices. There is nothing more rewarding than working hard to get high into the mountains, reaching a pristine campsite, witnessing incredible views, and having the feeling that no one has been there before. Please read the seven LNT principles, and call the office if you have any questions about what you can do to plan ahead.

7 Principles of Leave No Trace

Tipping

Guides are permitted to accept and greatly appreciate tips. An average tip for the guide team is $100-150.

Please be aware that we are unable to process tips by card. You are welcome to tip your guides with cash or via mobile payment such as Venmo or PayPal.