Ice Climbing Course Planning

4:00 pm Gear Check Day Before Course Begins

Meet at the Alpine Ascents Office at 3:45 pm for a mandatory gear check beginning at 4:00 pm the day before your climb is scheduled to begin. This gear check will last about 2 hours. You are required to attend this meeting. Please review the Gear Check information and come prepared.  You are responsible for driving to and from the course location.  Please note transportation is not provided on this course.

A valid Northwest Forest Pass is required to park at the trailhead. Annual Passes are available from a variety of local and online vendors, or you can purchase a Day e-Pass online for each day of your trip and print them at home.

Getting to Seattle

If you are flying into Seattle, SeaTac is the closest airport to our office.  You are responsible for transportation between the airport and your hotel.

Getting from the Airport to the Office and Vicinity

Our office is 30-50 minutes from the airport (depending on traffic). Most climbers coming from out of town rent a car at the airport.

Other options are taking Shuttle Express or the Light Rail (public transit) from the airport station to Westlake Station, followed by a Lyft/Uber/taxi the last 1.8 miles to the office. The Light Rail is $3 for this one-way trip.

7:30 a.m. Glacier, WA Meeting on Day 1 of Course

Meet in Glacier, WA at 7:30 a.m. During the Gear Check the day before, your guide will provide an exact meetup location and time. You will need a Northwest Forest Pass to park.  You can either purchase an annual pass for $30.00 or three $5.00 day passes. Please be on time and be aware that there is not cell phone coverage at the trailhead.

Please note: Uber/Lyft and other rideshare apps or taxis are not viable options for your transport from Seattle to the mountain.

Rental Gear Return Day 3 of Course

The team will de-issue rental items at the trailhead at the conclusion of the course.  Climbers will not return to the Alpine Ascents office after the course.

Air travelers are strongly advised against booking flights out until the day after your course concludes. Trip schedules will not be adjusted to accommodate return flights booked on the same day your course concludes.

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 mountaineering 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 Alpine Ice Climbing Course you will need:

2 Breakfasts
3 Lunches
2 Dinners

Basic Principles

Good nutrition is essential in the mountains. Climbing requires significant energy, and eating well and often helps sustain energy, stay warm, and keep you feeling good throughout the course. Food needs vary widely from person to person. Some climbers eat more than others, and foods that work well for one person may not work for another. Rather than prescribing exact quantities or calorie counts, we recommend using the following principles to plan your meals:

Bring enough, but don’t overpack

Running out of food is no fun, but neither is carrying food you won’t eat. Consider both the weight and volume of everything you bring.

Balance taste, weight, and space

Every food choice involves some compromise. Freeze-dried meals are lightweight and easy to prepare, but they’re only a good option if you enjoy eating them. A block of cheese packs down smaller than the same weight in shredded cheese. Choose foods that pack efficiently and that you’ll look forward to eating.

Bring food you like

Six days is a long time to be unhappy with your meals. If you don’t enjoy something at home, you probably won’t enjoy it more in the mountains.

Test your meals ahead of time

Portion sizes are personal. Try a few breakfasts, dinners, and trail snacks at home before your course so you know how much food leaves you satisfied.

Condiments

Salt, pepper, mustard, hot sauce, sugar, and other single serving condiments can make simple meals much better. Individual packets or small screw-top containers are lightweight and easy to source/pack.

Hot Drinks

Hot drinks are a welcome part of breakfast and dinner and can help with hydration. Instant coffee (we recommend Starbucks VIAs), tea, yerba mate, hot chocolate, and powdered chai are all good options. Plan for roughly 2–5 hot drinks per day.

Food Storage

Meats and cheeses can work well on this course, with snow often available to help keep food cool. Remove unnecessary packaging before your trip and repackage food in Ziploc bags. A few small or medium stuffsacks can help keep food organized in camp.

Hydration

Consider bringing electrolyte tablets (like Nuun hydration) or drink mixes to add to your water. Staying hydrated while climbing is extremely important and will be emphasized throughout the course.

Breakfast

Breakfast (~300 – 600 calories) x 2

Having a hot breakfast is important, especially in cold weather environments. Most climbers 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. About half of these should be basic meals to carry higher on the mountain and the remaining can be more luxurious meals at the beginning if the trip when we are lower. 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/summit 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 mountaineering expedition. 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 summit day or big travel days (approximately 3 on a 6-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

LNT

Alpine Ascents International practices Leave No Trace principles on all expeditions. We believe that given the proper information most people will do all they can to help protect and maintain the environment. Please Visit:

7 Principles of Leave No Trace

As guides, we spend time teaching the environmentally appropriate Leave No Trace principals and practices. There is nothing more beautiful than working hard to get high into the mountains, come upon a pristine campsite, witness incredible views and have the feeling that no one has been there before.

Conversely, there is nothing more disheartening than working hard to climb a mountain, reaching a site and encountering trash, food waste and toilet paper. Please read the seven LNT principles, and call the office if you have any questions about what you can do to plan ahead.

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.