One of the Ten Essentials: Fuel aka FOOD!
This is about eight pounds of the food I will be packing for my trip. Based on Eberle's chapters on Multiday Endurance Events and High Altitude, here are my crude calculations on the caloric needs of a 125-pound (57kg) person.
30-35 calories/hour for working at altitudes of 10,000 feet. For our two-day summit attempt this means I need to pack at least 7500 calories, and eat about 250 calories per hour if I use sixteen hours as the amount of time I have to consume...that said, it will obviously be a challenge. At altitude, appetites wane. It's imperative to start fueling almost immediately, and carb loading in the days before our climb will be part of the plan. Quick energy is important, so I'm also packing a dehydrated coconut water powder, which will be mixed with molasses, sea salt, and honey to help with liquid carbs and electrolytes.
"Eat before you're hungry, and drink before you're thirsty" will be another mantra as we head up Mt. Shasta.
As a gluten-free person, I've experimented with and tried a variety of items during my training. There are many awesome options! The spread I have is mostly organic, all gluten-free, and is a mixture of flavors. I'll be bringing along a prepared rice and rice ramen to augment our evening meals.
I will have other events to attend, so not all of this will be consumed in two days, but as I tallied my inventory, it has become obvious that moving food into my body was going to be a full-time job. Also, I'm hoping to share some of my fuel with my teammates. It's always fun to share!
Final thought on this: this is an enormous amount of packaged foods which are not typically part of my repertoire for a variety of reasons. That said, I am tremendously grateful to have the resources to carry and consume high quality, organic nutrition on the mountain. Of course, every single wrapper is coming back with me as part of the Leave No Trace principles.
For more information on LNT:
https://lnt.org/learn/7-principles