Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board The Last Meal

Hi everyone,
My brother and I are going to attempt mt. whitney for the first time ever in one day and we are going to start the hike at 12:00 AM in August 11 2004. We are campinig at whitney portal campgrounds. We have a couple of questions in our mind regarding the last meal. If anyone could give us advice, it would be greatly appreciated.

Questions-
What time should our last meal be before the hike? What kind of food should it be for the last meal? Does anyone know a place by whiney portal or lone pine that is a good place to have the last meal or is it better to make a home made meal?

Were not even sure if we'll be able to sleep with all the anticipation.

HikerLiker - Ideally, you'd be staying up at Whitney Portal to acclimate, so take advantage of the great food there at the Portal Store. You didn't mention if you had a campsite reserved, but there's the walk-in backpacker site on a space-available basis.

What day's your permit?

Hiker, If you do eat the Portal food or anything in town stay away from pancakes,french toast and anything with white bread. All that stuff goes straight to your gut and just sits there until it is passed, which could be 12 hours away.Eat your fruits, lean meats and whole grains, you will really notice a difference in energy level when you eat food that isn't nutritionally void. Also, the whole premise of carbo-loading is often misundersrtood. Carbo-loading only works for athletes like cyclists and runners who burn a lot of calories in a short period of time. The 500-700 calories an hour that you will burn on your hike doesn't necessitate the use of carbo-loading, so, again, stay away from the white floured grains.Just my $.02.

Some believe the meal the night before should be a big carb meal...pizza or spaghetti or something. Over the years I haven't found it makes much difference what I eat the night before.

That nice last meal with real food can be in Lone Pine or up at the Portal at the Whitney Portal store. The kitchen up at the portal store is open until at least 6:30 pm

It matters more that you eat often and drink much while you are hiking to provide continuous energy.

Adding to what Sierra Stryder said about carbo loading: The idea of carbohydrate loading is to get your body to store more glycogen than it normally does. That is not accomplished by simply eating lots of carbohydrates. Key to getting the desired overshoot is glycogen depletion. But you're not trying to run a 2:05 marathon. Just stick to a normal meal.

Nothing to add about meal content, but you might want to refrain from calling it the "last meal". Just sounds kinda ominous.... ;-)

..and forget about sleeping that night. I did my first ascent last Sept. and hadn't slept at all by the time my alarm went off at 2am. I tried...but just couldn't. You get so excited about going and worried at the same time that you'll oversleep..that you just lay there and overthink yourself right out of sleeping. I was surprisingly energetic the whole day though...adrenaline and excitement keep you going.
Good luck..you'll love it.

I figured you would get a wide range of responses to your excellent question. My opinion is that this is very much an individual matter, subject to personal trial and error. I, for one, don't like a lot of stuff sloshing around inside me on a long hike, so I simply have coffee pre-hike.

A lot of little snacks are better than one big ass meal...and never mind the "carb nazis"...it is a strenuous hike so eating a few carbs is not a cardinal sin....

I doubt that anyone here would disagree with sierragator. Carbohydrates make up most of the diet of active people. Leave the Adkins talk to the folks who want to lose their extra pounds without doing anything too strenuous. Whether it works or not is a debate for another forum -- truly active people tend to eat lots of carbs.

In all or most of my 34 years peak bagging, I always ate heartily before a climb. Plenty of coffee helped a lot to get me up early in the morning. The type of food is probably not that important. Eat what you love, and as much as you like, the night before. We'd feast on as high quality dining as we could find enroute to our climb, with dieting or cheapskate spending discouraged. I'm out to enjoy heavily, so if we could find a buffet or other good deal, we'd take it. Don't suffer with yucky protein snacks or power bars; they don't help.

If multi-day backpacking, don't try cooking freeze-dried foods when you can eat in a restaurant. Most backpackers will be eating those cardboard meals for days, and you will dream of a fresh salad or milkshake, instead of more highly preservative laden, processed foods, like most will be stuck with.

Now, having to watch my fat intake, I enjoy a subway sandwich instead of prime rib or cheeseburgers. I well know the anxiety before a climb, but don't sweat it. If you worry too much, don't do this. Life's an adventure, and no peak is that important. I've turned around on a few peaks, but then I'm the wiser on what to do next time. Carbo-loading seemed to help on my first ascent of Shasta, but the Sierra peaks aren't that hard to not go back another time. But whatever works for you!

One note of caution. Restaurant meals often make people sick, so watch the food safety issues in Lone Pine or elsewhere. It's sad to get food poisoning, as some of my associates have claimed, then have to turn around on your lovely hike. If you're not used to certain types of cuisine, experiment with your culinary adventures some other time. I used to eat out a lot in town, so I must have an iron stomach, in comparison.

i read something in an old mt whitney book that too much protein can worsen the symptoms of altitude mountain sickness. don't know if it's true, but i'll stick to balance and not overdoing proteins.

I need coffee!

Wow, there are some passionate responses here. First off, Whitney isn't high enough to seriously alter your body's ability to digest fats. The lesson? Eat what you like! Eat a normal dinner. Bring lots easy to eat food fot the hike. Granola (70% carb diet digests pretty well for most people) or trail mix or fruit for sugars, cheese and crackers for fat and salts work well for me. Eat often while you hike. You don't need to stop but drink constantly and eat every hour to keep your energy up. That makes a huge difference for most people. But as I said, bring food you like! High altitude will likely affect your apetite and you won't eat if you bring sawdust flavored energy bars.

As for sleeping? Take half a dose (1 pill) of Tylonol PM or similar at the portal before you go to bed. Yes, these pills work by reducing your respitory rate but half a dose at 8k' isn't going to affect your red blood cell production at all.

Have a great trip!

If a hearty breakfast is your thing and works for you, then go for it. However, a big meal of any type or size prior to a longer hike not only sloshes around in my gut, but it also tends to bring on undesired/inconvenient and more frequent solid waste pit stops than I would like while hiking. Since reading Doug Sr.'s "take Immodium before you hike" advice from several months ago, I have tried that several times between then and now. For whatever reason, it doesn't work for me.

Pretty much all variety of "health/energy" bars are tasteless and inedible at altitude after a long hike. Take along as many Snickers bars as you are comfortable carrying, and eat one every now and then along the way. Although not strictly the healthiest (but certainly tasty), we are, after all, only talking about a one-day hike and not a total reconfiguration of your lifestyle eating habits. Snickers pretty much scratches what itches on this kind of a hike insofar as your body's energy needs are concerned. Eat and drink in small amounts frequently (espeically drinking) so your body is more or less being replenished as it uses what you put into it.

The much beloved coffee with its caffeine (a diuretic), will tend to pee liquid out of your body with a bit more frequency than if you didn't partake of it. For a hike like this where more liquid/water is better, this seems to work against what you want to accomplish in that regard. Just a thought.

All of what I have described here works for me. Your choice.

CaT

I agree with the folks who say that eating before hand is not as important as eating during. Eat a good dinner the night before - anything you want as you'll burn it off in one way or another - then make sure you eat while you hike. I abhor energy bars, so I tend to gravitate towards boiled eggs (peeled and salted in a plastic bag), bananas, crackers and dried fruits and nuts (trail mix). My trick is to keep the trail mix in my pocket so when I feel my energy lagging, I can grab a handfull. That way I can eat a bit at a time for a steady flow, rather than a bunch at once. I also pack a pb&j on a bagle (never bread - bread gets icky on a long hike) for the summit - best meal I ever had was after summitting Mount of the Holy Cross in Colorado and finally coming off that awful talus (boulder hopping for 2 miles at 13,000 feet - how fun). I had a pb&j on an onion bagel and a view that made the whole climb worthwhile - it was the best meal I ever had - literally.

tucker and all, great info. Tucker got me interested-what are other's eating habits and menus while hiking? i spoke to one man who ate a couple prunes or a handful of nuts... every hr. my habit is bad-wait until i'm really hungry and stop to have a sandwhich, crackers, trail mix... all in the same sitting, then i usually push the hike or will take one more break for an apple or hardboiled egg or something if it's a really long hike.

tucker, i bring hardboiled eggs with a little pepper/salt travel shaker. what a great idea you have of already peeling and seasoning them and putting them in a bag!

I've learned the hard way (literally bonking on a 20 mile trail - fortunately around mile 18 and not at a high altitude) that I need to eat. As I rarely get hungry while hiking, especially at altitude, I need to force myself. If I have trail mix, crackers, or whatever, in my pocket while I hike, whenever I think of it, I dig in and grab a handful. But, I do think that it's whatever works for you. When you're on your training hikes, try both - see which one gives you the best results. Everybody is different.

For my last day hike, we had dinner in Lone Pine - a carb pasta meal from the pizza place. In the morning at 3am, I had half a bagel with honey and peanut butter, along with some fruit juice. Had a piece of fruit at Outpost camp, and a Clif bar at Trailside meadow. Lunch is turkey and cheese sandwich on a bagel at Trail Camp, plus mix up some gatorade for the assault on the switchbacks. Another Clif bar at Trail Crest, but like others have said they don't taste like much during the day. I think next time I'll stick with granola bars, even though they aren't chewy they may have a little more flavor. In addition, there's a bag of peanut m&m's in my pocket for munchies. The way down is looking forward to eating at the store....

Just a quick FYI ... there is a metabolic reason for the argument supporting carbohydrates over proteins, fats, and alcohol in the diet. Aside from the effects of alcohol on sleep - which are also deleterious - but the respiratory quotient of carbohydrates (1.0) vs. proteins/fats/ethanol (0.6-0.8) will have an effect on the amount of oxygen needed to metabolize these food sources. As a result, you need less oxygen to process carbs. Also, it plays a role in the alveolar oxygen tension. Long story short, eating carbs are advantageous at altitude.

On the flip side, the usual rate limiting step for most people on Whitney is going to be their conditioning, hydration status, propensity for AMS, how they feel, etc. - presuming no underlying pulmonary disease and such. Therefore, this aspect of the carb issue usually isn't as important at this altitude.

Just my 1.5 cents ...