Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Bear Canisters

Quick newb question about bear canisters on the MWT

For a two day trip up the trail, would you recommend one canister per person, or do you think you could combine pretty easily with someone else and use one canister for two?

Probably just going the Mountain House and PowerBars route...

Before your hike, get your one canister and fill it up as much as you can. You would be suprised how much it holds. My wife took one canister for two people (not the largest canister) for a two day hike and there was a lot left when she got back to the Portal.

As a note.....don't tie your key to the canister, as the mice will chew the cord, string, etc off of the canister, making it difficult to find in the morning.

Thanks thats a great idea. And thanks for the key tip.

Repack all your stuff into pint or quart freeze dry bags - you'll be amazed how much more you can stuff in a bear container.

Since you plan to do it as a 2-day trip you shouldn't need a very big bear canister. You don't need to carry your food in the canister while you are hiking with it. You just need to store your food in it while you sleep. You will have eaten your dinner before going to bed. The only thing you will be storing is one breakfast and the remainder of your lunch food. I would think you could get away with the smaller version of the Bear Vault. I think they call it the Solo.

heck, just use a half size BearVault.

That's all I need for one person for a 4 day trip. To use a chemistry term, use a closest packing ratio.

Does anyone know if you can rent a small bear canister at the Whitney Portal Store?

Elevation does

$5 for 24 hrs / $7.50 for 48 hrs

http://www.sierraelevation.com/Rentals.html

With careful planning and packing, I can put seven person-days of food in a Garcia, and eight in a Bearvault. You should have no problem putting food for two days for two people in either one.

I bought a Bear Vault solo for our future two-night Whitney trip, and practiced filling it up. Based on that, appears that it will work fine for two people for the trip, with room to spare. Nice and lightweight, and does not need a key (though it is worth practicing how to open it up in the comfort and warmth of your own home, because in cold weather it becomes more difficult). And it serves as a lovely camp stool, too.

My daughter and I used a Bear Vault last summer. It held enough food for the two of us on 7 to 8 day trips with room to spare. We had food left over, we could have stayed out 10 days on one BV canister.

For a short trip you could bring a whole Thanksgiving dinner in it. I have a dream of cooking Thanksgiving dinner up on the mountain some year.

OK, who's been out the longest with a garcia, last september we managed 11 days for two of us; we couldn't get the toiletries in though, only food; any advance on that? The tortillas were pressed down so tight they fused into one big one.

One Garcia for two people for 11 days? That's about 60 meals. Has to be a record. I've jammed in 11 days just for me.

Your food list would be very interesting. One person could get three weeks out of one packing!

and do the entire John Muir Trail without refueling....

one could really silly here

I did the math, a full size BearVault holds about 32,000 calories of Tang, at 1600 cal per day for carbs plus burning off your own stored fat, you could go for 20 days. By then you would have easily finished the JMT and descended maybe, what, 20 lbs lighter and no scurvy thanks to the Tang.

Wait!! There is the Garcia Super that is about half again as long as the standard Garcia. I have one of those and you can pack in quite a bit of stuff.

Interesting. Could get to caloric equilibrium if you packed it full of cheddar cheese .....

I have a Bearicade Expedition. I can get 16 days worth of solo food into it with very careful repackaging. Guess it depends on what you consider to be a day's worth of food.

How does that compare with DUG's can o' frosting?

pure carbs 3 Cal/gm whereas pure fat is 9 Cal/gm, so Dugs stuff (if 50-50) is 6 Cal/gm. Leaving aside the difference in weight and volume of the two foods (which may be very significant) then if a BearVault of Tang provides 32,000 Cal then Dug's stuff provides 32,000 X 6/3 = 64,000 . These are rough estimates.

As usual, food -related topics here have a life of their own.