Food used in winter mountaineering must meet the following requirements:

The food must have minimum weight for adequate food value. About 4200 kilogram calories per day are re­quired by an active man on a mountaineering trip. Light­ weight is obtained primarily by using dehydrated foods and secondarily by selecting foods with a high caloric value. About 21/4 pounds per man-day of such foods are required.

Food used should be readily digestible and should be balanced between fat, protein, and carbohydrates (starches and sugar).

Good keeping qualities and easy packaging are es­sential. Bottles and cans are undesirable. They add weight and bulk. Food which can be placed in completely water­ proof bags, tied at the top, can be carried most readily. Several items can be dry-mixed at home to eliminate extra bags and facilitate preparation at camp.

Food taken must be easy to prepare quickly and with simple equipment. For this reason it is desirable to take precooked foods, some of which may be eaten cold if something should happen to the stove. Because the boiling point of water decreases with the altitude, cook­ing time is about doubled for every 5,000-foot rise in elevation. Cooking time for some of the grains, such as rice, is reduced to less than half if they are precooked. This may be done at home by baking at 300-350° F until the first sign of browning.

Strenuous activity in dry, high-mountain air causes more perspiration—and attendant loss of salt—than is frequently realized. This must be replaced by extra salt­ing of food. Muscle cramps and mountain sickness are often signs of salt deficiency.

Enough vitamins must be obtained. In the accom­panying list foods particularly rich in Vitamin A are marked on the list with an asterisk (*), those with Vitamin Bi with a plus sign ( + ), those with B2 with a cross (X), and those with Vitamin C with a circle (°). Vitamin C is the least readily obtained among foods
which are otherwise suitable. Vitamin sufficiency for trips of only 3 or 4 days is not essential.

Food requirements may be met by food selected from the following list. Selections within each group are sub­ject to the taste of the individual, but the weight selected from each group should be approximately as indicated. The total requirement of food from each group for a given trip is obtained by multiplying the pounds per man-day, times the number of men, times the number of days.

POUNDS

TABLE OF FOOD REQUIREMENTS per

MAN-DAY

Starches (Precooked) .....  0.45

Oatmeal+ (for breakfast)

Wheat germ-++ (for breakfast)

Yellow corn meal* (for breakfast)

Concentrated dried soups

Dried peas or beans (for soup)

Spaghetti, noodles, or dried potatoes (for supper, with cheese, tomato, meat)

Brown rice+ (prepare same as noodles; takes longer) Rye crackers, hardtack (for cold lunches) Foil wrapped pumpernickel or rye bread

Sugar ...............................  0.45

Granulated sugar (put it in almost everything) Mixed hard candies (for lunch) Sweet bar chocolate (for lunch)

Nuts+* (Shelled) ..............  0.15

Walnuts, almonds, peanuts, cashews, brazils (for lunch)

Dried or dehydrated Fruits and Vegetables (small cut) 0.30 Apples, apricots*, peaches, pears, prunes* (stew or mix in mush. Use 4 parts water to 1 of fruit) Dates, figs, and raisins (for lunch, and mixed in mush) Carrots, beets, string beans, tomatoes, and onions (in mulligan), spinach and cabbage flakes

Fats and Fatty Foods ...  0.15

Butter* (put in nearly everything—cocoa, mush, soup, noodles)

Bacon (cut into mush or mulligan) Peanut butter (on hardtack, or add to soup) Meat Bar, 3 oz. fat and protein combination

Protein .............................  0.75

Canadian bacon-}-, dried beef, and ham+ (cut into mush, soup, or mulligan)

Salami, corned beef, liverwurst, cervelat (for lunch) Whole milk powder* X° (in cocoa, mush, soup) Mild cheese* X (for lunch, or melted into spaghetti) Beef jerky, frozen-dried steaks, chops, meatballs, and hamburger. Meat bar, as above

Beverage Materials ......  To suit

Instant cofiee

Tea

Cocoa

Lemon powder0 (lemonade for lunch and after dinner)

Bouillon cubes

Jello (as hot drink)

Flavoring Materials .....  To suit

Salt (ample in everything)

Pepper, chili powder, onion powder, celery salt

Food preparation.—This is not a cook book, but the scarcity of equipment and fuel requires a few sug­gestions:

In melting snow for water, never put so much in the pot at one time that it draws the water away from the pot bottom, or the pot will scorch and give the water a flavor that cannot be disguised, even by soup.

Food must be cooked in one or two pots in order to keep to a minimum the number of utensils, the fuel con­sumption, and the time. The more water used in cooking, the less the chance of scorching the food. Moreover, mealtime often provides the only opportunity to obtain water. These requirements are best met by soupy dishes containing numerous food items mixed together.

Breakfast: Breakfast may consist of hot chocolate in one pot and mush in the other. The mush can be made by putting the necessary ingredients—salt, sugar, butter, diced fruits, or chipped Canadian bacon—into warmed snow water which is then stirred and brought to a boil. Oatmeal is then added and the mixture allowed to sim­mer 5—10 minutes; however, if you use prepared instant cereals, the meal is ready upon contact of the cereal with the boiling water.

Lunch: Lunch may be warm if the party is storm­bound in camp; cold if underway. It may also be eaten at one sitting, though it is better to take smaller, more frequent snacks throughout the day's climb. A canteen of sugar-tea made at breakfast will not only slake the thirst at lunchtime, but will raise sagging spirits as well. The skiing gourmet may well produce such delicacies as smoked oysters and french bread if the car is not too distant and the pack otherwise not overloaded.

Dinner: Soup is prepared first from almost any com­bination of the following: powdered soup bases, butter, milk powder, onion powder, celery salt, dehydrated vegetables, minced bacon, salt, and pea flour. It is best kept thin, with few solid particles. The mulligan can be made from a base of spaghetti, noodles, powdered pota­toes, or brown rice, flavored with a good quantity of cheese, tomato powder, and liberal doses of butter and salt. A fresh bell pepper or some celery sticks (chopped) will add immensely to the flavor of the mulligan if some­one has been clever enough to bring them along. Meat items to be added can be: Frozen-dried hamburger or meatballs (precooked), steaks and chops (uncooked); bacon; ham; meat bars, salami, or bacon. The meat bar is precooked, weighs 3 ounces and is equivalent to about 1 pound of raw meat (513 calories per bar). Essentially a ration, it is however tasty and preferred by many ski mountaineers as a source of protein and fat. Frozen-dried meats rehydrate to about three times their dry weight and are a desirable, though more expensive, method of bringing protein to high camp. Don't waste fuel heating dish water; either wipe out the pots with snow, or allow the contents to freeze and then chip them out. These methods are fairly efficient and in any event, unless the pot is badly burned, a little carryover from one meal to the next will not be noticed and will do no harm for short periods at the low temperatures prevailing. Finally, let it be said that no skier's morale can be raised by unimaginative, ill-prepared meals. Take time to plan and prepare palatable meals but leave the ex­perimental single-food ration for trial trips under less exacting conditions.

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