Any serious backpacker knows how important it is to have plenty of food at hand — but it’s equally important that the food you carry doesn’t weigh you down or slow you down. That’s where ultralight backpacking food comes in.
What makes for good ultralight backpacking food? Well, we believe it needs to meet a few requirements. First, it needs to weigh as little as possible and be easy to transport. It also helps if there’s little to no cooking involved — either something you can grab and go, or something that can be cooked with a little boiling water.
Since backpacking is a heavily physical activity, ultralight backpacking food should be nutritious and provide the energy you need to refuel your body after hours of burning calories. The more dense in nutrients, the better.
This probably goes without saying, but anything that needs to be kept hot or cold should be ruled out. You’re unlikely to find a fridge while trekking through the mountains, so ultralight backpacking food needs to be able to stay in your backpack for days at a time without spoiling or getting stale.
Those are the requirements for the ideal ultralight backpacking food, now let’s take a look at some of your options. We’re going to assume you’re spending at least a day or more backpacking, so in this post we will provide some suggestions for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and between-meal snacks.
Our Recommendations for Ultralight Backpacking Food
Breakfast
No day of backpacking should start without a good breakfast. I don’t know about you, but we like a nice hot breakfast, so our go-to backpacking food for the morning is always Quaker instant oatmeal. We also carry plenty of instant coffee with us as well for that extra kick. With some warm, nutritious food in your belly, it’s time to hit the trail!
Lunch
For a quick lunch on-the-go, you can’t go wrong with some pre-packaged meat and cheese. Beef jerky makes for great ultralight backpacking food, and any kind of cheese that doesn’t need to be refrigerated is perfect. To make it a complete meal you could throw some whole grain crackers into the mix and you’re good to go.
Dinner
We wish we had something more exciting to suggest here, but what can we say? Options are limited when you’re making your way through the wilderness! A brand called Mountain House specializes in ultralight backpacking food, offering a wide array of freeze dried meals. Just add boiling water, wait a few minutes, and bon appetit!
Snacks
Snacking is so important while you’re backpacking, and for that perfect snack to throw in your bag you need not look any further than right here. Crispy Green freeze dried fruit meets all the requirements of ultralight backpacking food: tasty, nutritious, lightweight, and won’t spoil. Let us fuel your next backpacking adventure!
Those are just a few of many options, but they are ones we feel are guaranteed not to let you down!
