white gas

I am planning a 6 day backpack to elevations of 12-14,000 ft and I have not used my MSR whisperlite enough to estimate fuel requirements. Can anyone provide guidelines for fuel usage? I estimate 1 hour a day for a group of 3 hikers.

Hi cliimbonchick

The guideline for white gas consumption as I understand it is about 2 ounces per person - per day for just boiling water (rehydrating, making tea, coffee, etc.) and as much as double that for real cooking from store bought ingredients.

I personally use amounts nearing the higher estimate as I can not eat freeze dried food only several days in a row, and well I just like to cook a bit.

I'm sure others can provide info for melting snow etc.

Good to have you on Trailspace!

Welcome to Trailspace cliimbonchick

You may get a better response if you were to put this in the gear selection category.

Sorry I cant answer your question I use canister or alcohol stoves.

climbon -

The guideline that trout mentions (2 ounces/person/day) is a good starting point for the type of food most often used on backpacking trips, whether freezedry or lots of pasta, along with breakfast of oatmeal and a hot drink. If you are going to do gourmet cooking, it will take more. In winter when you are having to melt snow for water, 8 ounces per person per day is more like it, though some people run closer to a liter per person per day. On my high altitude expeditions (that's more like 16,000 to 22,000 ft), where we have subzero temperatures and have to melt all our water, we typically run around 8-10 ounces/person/day. However an hour of running the stove a day seems more than a little excessive, even if you are doing stirfry.

The only way to get an accurate estimate for your personal style of cooking is to track your usage closely, keeping good records. I would estimate 2 liters for your trip.

My suggestion is that you cook 2 or 3 days of meals (BLD) for your 3 people on some weekend of the same type you will use on the trip and carefully measure the amount of fuel you use. This will also tell you whether the meals will be palatable by day 5. At the altitudes you mention, this will be plenty close enough for spring-fall trips.