Backpacking has a lot of wonderful attributes, including that it’s one of the least technical outdoor activities you can do while still being deeply immersed in the mountains. Backpacking is more involved than a day hike, but it’s not as complex as mountaineering or climbing. If you can walk, know where you’re going, and carry the bare minimum to spend the night outdoors, you’re going to be ok.
I might have more backpacking miles than my friends, but they are all capable and experienced outdoorspeople. The most I’ve ever had to do was help them set up a borrowed tent or explain the benefits of carrying a lightweight bottle instead of a Nalgene. But I’d never taken someone out who had never slept in a tent or spent the night outdoors.
We’ll call this bare beginner Jewel. She spent most of her time bouncing between LA and Las Vegas, but last summer, she spent a week with me in Montana as part of a work project. Jewel was in great physical shape, loved being outside, and was an advanced yoga instructor. She kicked my butt on a few day hikes and was excited to go on her first backpacking overnight with me during the trip.
I chose my show-off hike: an overnight to a picture-perfect alpine lake in a mountain range a few hours from town. The hike to the lake was only about seven miles, but the trail was varied and picturesque. It climbed steeply through the woods, crossed several deep creeks, traversed open meadows before switchbacking up a pass to views of the lake below. It’s one of my all-time favorite overnights in Montana, and the one I always take guests on.
I invited two friends along with Jewel and me. I knew she was fit, but I was also aware that she’d never spent the night outdoors or carried a loaded pack. Additionally, I knew my own limitations. I am simply not the best at being a guide – I love taking people out, but I also understand that I can be oblivious to skills and tips that probably should be explained.
Before she showed up, I had sent Jewel a detailed list of the backpacking gear she should buy. She showed up to my house with the exact items – the inflatable sleeping pad, off-the-shelf 55-liter pack, 20-degree mummy bag, 300-lumen headlamp, and a lightweight set of carbon trekking poles. Despite trying to convince her to wear trail running shoes, she insisted on beefy hiking boots straight from the box. Once I saw the boots, I also made sure she packed a few pieces of Moleskin.
We packed our bags while waiting for Hailey and Claire to show up. I explained the concept of leaving some items behind for an overnight. We didn’t need a full pack of face wipes, hard cases for different items, a full sunscreen, or the aerosol bug spray. I left her with the “nope” pile and went to go meet Hailey and Claire downstairs.
When Jewel came down, her bag was several pounds heavier than when I’d left it upstairs.
“What’s in this?” I asked, digging through the bulging pockets. She’d put back most of the items I’d taken out. I told myself it was fine. She was in very good shape and the hike wasn’t too strenuous.
For me, the learning part of this outing meant truly understanding what it meant to be a real beginner. Not just a first-time backpacker, but someone who had never had a real backcountry experience. Jewel was enthusiastic and in shape, but she came from a realm far from the outdoor recreation world.
At the trailhead, I threw my pack on and started walking away from the truck, expecting Hailey, Claire, and Jewel to fall in line. Hailey tapped me with a trekking pole. Jewel was still at the truck, struggling with her pack. I dashed back and helped her adjust the straps and buckles, marveling at how complicated the adjustment system is on a fully-featured backpack. From the different connections, to cinching, to fit, to packing method… a lot goes into something as simple as throwing a pack over your shoulders. I’d taken this skill for granted for years, mindlessly adjusting tension, slinging it over my shoulder to grab something from the outside pocket. The buckles, straps, and keepers made sense to me, but with Jewel, I was seeing it in a new way.
We moved at a great pace up the trail and through the meadows. At the base of the pass, we stopped to marvel at a family of mountain goats picking their way over the scree above us. We stopped for photos at the top, then descended the switchbacks to the lake. Hailey and I picked our way across a steep, slippery patch of snow still clinging to the north-facing side of the basin. It obscured the trail, and we kick-stepped carefully, aware that one stumble or slide would send us tumbling down the steep, loose face. Claire was more tentative and took a good amount of coaxing across. Jewel, for whatever reason, found it hysterical and ran across the slick snow, despite me shrieking about a high-consequence fall. She giggled when she reached us, and I had to remind myself to calm down. Risk and consequence mean something different to everyone, and I tried to convince myself she’d been sure of her footing.
At camp, I helped Jewel with her new tent and we took photos by the lake. When it was time for dinner, I realized another thing: I never cook in the backcountry, so while I’d told her to buy a stove and fuel, I had forgotten to tell her to bring a lighter. A lighter was simply part of most people’s backcountry items, and I’d totally spaced it. Luckily Claire had a spare, so we could ignite Jewel’s stove and figure out dinner. Hailey showed her how the new valve worked on her sleeping pad, and we were good for the night.
Everyone was in great spirits, and the basin was as stunning as ever. The weather was perfect as well – high 60’s F (16 C) during the day, which then meant low 30’s F (-1 C) at night. This was something else I hadn’t mentioned to Jewel – we were at a higher elevation, and the temperatures could get colder than expected once the sun went down. Part of her pack list was a set of base layers and the requisite puffy, but I hadn’t mentioned that you needed to sleep in those items if it got cold.
Jewel was really smart. She had her MBA from a prestigious business program, and picked up on things quickly. But for someone to pick up on something quickly, you need to impart the relevant wisdom. That’s where I fell short. Jewel slept in shorts and a t-shirt at home, so that’s what she wanted to sleep in outdoors. It didn’t occur to her to put on more layers. After a great night’s sleep for me, Claire, and Hailey, Jewel said she’d loved being outside, but admitted she’d been too frozen to get any sleep.
“Why didn’t you put your jacket on?” I asked, helping break down the tent.
“What do you mean?” Jewel asked, “I never sleep in a jacket.” I felt like an idiot. She was still in a great mood, despite not having slept because she was a veritable popsicle. If I’d just mentioned that she could wear a jacket to sleep in, that wouldn’t have happened.
She also had thumb-sized, oozing blisters on her heels from the hiking boots, but the application of Moleskin quickly solved the issue. I gave her careful instructions about digging a cat hole, where to use the bathroom away from water sources, and to pack out all trash, no matter how gross. She was attentive and respectful of my ramblings, and after a quick lesson on stuffing a sleeping bag into an impossibly small stuff sack, we were on our way.
Jewel was sore from carrying her heavy pack, but she never complained. Hailey gave her pointers for using the trekking poles to descend the pass, and once again, the weather was incredible. On the drive back, my three companions gushed about the hike, the goats, the lake, and the campsite. I was quite pleased. My go-to overnight had once again proven to be a stunner, and climbing a dramatic pass to camp at an alpine lake is as memorable a Montana adventure as it gets.
It was my first time taking a bare beginner out, and I can confidently say I learned more than I anticipated. There was a vast difference between someone who had never spent time in the backcountry and beginner backpackers who had experience in other forms of outdoor recreation. From understanding how to put a pack on, to the idea of layering for sleep, there was a lot I hadn’t considered. I was grateful to Hailey and Claire for reminding me to check on Jewel, and grateful to Jewel for her unfailing good attitude.
And the last thing? The day after we got back, I yelled upstairs to Jewel to ask her if she wanted me to take her sleeping bag out of the stuff sack. Her packed bag was still sitting in my living room.
“Sure,” she called downstairs, “but beware. There’s a giant turd in a ZipLock bag in there too…I packed everything out.”
Related Content
- More by Maggie Slepian
- Andrew Marshall talks about relating to beginners in his essay, “Beginner’s Mind: A Lifelong Ground Sleeper Takes to the Trees“
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Discussion
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Companion forum thread to: Learning Curve: What I Learned From Taking a Beginner into the Backcountry
I thought I knew how to take first-time backpackers out, but I’d never actually taken a bare beginner into the backcountry.
Thanks for the article – it was fun to read. I’ve taken a number of people on their first backpacking trip, but never someone who had never even car camped in a campground. A couple fond memories:
As a leader of adults we can only do so much to pass on guidelines and suggestions. With kids you can lay everything out and not let them take, for example, the 4-lb hatchet. As long as adults don’t complain about the choice they made I really don’t care. I just don’t want to ever be in the “I told you so” world where someone is miserable and complaining when they directly ignored some of my hard-earned backcountry wisdom. I try to be pretty careful about my hiking partners – both new and experienced.
I took my 3 year old for his first overnight trek out this weekend, only an easy 1.3 miler. Fun, but I have not carried that much weight (30lb backpack, 30lb child in my arms much of the way!) in a while. Luckily it was short and only about 5-600 feet elevation gain. Note the lack of a backpack in the last pic :)
“and a full glass bottle of Jack Daniels!” If someone “wants” to carry the whiskey–I’ll let them!
“and a full glass bottle of Jack Daniels!”
Actually…I was that guy, once. But only once. And it was a full glass bottle of Pampero Aniversario. Cumberland Island, Ga in August, 90 deg, 90% humidity, with 2 gallon jugs of water in my 80L Kelty pack. It was miserable. Come to think of it, that Aniversario probably saved my butt :)
He never complained and, at the end, the couple told me that they both really enjoyed the trip. I’ll confess that I enjoyed lightening his load a bit…
Yeah, I can totally relate to all of this, lol. Many many times I have brought out total beginners with me. I dont mind because I always expect and prepare for the worse.. for myself and them. I does kill me when they do not heed to my advice pre trip!! Im telling them this information for a reason!!! It will make the trip and experience more enjoyable not only for myself.. but for them also! As for my kids.. I have taken all 3 of them out with me since they were about 5 or 6 years old.. and back in those days, my goodness it was a LOT of work on my part!!.. Just inflating 3 or 4 pads was killer, lol. Now, thankfully they are all older and have the knowledge and experience to handle their own, especially my son!
Very well written article with an excellent last line that tied it all together.
It reminded me of the time I took my girlfriend backpacking. She did the hiking well and she was warm enough. Overnight, cool breezes blew, the squirrels scampered in the trees and coyotes howled periodically.
To her, it sounded like the coyotes had surrounded the tent and were closing in. I mumbled something about how they were a lot farther away than they sounded and that they had no interest in us and fell back to sleep, contented by the nighttime sounds. She spent the night staring angrily at me while I snored and shifted.
She still married me, but she won’t backpack with me again. She sleeps well, listening to the coyotes from inside the house.
The last time I took complete beginners on a trip, two of them (my nephew and his friend) were engineers. Their S/O were not. But boy, did those engineers ask questions! They wanted to know everything beforehand, and they wanted to know how everything worked, as well. They wanted to set up the tent, work the stove, filter the water, etc. It was as if they were preparing for a test later in the week.
We had a dream trip–quite likely because of their inherent philosophy of not wanting to leave anything to chance or ignorance. Plus, they loved every single minute of it.
For better or worse, when I take a beginner out I specifically tell them NOT to buy anything for the trip (they don’t always listen). I try to appeal to them by letting them try different things (I’ve tried a lot of different gear and have held onto almost all of it). I give them a pretty short list of things that they need to bring (usually just clothing) and I give them a WP stuff sack in which to put it. As we plan the trip I’ll repeat my mantra to them: “The pack is the last thing you should buy – wait until you know the size of the rest of your gear.” At least a couple of them have shown up with brand new packs to try out. Sigh.
As Dirtbag says, it’s a lot of extra work to take a newbie into the woods, but I know that in advance and am taking them because I want them to love it!
The number one affliction I’ve seen with first-timers is hotspots and blisters. I pack extra leukotape expecting that they will have blisters and I’m usually right. I’ve had 3-4 trips where I pick someone up and they excitedly proclaim: “Look – I bought these new hiking boots at (insert big box store name here) last night and I can’t wait to try them.” Oh well…Even though I haven’t suffered from blisters in years, with first-timers I take my shoes and socks off at every break to examine my feet for hotspots and “require” them to do the same. It’s a lot easier to slap a piece of tape on a red heel early than to treat big blisters later in the day.
Newbie participation once in camp definitely varies. Some of them are so shot from hiking that as soon as I set up their tent and inflate their pad they crawl in and lay down (Dirtbag had a good story about a guy like that earlier this year). Others are eager to learn about setting everything up, starting a fire, working the stove, and especially hanging the bear bag. It’s all good!
When you do something for a number of years, it is hard to think like a beginner. I have been playing guitar for many years. A good way to understand what a beginner is going through is to try and see things through their eye. As a guitar player, a simple way is to flip your guitar over, for me that would be cording with my right hand and picking with my left. Very humbling.
A great story, Maggie!
A friend of mine took to backpacking late in life at 58 years old. (We live in Bellingham, Washington BTW). After spending two nights at Colchuck Lake in the Enchantments in Washington, he wanted to hike a bit of the PCT.
I chose Harts Pass and north to a wooded campsite approximately one mile south of Rock Pass.
I told him before we left that I was going to make this a backpacking clinic.
We left Bellingham at 5:00 a.m. After arriving at Harts Pass, we did a side trip to Slate Peak, then started north on the PCT. The air temperature was very hot. It was so hot that I was concerned about heat exhaustion. Fortunately there was adequate water along the way, and we camped at Shaw Creek mid-afternoon. We talked about the heat and I explained to him the benefits of an early start the next morning to get some miles in before it warmed up.
Early the next morning we continued on northbound to a wooded campsite approximately one mile south of Rock Pass.
The next day we day-hiked to Lakeview Ridge. It was so hot that I had to use all my skills to keep us hydrated and to cool off as best we could. I taught him how to top off his water bottle with snow, rub snow around his wrists and neck, and to put snow on top of his head to melt and cool his skull. It was really hot on the west side of Three Fools Peak in the full sun. I have been in the mountains when it was hot outside, but this was the hottest I have ever experienced. It almost ruined the trip.
The next day called for a return to the car. Time for the ‘clinic’ to kick in again. I did not tell him that we were hiking out all the way; he eventually figured it out on his own. Of course, he wanted to know why. I explained to him that he needed to learn what ‘all day’ hiking is like and what it takes to do 16 miles. I said if you want to get deep into the backcountry and not have to carry tremendous amounts of food then your mileage has to go up so that you accomplish your objectives in four or five days instead of seven or eight.
During the trip we talked a lot about backpacking skills, other places to go etc. I explained to him the concept of ‘hiking your own hike’ and that he now had the skills now to plan his own trips.
I am proud to say that he has done so. He later led a small group to Horseshoe Basin and they did a loop that included Windy Peak.
I really enjoyed this article, Maggie. Perfect timing for me, too: I’m planning a backpacking trip with my brothers, all of whom are new to backpacking. It’s difficult to find a balance between providing them too much information (overloading them to the point that they tune me out) versus not providing enough information (and they feel like I left them in the dark).
The best teacher is experience. I think the key is to get them out there with enough knowledge that they have fun and they can learn from the trip.
-Michael
I tell my scouts you learn more from your mistakes than your success. But it’s better to learn from other people’s mistakes.
So I have no problem telling them mistakes I’ve made.
Fun read!
I backpacked with a lady once that all she brought for food was GORP, and other than water, she had a bottle of whiskey. At dinner time she ate GORP and drank whiskey and was happy as a clam. To each their own.
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