Hiking food for the Sierra de las Nieves

Freeze-dried meals for backpacking in the Sierra de las Nieves come down to three numbers a day: about 380 g of food, 1,490 kcal and 910 ml of water, hot or cold. Those are the figures for a porridge, two mains and a bag of sweets, which is how we plan a day out of the pack. The main most people start with is Rations No. 01 Chicken & Rice: 120 g, 469 kcal and 45 g of protein, ready eight minutes after hot water goes in, or in about 20 with cold.

The sierra sits just behind the coast, between Marbella and Ronda, with Spanish fir on the high slopes, limestone, gorges and villages such as Tolox, Yunquera and El Burgo at the edges. A day walk needs a sandwich. Two or three days with a tent or a hut need a plan, because every gram and every millilitre has to be carried up.

Grams per 1,000 kcal

The number that matters on a long walk is how much weight you carry for the energy you get. Divide the pouch weight by its kcal and multiply by 1,000, and you can compare any two foods.

All of the cooked pouches sit within 12 g of each other, so choose by taste rather than weight. The bolognese is the lightest per kcal and the chicken and rice carries the most protein.

These are cooked dishes rather than expedition rations built around fat. Some imported pouches reach 440 to 575 kcal per 100 g against our 391 to 409, and they're lighter for the same energy. What ours give you is a plate of chicken and rice or lentils and chorizo that you'd recognise at home.

One, two or three days

A day walk. No freeze-dried food is needed. If you want something hot at the top in winter, one main and a small stove cost you 120 g of food and 330 ml of water. Leave the stove at home and the same water, cold, makes it lunch in about 20 minutes.

Two days, one night. Bring lunch from home for the first day. Dinner is one main. Next morning is Breakfast No. 01 Porridge & Fruit, oats with apple, banana and strawberry in 90 g, made with the first boil of the day while the tent dries. Lunch on day two is another main. That's 330 g of food and 910 ml of cooking water over the two days. A good pair is the chicken and rice for dinner and Rations No. 04 Lentil & Chorizo for the second lunch, 480 kcal and 33 g of protein in 120 g.

Three days. That's the 72 h Pack for €85: six mains, three porridges and three bags of sweets, 1,140 g and 4,480 kcal, or about 1,490 kcal a day. A day on the trail with a full pack uses more than that, so add nuts, chocolate, hard cheese or bread that keeps a few days. If there are two of you, take one box each. On the last afternoon, the bag of sweets is the snack that needs no water and no stove.

Water on the route

There are springs in the sierra, but they don't all run all year, and the end of summer is when they're least reliable. Every litre you carry weighs a kilo.

The cooking water is easy to count: 250 ml for a porridge, 330 ml for each main, 910 ml for a full day of the plan above. Drinking water comes on top and depends on you and the heat. If you know a spring by your camp is running, you can carry less; if you don't know, don't count on it.

Cooking water for three days, 2,730 ml, weighs more than twice the 1,140 g of food it cooks. Where you can refill decides more of the pack weight than which pouch you choose, so plan the route around the water first and the menu second.

Cold water is the other way, and it needs no stove at all. Add the same amount, stir, zip the pouch and wait about 20 minutes; the time varies with the water and the recipe. The meal comes out cooler and softer, and it's cooked food, so eat it within a couple of hours. On a day of fire restrictions, or a walk without stove and gas in the pack, that's the plan.

The stove and the fire rules

In summer the use of fire in the Andalusian countryside is restricted, and the rules change with the risk level and the date. Check what applies in the area before you light a camping stove, and if it isn't allowed, make the pouches with cold water that day.

When it is allowed, a small gas stove and a pan are all the kitchen you need:

1. Bring the water to the boil. The pouch wants 80–100 °C.
2. Open the pouch and take out the oxygen absorber.
3. Pour in the water, stir to the bottom and zip it shut.
4. Wait eight minutes for a main and five for a porridge. On a cold evening, stand the pouch inside your jacket while it waits.
5. Stir again and eat from the pouch.

Up high, water boils a few degrees below 100 °C, still well inside the range the pouch asks for.

Packing the food

Count the pouches against the plan before you leave the car, and pack them in one bag per day if that helps. Food goes at the top of the pack, where you can reach it without unpacking the tent. A dry bag keeps it together and keeps rain off the labels. Sealed pouches take knocks well but not punctures, so keep them away from tent pegs and knives. A long spoon reaches the bottom corners of a standing pouch. Pack a spare lighter too, and if both fail, the pouches still take cold water.

Empty pouches zip shut and go back in the rucksack, oxygen absorbers included. They don't drip, and they weigh almost nothing on the walk out.

Whatever you don't eat goes back on the shelf. Sealed, a main keeps 36 months and the sweets 12. How the drying makes that possible, and how it compares with hot-air drying, is in freeze-dried vs dehydrated food. Every main and the porridge are on the Rations page, at €10.90 a main.