10 Backcountry Cocktails Every Backpacker Should Know

Some food items are just too heavy to justify schlepping them around in your pack. (When’s the last time you saw somebody whip out a watermelon at camp?) But liquor, my friends, is not one of those items. Yeah, the ingredients can be heavy, but a perfectly blended, snowbank-chilled cocktail can be the difference between an excellent day on the trail and a transcendent day on the trail. In that spirit, here are 10 of our favorite concoctions. Cheers.

1. Mountain Margarita

Lemon-Lime Gatorade + tequila + fresh snow

2. Watermelon Snowfield

Fruit punch sports drink + Bacardi 151 rum + snow + maraschino cherry

3. Bikini Sunburn

Vodka + light rum + cherry sours + juice of half a fresh lemon + sugar

4. Mountain Storm Cosmo

Lime juice + cranberry juice concentrate + triple sec + vodka + lime Kool-Aid powder + hailstones

5. Snake in the Grass

Lemon-Lime Gatorade + vodka + green creme de menthe

6. Blackberry Margarita

Fresh-picked berries + snow + tequila

7. Backcountry Mai Tai

Tang + snow + dark rum

8. Goodnight Kiss

Good Earth tea + scotch

9. Wilderness White Russian

Kahlua + vodka + milk (use dry whole milk powder)

10. Under the Sleeping Bag

Light rum + triple sec + brandy + lemon juice

With thanks to editors Jon Dorn, Shannon Davis, Steve Howe, & Kristin Hostetter; realcampingworld.co.uk. Image credit: GSI Outdoors

—Elisabeth Kwak-Hefferan