How a Field Biologist Tackled the Teton Picnic on Real Backcountry Fuel

Some days in the mountains don't fit neatly into a category. The Grand Teton Picnic is one of them. Part mountain triathlon, part sufferfest, part local legend. It's an informal human-powered challenge that begins before dawn at the elk antler arches in Jackson's Town Square, and doesn't end until you've biked 46 miles, swam 2.6 miles across Jenny Lake, and free soloed the Grand Teton (13,775 ft) via the Owen-Spalding route. Total elapsed time for most: somewhere south of 24 hours.

Zoë, a 26-year-old wildlife biologist and Jackson local, completed it on August 3rd in just under 17 hours. She did it on uncrustables, pizza, pretzels, and RecPak.

Who Is Zoë?

Zoë grew up in Connecticut, far from mountains and far from the alpine world. A climbing gym near her house in high school changed that. She eventually landed in the Tetons through a wildlife research internship with Grand Teton National Park and along the way, found her home.

"Things came together better than if I could have planned it," she says. Since then she's tracked wolves in Yellowstone, collared newborn bighorn sheep lambs, and spent back-to-back summers backpacking throughout the Tetons and nearby ranges for wildlife research. The Tetons are her home terrain and she is beginning to know every nook.

What the Picnic Actually Demands

The Picnic is deceptively simple on paper: bike to the lake, swim across, climb the Grand, reverse it. In practice it demands competency across three completely different disciplines, road cycling, open-water swimming, and technical alpine climbing, strung together over the better part of a day with no real rest.

Zoë started with her boyfriend Benji biked through the dark to the Town Square, where they started at 3:45 AM, and rolled toward Jenny Lake as the valley woke up. At the overlook, Joy from RecPak (and a dear friend) was waiting with wetsuits and gear. They slipped into Jenny Lake at dawn.

"The sun was rising above us," Zoë recalls. "It was just incredibly relaxing." She learned to swim approximately two weeks before attempting the 1.3-mile crossing. She made it across in about an hour, breathing on every stroke to keep her rhythm dialed.

Fueling a 17-Hour Day: The Nutrition Strategy

On objectives this long, nutrition isn't a detail. It's a system. Zoë's approach is straightforward: eat often, eat real-ish food, and stay away from anything that punishes you for it later.

"My general nutrition strategy is to eat as often as possible and to eat real food," she says. "I can't do gels. They feel fake. Things like uncrustables go down smoother than a bar and pizza is easy too, and it's real food."

RecPak filled the calorie-dense anchor role on the climb. At the Lower Saddle, the last reliable water source before the summit push, Zoë and Benji mixed up their first pack, shared it on the way up, and carried more to the top. On the descent, another fill at the saddle helped bridge the gap back to trail.

"I can drink a whole thing in one five-minute break and just get this fantastic influx of calories, protein, carbs. That’s fuel!," she says. "It goes down easy because it tastes really good and it's the right consistency. It's sweet, but not too sweet. And everyone who's done long endurance days knows, artificially sweet things get old fast."

700 calories, 43 grams of protein, no stove, no prep. At elevation and in motion, that matters.

The Hard Part

Ask Zoë what pushed her the most and she doesn't hesitate: the 5,000-foot descent from the Upper Saddle to Garnet Meadows. "It doesn't feel particularly natural," she says. "You're tired, the terrain is chaotic, your mind is chaotic. I just kept slipping."

But Garnet Meadows was a reset. Caffeine, ibuprofen, music, and the trail opening up beneath her feet. Her best friend JT was waiting at the trailhead. The last miles were a sprint.

"All I did was drink a little caffeine, take some ibuprofen, put on some music, and I felt like a brand new human."

Just before sunset, her friends lined up on bikes for the final half mile home and content as ever, Zoë rolled back through Jackson with an entourage.

Parting Thoughts

For anyone eyeing the Picnic or any long human-powered objective, Zoë’s advice is simple.

"Don't rush it. Every part of it has something to offer. What's going to keep you energized is being psyched on the present."