Diet for High Mileage Long Hikes

[Dale Wambaugh]

What about packing on a few (and i do mean a few) extra pounds before the trip? I find that all too easy to do on a daily basis :)

[kevin davidson]

Ice cream is good for this. Say a pint of Haagen-Daz a day for a week prior to your journey. I hear that Ryan Jordan might be chewing whale blubber shortly before he starts the Arctic 1000 death-jog. :-)>

[Al Shaver]

Casey-
On 2500-3000 Cal/day plus mid-trip binges, ultra light pack and covering only 21 mile/day average, I would think it would be nigh impossible for you to lose a pound of body weight/day as you suggest (unless you are extremely large or have the basal metabolism of a hummingbird on amphetamines).

The high oil diet worked for me (although there were palatability issues after a few days). But I can only advise others to try it first for a few days before committing to it for extended periods.

If you take many days to slowly ascend to altitude and then spend 3 weeks above 10k’ adjusting to it (as I will this summer), you will maximize your performance. If you’re not willing to invest this amount of time, the slower you ascend and the more days you spend doing it, the better you will feel and perform when you start at the JMT’s 14,500′ southern terminus.

If you only take 3 days to pre-acclimate, you can save weight by carrying small meals for the first 3 days on the trail. Anorexia is a very common symptom of Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) and you will likely not have much appetite despite your physical exertion. The flipside of this is that around day 4 your appetite will likely kick in like gang busters. Fortunately, at your pace you should be close to your first binge station by then.

“…be steady with mini breaks for stretching, yoga, and micro naps.” I like this advice from Bernard. JMT speed record holder Kevin Sawchuk is a proponent of micro naps. My only concern is that a micro could turn into a macro as I awake 14 hours later being gently nudged by a bear’s nose rummaging for food inside the body of the pack that I’m still wearing!

Good-Luck, Casey. Please post the results of your trip in the “Trip Reports” forum.

Cheers, Al

[Casey Bowden]

Al,

Thanks for the input. I have been wondering for some time how long it takes for ones appetite to catch up with ones expenditure as on my short length but high mileage trips it never has.

Have you posted details of your trip in the “Trip Reports” forum? I would be very interested in the details.

I would also be interested in your take on Coup’s JMT through hike. It is very useful for the backpacking community when someone experiments and then posts the results for all to see. Coup says he only ate 1.6 pounds of fruit and nuts per day although the caloric intake could vary quite a bit depending on the fruit/nut ratio. My wife thinks that my fruit/nut ratio is pretty high!

[Anonymous]

What do you all think the Fruit/Nut Ratio in these forums is? :-)

[Roger Caffin]

> How far can you go unsupported? Read
> Nanda Devi by Shipman & Tilman
> The Worst Journey in the World by Cherry-Garrard
> Shackleton’s Forgotten Men by Lennard Bickel
> The Long walk by Slavomir Rawicz

I forgot one of the most obvious books of all:
Rannulph Fiennes: Mind over Matter.
This one is especially recommended as it does address this food question closely. They were attempting a complete unsupported crossing of the Antarctic.

However, I think Rannulph made a serious mistake in his planning, in that he was paranoid about avoiding ever sweating at all in the Antarctic. As a result he and his partner were forever freezing cold, and this must have wasted a huge amount of the available energy. This is something which has not been mentioned much so far.
It is interesting to compare his gear with that of a subsequent party, who wore fleece, Gore-tex, face mask heat exchangers, the whole works. Afaik, they did not complain much about the cold.

Mind you, the idea that Ryan should come back quite as emaciated as Rannulph and his partner is maybe asking a bit much …

Cheers

[Roger Caffin]

> 2) If I’m running short on food I will get snacks en route at the Muir Trail Ranch, VVR, Reds Meadow, Tuolumne, etc.

My wife and I traversed the Pyrenees from Atlantic to the Med a couple of years ago. This wasn’t unsupported as we could buy food in the little towns along the way, but the whole trip did last for 2 months (right across, then back 1/3 of the way).
We ran a ‘normal’ diet. Lots of carbo at all meals, packet soup at dinner as an electrolyte replenish, small amounts of sweet things for flavour. Not big on fats, although we knew they are very high energy-density. We also had fruit and yoghurt when we got into a town, and one vital extra. We found this very beneficial: a can of Coke and a Magnum icecream each in every town. (Normally, my wife won’t touch either!)

I guess this might be a bit difficult for Ryan, but I thought I would just mention it. :-)

[Hiker 816]

It might be worth checking out

http://www.nutrabio.com/Products/thermoplex_30.htm

They will custom make powdered shakes and create whatever nutritional breakdown you want. I used them while hiking on the PCT in 2004, and plan to again for my next long hike. I had them customize a shake with a bit under 800 calories. You can order them in plastic zip-lock baggies rather than bottles. The fruit flavors are horrible, but the chocolate and cappuccino flavors are great.

A triple-crown hiker, Spur (Chris Bagby) turned me on to these. You can tell them he or I (Christopher Mills) referred you if they want context for what you are using the shakes for. I’ve got no relation to the company, but I’ve been happy with them.

[B C]

Nice forum.

I’ve heard from Antartic explorers who require about 12,000 Calories per day to stay alive.

They pour olive oil on their cereal, drink it straight and mix it with anything to make it palitable.

Using pure olive oil for engery, at about 6000 calories per day, you’ll need to cosume about 500 mL per day.

For a 20 day trek, that equals about 18 pounds, or about 10 litres.

It’s about the highest-engery food you’ll find.

[Vick Hines]

I’ve done it with both canola and olive oil with, respectively, oatmeal with lots of oat bran and w/w pasta (with basil and garlic). The actual foods were to keep the oil from running straight through. No joke. A diet of nothing but oil will go right through you. Bran is light in weight. If you are going to try a SUL diet, be sure to include it. And try any alternative diet at home first. That way you can have an accident on the bus or in your boss’s office instead of in the middle of a-long-way-from-help West Yukon. If you can put up with the gastronomic consequences maybe it will work for you. It’s alimentary, my dead Watson.

[B C]

Indeed. Makes sense.

[B C]

By limiting thermal energy lost through skin, lungs and urine will save a considerable amount of energy, and therefore the amount of food needed to carry.

Remember, shivering is the fastest way to burn the calories. You’ll burn more calories by shivering than if you are running a marathon.

Shivering is a method olympic wrestlers use to burn excess fat to achieve a lower weight catergory.

By saving half a pound on a lighter sleeping bag, you may have to actually carry upto 3 pounds more food to compensate for the energy lost through in-efficient thermal retention during sleep!

Also, any cold fluids you take in will need to be heated by your body before they are expelled.

[B C]

[Also, any cold fluids you take in will need to be heated by your body before they are expelled.]

Heating fluids uses a considerable amount of energy.

See how much fuel is needed to raise a half a litre of water by a few degrees.

This is what your body needs to do every time you drink a fluid lower than your core body temperature.

[Author]

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