UKC

Hi all,
Does anyone have any good advice on how to try to keep your body fed propperly at altitude. I realise its very to have a propper meal but yet your body burns allot more calories than at sea level. Are there supplements that mountaineers use? I dont think that energy bars are the way to go long term as the spike insulun creating blood sugar rushs. What do mountaineers eat to reach the top?
Thanks Sean

In reply to Sean Flynn:

eat what you can.

altitude sucks your appetite away and cam make you feel queezy, so anything that goes down is good. the best thing about expedition meals is they come in a handy ziplok packet so when you throw the whole lot back up again you can seal it nicely.

fat metabolizes less efficiently up high, but that said, i personally crave it up there.
you also want food with a high water content to replenish fluid from fluid loss.

depends too where you are: a high basecamp, actually climbing, in a tent on a ledge way up.
you want a strategy that covers the lot.
at BC youll be acclimated better so can load on the calories you need. for that take as wide a range of food as possible.
whilst youre climbing things like bars, gels etc work as they are simple to get at.
stuck in a high camp or bivvy is a whole other world and hard to pick until you get there.

across the spectrum, th worlds highest peaks have been with anything from dozens of gels, slabs of pig fat, jars of peanut butter, muesli, instant noodles, sausages and morroccan lamb couscous.

In reply to Sean Flynn:

If you can get hold of them, a variety of boil in the bag army ration packs are bloody brilliant.

In reply to ice.solo: Thanks for the info

In reply to John Roberts (JR): Ill look out for them thanks

In reply to Sean Flynn:
Instant Custard - starch and sugars, easily swallowed and easily made!!

In reply to Sean Flynn: As other posters have pointed out- appetite at altitude is supressed- and you have to be discilplined in eating.Keeping lots of snacks in acessable pockets to eat on the go is a good idea.
Proper slow release energy bars will not give an insulin spike- you get a spike after eating simple carbs such as chocolate.Hope this helps.

In reply to Sean Flynn:

old school - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pemmican

In reply to Henry Iddon: Cheers for that very interesting

In reply to bobpilgrem: Thanks for that

In reply to Andes: sounds good ill give it a go

In reply to Sean Flynn:

Forgot to add:

Due to low boiling temps a lot of food doesnt cook well up high. Exped bag stuff especially. Plus slowed digestion makes for some memorably nasty meals.

Add to that the gas used and tho colds effects on stoves and keeping food warm.
Much easier to take things that need only warm water or none at all.

When water comes from melting snow and that takes a lot of f u ckery you gotta weigh up the hassle factor just for that bag of noodles.

In reply to Sean Flynn: We're talking Alps here, yes? ie up to 4,000m If Himalayas etc ignore me.

Dried noodles and something to spice them up with. I use a sachet of Blue Dragon sauce (several flavours available) plus maybe some cheese added in for more flavour and a bit of protein. You'll only spend a few days high up so you don't need to vary the altitude diet much unless you do eg The Haute Route.

You won't spend a lot of time above 3,000m but you'll still have to try and take calories despite not necessarily feeling like eating. Cereal bars etc are good and for me offset the 'Oh, no! Not more chocolate' (nice as it is)

We haven't found dried meals we really like so tend to improvise as the 'bag' meals which don't need rehydration are heavy. Pain au raisin from the Argentiere bakery is hard to carry but yummy eaten on a glacier and frighterningly calorific.

The most calorific lightweight 'food' is flapjack.

In reply to Sean Flynn:

Lidl Stollen

In reply to Nigel Modern:

I'm pretty sure he's talking about 7000m+

In reply to Henry Iddon: Better as emergency rations I think, I've made it a couple of times and it's certainly unpleasant enough there's no danger of eating it when not in trouble.

In reply to Sean Flynn:

super noodles, eat noodles drink sauce or add smash after wards

In reply to John Roberts (JR): 7000m+...you're probably right

Here's a good recipe tho'

3 hungry climbers + 2*85g sachets John West Flaked Pink Salmon (ready to eat, keeps unrefridgerated) + 300g (6 portions) of Blue Dragon dried noodles or similar (don't worry if they get crushed - they're noodles).

Melt snow to make about 1.5L water and bring to the boil. Add the noodles which are ready in a few minutes. Drain noodles mix the salmon evenly with the noodles.

Weighs 150g per person. Not highly calorific but has your total daily protein requirement and is more edible than the freeze-dried stuff unless you go for the very expensive Swedish stuff (anyone remember the name?) which I've not tried but everyone raves about.

You can add dried peas to the noodles if you fancy some 'veg' - dried peas are good, dried other vegetables weren't good last time I tried them.

Wash down with some dried red wine (I jest not...it exists, though I've never tried it. A friend who did the Skeleton Coast recommended it...he said it's 'OK')

Spiced beef jerky or cheese is an alternative to the salmon and boil in the bag rice an alternative to noodles (takes longer and uses more fuel)

Lidl Stollen for pudding?

In reply to Henry Iddon: Someone needs to produce Pemmican in sachets

In reply to Nigel Modern: Does your sherpa carry gas for you?

In reply to Sean Flynn:

i will forever be grateful to the folk on here who got me into couscous for trips.

been delving into it further and its amazing stuff. tried it all sorts of ways, the best being with pesto (hi tony!). easy to eat, greasy, carbs loaded, can finish it off in the morning if you leave it.
not bad on the calories.

to really max the calorie scale tho its gotta be powdered mashed potato, dosed good with olive oil, pesto, parmesan, bits of salami, even noodles and peanut butter.
a cup of that is lookin close to 800 kcals and a decent amount of carbs, fat and protein.

another great thing is salmon jerky. good oils and protein, can just chew away at strips like a cowboy.
only thing is everything it comes in contact smells of salmon.

In reply to Sir Chasm: Check again...using noodles is almost as miserly on gas as dried meals and some noodles seem to have more calories than others.

Admittedly rice is a luxury but as someone else has just pointed out cous cous is cool. Ainsley Harriott's range has 360 cal/100g and tastes pretty good.

Personally, for alpine use I'd go for 'real' food rather than any of the dried ones I've tried, though I haven't tried the Scandinavia 'gourmet' ones but they are >£8/meal.

Mountain House puddings (mixed fruit and custard) are OK when you want to get plenty of calories inside you.

Cost is another factor and freeze dried meals are expensive.

In reply to Sean Flynn: i used a lot of gels high up and tended to stock up in base camp as eating high up was a chore. I used cheap packets of couscous. They are only 50p. Just add boiling water and put bits of jerky or salami , cheese in it. Alos you dont need to wash any pots or plates afterwards. The adage eat what you would like to eat holds true. This may shock but I tended to like eating fatty processed food that I liked eating. The best high energy food I could find was in the baby food aisle ion the supermarket and was a powdered baby porridge which was high in calories and tasted a bit like redy brek. Very sweet. It comes in a tin. Pre measurer it up before setting out and then mix it in your cup.

In reply to Sean Flynn: Thanks for all the help and interest guys. There are some great ideas which I will use. I opened this tread with specific high altitude in mind 6000+ as I know calorie needs are masive at this height.

I freely admit Im not a foodie so this is probably old news to many... but in Alsaka this year, the big rage for mountain food was Quioa.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinoa

In reply to Sean Flynn: 6000m+ is at least 'very high altitude' - there are definitions on the Medex site :O)