CTSS MOUNTAIN NUTRITION GUIDE The rst steps to planning for your mountain adventure Making sure your nutrition and hydration strategy is well planned, practiced and packed for your mountain adventure should receive the same level of attention and dedication as your tness, skill honing, and gear preparation. Knowing how to optimise your food and uid intake during your big mountain days will help you: ‣
Manage your energy levels
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Stop you from getting tired so soon
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Get more enjoyment out of your day
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Manage your mood and motivation better
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Prevent signi cant weight loss
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Boost your chances of summit success
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And keep you safer
Some of the common mistakes mountaineers make eating and drinking: ‣
Taking a bunch of snacks thinking if you like them back home you will manage to eat them on the mountain.
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Not having a plan and not practicing that plan (more than once) before your trip.
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Losing a lot of weight is all part of the mountaineering experience.
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Expecting all your meals are going to be similar to what you eat back home.
Here are my top recommendations to help you plan, prepare and practice your nutrition and hydration strategy for your mountain adventure: Work backwards in your preparation, think about how each day is going to look in terms of duration, physical e ort, technical skill requirement, access to foods & uids (you can use you trip itinerary to help you with this). ‣
How many days will you be on the mountain and require you need to take snacks with you when moving in the mountains?
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How long in approx. hours per day will you be spending moving on those days?
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What is your recommended weight allowance of snacks for your speci c trip? (This information is provided as part of your trip itinerary).
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opportune moments such as transitions, in brief moments of pause or planned stops. This helps keep fuel levels ‘topped up’ and o sets signi cant dehydration, all in an e ort to manage your energy levels. ➡ Hydration: You want to be carrying between 2-3L of uid per day. Aim to drink 8-16ounces (250-500ml) of uid per hour where practically possible and water is available for you to top up. ➡ Fuelling: Aim for 200-400calories per hour or simply 1 x snack per hour of moving time. ‣
Some days when you are moving in the mountains you will be going at a slower pace and you can eat and drink on the go.
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On more technical days (i.e. ice climbing, moving through glaciated terrain, under seracs) you’ll need to have things tucked into easy to reach pockets. On these days you might not be able to eat or drink for a few hours because for your safety, you can’t stop and you need to concentrate moving quickly over the technical ground.
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At lower camps, on acclimatisation days and bad weather days make the most of food and uids available and eat and drink well.
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The higher up the mountain you go the easier things need to be to eat and you know they will 'go down’ regardless of appetite.
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Look at past trips, what worked well, what didn’t, what do you know will go down even if you don’t feel like it? It’s time to get testing out a variety of options on your long training/ preparation days before you leave for your trip.
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Don’t rely on your hunger or the desire to eat when on the mountain. Practice eating/drinking back home during training /long hikes and nd out what will go down even when you don’t have an appetite. Think about the texture of this item solids, gels, liquids e.g. bars, sports drinks, meal replacements shakes, real food or treat options (biscuits, chocolate bars, salty snacks, candy). Softer items, liquids or ‘treat’ foods often go down better.
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When planning what snacks to take it’s important to consider; calories, contains carbohydrate, taste, easy to eat, it goes down, it’s durable against the cold, avour fatigue, light weight but energy dense, will give you a boost in mood & psyche, pleasure (it feels like a treat), familiar, nutritious where possible.
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The general aim throughout your day is to ‘drip feed,’ eating and drinking on the move, in
Carbohydrate rich snacks are your priority. Carbohydrates are your primary fuel source to keep you moving in the mountains, fats act as an energy source to help meet your daily energy needs. Include protein in some of your snack sources to support day to day recovery and slow the loss of muscle mass and tness. Protein and fat containing foods also add avour and variety to your snack choices.
Alpine Starts: For early starts if you struggle to eat because you can’t manage any solid food: ‣
Eat well at evening meal before the alpine start.
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Start your day with liquid calories e.g. hot chocolate, or a meal replacement style drink like Huel or Hammer Perpetuem (these are two of the most popular options).
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Then when you’ve woken up a bit try to eat something that’s easy to go down.
Fuel examples (solid and uids) for Moving Time: ➡ Carbohydrate Rich Fuel Sources: Bars: Sports wa es, RX bars, Tram bars, Go macro bars, bonk breaker, hammer bars, Maurten bars, clif bars, splits, dried fruit. Sports drinks: SIS Beta fuel, Maurten 160 or 320, Tailwind Endurance Fuel, Skratch high carb drink, precision fuel and hydration. Gels: SIS beta fuel, Maurten, spring gels, Gummies: Skratch, honey stinger, SIS, bonkbreaker, clif shot blocs. ➡ Fat Rich Fuel Sources: Splits, nut butter sachets, nuts. ➡ Protein containing Snacks and Fluid sources: Most of the carbohydrate rich bars these days also come as a protein version. ➡ High Altitude Snacks and Fluid Sources: Hammer Perpetuem, Huel, Tailwind endurance fuel or recovery shake, SIS protein bar. ➡ ‘Real Food’ Sources: Pretzels, Pringles, Gold sh, Oreos, mini cheese portions, meat sticks, salted nuts, dried fruit, rice krispie squares, chocolate bars (snickers, mars bars, m&m’s). *lists are examples only and not exhaustive My Nutrition Coaching Programs: Insta: high_performance_dietitian
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Do you want more energy for your trips?
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You’ve experienced signi cant weight loss on your last mountain trip and want to avoid this happening again.
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You want help to gure out what to eat and when during your trip.
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You want help to gure out what will go down if you struggle to eat on the mountains.
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Would like a nutrition strategy that will give you more energy on the mountain and the con dence you have a fuelling strategy that works for you!
Option One: A 3 month nutrition coaching program that will support you towards your mountain goals, supporting your health, training and big mountain days. Empowering you with sustainable lasting nutrition changes. Month 1: We will cover day to day nutrition. Based on what you're already doing well, I'll help you ll in the gaps & enhance your day to day nutrition. Month 2: We'll walk through your training sessions, helping you know what are the right things for you to eat and drink and when. Month 3: Together we'll plan out your nutrition for your mountain adventure and test this nutrition strategy in your training sessions. Giving you the con dence you have a strategy that works for you. Option Two: Nutrition for Big Mountain Days. Together we'll plan out your nutrition for your mountain adventure and test this nutrition strategy in your training sessions. Giving you the con dence you have a strategy that works for you. Find out more by booking a no fee Discovery Call with me, click HERE.
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Would you like some help to plan your nutrition strategy for your next mountain adventure?