So I made a plan to push solo (more of a shove really) of Lost World on El Cap a week or so back. (I bailed as it was too hot during the day and not being able to sleep in the week preceding the weekend meant that trying to climb through the night and sleep under a shade in the heat of the valley was not going to be something safe or even achievable)
Here’s what I felt would be more than enough food for the push and since some of you are like “show us your food prep!” here’s a post for you guys.
Considerations:
- Must be food that can bake in the sun and still be good.
- Must be high protein and low carbs (only because I hate carbs and don’t really do well)
- Ideally should do double duty as regular food and pocket food.
- Sodium content is important to prevent the wall aches and immobile hands after resting.
So here’s what we have: (left to right)
- Landjaeger beef stick: It’s a german form of jerky that is dry and quite tasty and works great as pocket jerky. I like Marin Sun’s brand because they’re local to the bay area and they do everything from field to table so there’s less industrial travel between the step of the process.
- Okay, don’t get this one: I normally get Columbus Peppered Salami sticks or Boar’s Head peppered salami sticks (I scrape half of the pepper off before eating because i’m not hard enough of a person) , but this time I was like, “Let’s be fancy with some lamb salami” Don’t be fancy kids. It wasn’t bad, just not the right taste or texture for hot hot days.
- Random bacon and pork beef stick from grocery outlet: It was cheap. Also can be used as a cheater stick in a pinch.
- Kalahari Biltong (@eatbiltong): As you can tell, this is the crown jewel of the food I packed imo. Biltong is much better than jerky in that it’s like jerky but moist without going bad quickly and chews for a good amount of time. I’ve had some really bad biltong (thanks grocery outlet) so now I pretty much stick to Kalahari because it’s consistently amazing. If I had to choose two of the flavors it’d be original and original. Garlic is a close runner up and spicy peri peri is to die for but it’s a stronger taste profile so I sometimes get tired of it in a single sitting. The only downside to biltong is that it can be distracting when you’re climbing because there’s that voice saying, “is it time to eat that lekker chew yet?” (the answer is always yes, lol.)
- Peanut butter in individual cups and carrot sticks. After all the sodium and meat above, it’s refreshing to have the carrots and peanut butter. I’m not sure, but i feel like carrots make be need to use the bathroom less so that’s a positive on the wall for me. protip: take the carrots and dry them on some paper towels before putting them into a bag. If you don’t do this they can get mushy and slimy after sitting in the heat all day while you’re climbing.
- LiquidIV: I’m still not completely sold on whether or not these actually work any better than gatorade, but they taste good-ish so i’ll continue going with it.
- For hot weather, having a hard candy to suck on is a great way to keep from over drinking water.(Not drink less water, just not drinking too much at once. I try to space out my water intake to be more continuous and small amounts rather than larger gulps at the beginning or end of pitches. This time i went with lemon drops, but normally my favorite way to go is to get grape jolly ranchers and use those when i’m on lead or hauling to allow me to keep my mouth from getting too dry and to keep the dry heaving at bay.
And that’s it. 2.5 lbs of food for a planned 2 day shove of a solo bigwall excursion. I probably could have cut a pound from the weight but i was planning on sitting out the sun and knew i’d be bored so I purposefully packed more food for that reason. Probably would have taken out the carrots and peanut butter. or not, I never know how I’ll feel.
