How to Fuel While Touring
Have you ever been out on a beautiful morning skin, only to get hangry and feel miserable or shaky before you finished? Maybe you have planned a half day tour, but then forgot to bring any calories besides some microbrews?
Backcountry touring is basically a combination of hard uphill hiking, with a few blissful minutes of descent mixed in. You spend a hour ascending, only to spend a couple minutes on the downhill.
What does this mean? It means you burn a ton of calories while backcountry touring compared to a regular, lift served day at the mountain. The cold winter temperatures can also act as an appetite suppressant, causing us to forget to eat and drink.
Touring requires intentional fueling and having a plan, so you can make the most of your time out in the woods.
Fueling Basics
Eat before you leave. When thinking about fueling for a tour, start by planning what to eat before you head out. Dawn patrol? Eat a good dinner the night before, and plan for an easy to eat, fast grab, high calorie breakfast. Sunset skin? Make sure you eat well at every meal, and then grab a quality snack before you leave.
Bring quality carbs with you. Aim to have enough food for the uphill that you can take in around 30 grams of carbs per hour on tours lasting more than an hour.
Keep your food from freezing. No one wants to chip a tooth by biting into a partially frozen banana. Keep food close to your body on cold days, or choose foods that don’t have a high moisture content.
Hydration vs. Fuel: Preventing the "Bonk"
You need to consider your hydration needs just as carefully as your total calorie intake. Skinning uphill is a high-output endurance activity that triggers a high sweat rate—especially when managing heavy winter layers. This means you are rapidly losing both water and essential electrolytes (like sodium and potassium) as you ascend.
Just like in marathon running or cycling, utilizing a balanced electrolyte drink mix helps maintain proper muscle function and prevents cramping.
From a physiological standpoint, while liquid carbohydrate mixes can help top off your glycogen stores and keep you from "bonking," they don’t provide long-lasting satiety. Solid, food-based fuel sources contain complex macronutrients (carbs, fats, and proteins) that take longer to digest, giving them the sustained "staying power" required to fuel your metabolic furnace through a multi-hour tour.
Real Food Calorie Sources
Make a sandwich. Unless you are going out for a tour in frigid weather, a sandwich will stay thawed and easy to eat. The bread alone is a great source of carbs, but then you can add any fillings you love. My personal favorite is the basic peanut butter and honey, but you could go crazy with fancy meats, hummus, etc.
Grab some chips. There is a reason they stock marathon aid stations with potato chips. Potatoes are a great source of carbs, AND the fat in them helps fuel you as well. Chips also don’t freeze easily because of all the fat and salt.
Pizza is portable. Similar to sandwiches and other baked goods, pizza takes a while to freeze. Pizza is also full of carbs and fat (from the cheese) which gives it staying power in your system. Leftover pizza for touring is even tastier than leftover pizza for breakfast.
Hot cocoa in a thermos. The combination of milk, sugar, chocolate and warmth make it a perfect vector for staying fueled during a tour. Fill up a hydroflask or thermos and it will stay hot all day. If you are feeling fancy you can make it with cocoa or add some protein powder.
Packaged Calorie Sources
Waffles, gummies, and even candy make great easy to eat snacks. You can pop some gummies in your mouth without stoping. The sports-nutrition and “fuel” industry has gotten extremely sophisticated, and you can find products in almost any texture or flavor now.
One of our favorite sports nutrition snacks is actually the Untapped Maple Waffles . Bonus is that they are actually a Vermont company as well.
Another great product are the gels that Spring Energy makes. All of their products come from real, whole food sources, and are tasty and high calorie. They work as great for touring as they do for running.
High Output Activities Require Adequate Fuel
The combination of cold temperatures, hard exertion, and intense descents make it easy for you to skip fueling. However, planning to feed yourself well on a dawn patrol, sunset skin, or all day adventure will pay dividends. You will have the energy to hit the top faster, and might even best your Strava time, just because your body has the calories it needs.
Try some of the tips we offer here, and please send us all your favorite back country fueling tips.
