WildSnow Weekend — Cranberry Bison Power

It’s like a shampoo and makeup sampler, only you eat it.

Effective fuel is important, especially for optimizing human powered activities such as backcountry skiing. TheFeed.com wants you to try new things. They blog about the role of food in fitness, the latest products for sport nutrition and what to eat and when to eat to ensure peak performance. Try their products, tell them what you like and they’ll recommend more. In short, they aim to be your personal nutritional coach.

Lou put them to the test with a request for workout snacks that were wheat free, peanut free, dairy free, sugar (and “cane syrup”) free and caffeine free. They sent a box of bars and gels, most that were new to us. Lou’s favorite — the Epic Bison Bacon Cranberry Bar. After chomping on that, he charged up the mountain like the wheat free beast that he is.

We’ve consumed athletic gels for quite a few years, but recently we’ve been eating more “natural” snacks such as baggies of nuts and dried fruit (and yes, chocolate bars). Not that we don’t like high-powered gels, but the blood sugar spikes were getting to be too much and while we did have a sponsorship, the number of expensive gels we were consuming seemed unrealistic — as did the sticky packaging that was always adhering to the insides of our pockets and backpacks.

Still, we like having some pre-packaged items ready to go, so spoilage isn’t an issue when we leave stuff stashed in our cars or backpacks. That’s where we’ll still use packaged athletic snacks. Luckily, from the looks of things the snack scene has come a long way in just a few years. Other items Lou liked in the selection were the Wild Zora Beef Veggie Bars and the Blueberry Oatmeal Munk Pack. The almond pack seemed too easy to duplicate, and some of the other selections were too spicy. The maple syrup gel pack was scary, but I’m sure works well in moderation.

Recap of WildSnow posts from the week of February 16 to February 20, 2015:

Contour Skins Shark Tailhook

Self Portrait — Lou

La Sportiva Factory Visit & Ski Boots 2015-2016

Japan # 5: Tokachidake: Beautiful Alpine Views

Binders On High — Radical 2.0 Graces WildSnow HQ

6 Responses to “WildSnow Weekend — Cranberry Bison Power”

1. Wookie February 23rd, 2015 5:56 am

   Italians: Espresso, a cigarette and prosecco – climb elegantly to 4000 meters in brightly colored spandex

   Austrians and Germans: Beer, Pastry and smoked meat – lock-step to 4000 meters in functional clothing with no pockets

   French: Wine and women of questionable morals – jump out of a heli in a wing-suit and a snowboard at 4000 meters

   Why eat anything called a “gel”?

2. See February 23rd, 2015 9:11 am

   I got Thomas and Lim’s Feedzone (and Feedzone Portables) cookbooks out of curiosity because I like Skratch drink mix. I’ve been very pleased with most of the recipes I’ve tried so far in terms of nutrition, taste, and ease of preparation/transportation.

   Recently went on a 12 hour day tour (more arduous than usual owing to lack of snow). Lesson learned: bring more chocolate and dried fruit.

3. XXX_er February 23rd, 2015 9:33 am

   usually just landjaeger & cheese sandwiches, maybe some nuts and herb tea or water works for me but on the more extreme end of things after hitting some bad walls the year before last year I skied 24hrs on nothing but hammer perpetuem/hammer gels on the advice of an ultra running coach, if your stomach can take it the stuff works

4. DavidB February 23rd, 2015 3:11 pm

   Lisa, I’ve been gluten free for 5 years and the change has been fantastic. It was required health wise due to wheat sensitivity. I also shared Lou’s love of pastries. My wife eats paleo and I am 90% that way.
   The issue I have with Gluten Free products is the number of chemicals required to make something edible. We’ve taken another quantum leap in removing a large proportion of chemically rich GF product.
   My wife puts in a little extra effort and smashes out some great snacks on her Thermomix. This piece of kitchen wizardry helped us make the changes that have so positively effected our health.
   Snacks consist of nuts, goji berries, cranberries, Chia seeds, raw cacao nibs, bacon and many other bits and pieces. Everything tastes better with bacon.
   It’s made a big difference in my uphill endurance.

5. Jim Sogi February 26th, 2015 10:25 am

   I make a sport nutrition drink from bulk ingredients available at amazon and Costco which is made up of protein isolate, maltodextrin, dextrose, potassium citrite, spirulina, masa harina,chia seeds, salt, vitamins and minerals. Its not cloyingly sweet like gels and contains 100% of energy and nutrition needs. especially for endurance performance athletics. It works great for ski touring and can be sipped during the day out of a liter bottle providing steady carb, hydration, and electrolytes for sport performance and recovery Great on the uptrack. Its bland tasting, but I can’t stomach sweet bars and gels. It only costs a couple dollars for a days supply and replaces a big lunch. A litre mixed with water is 1200 calories.

6. Lou Dawson 2 February 26th, 2015 10:55 am

   David, yeah, some of the gluten free products are ridiculous, buyer beware for sure. What I do is if I want a pastry really bad, I just eat a “healthy” one. So long as I do that on rare occasions it seems to be no problem. But not daily or even several times a week. When traveling I don’t worry about it as much, which reduces meal stress but does have consequences. It’s all about balance and moderation unless you’ve got a real allergy problem or insulin issues… just like alcohol consumption.