View Full Version : Food for winter
Tennessee Viking
12-02-2008, 20:23
What does everybody recommend for lunch and snack items on trail during the winter months? Or how to keep your food from becoming a block of ice/hardened?
A few times when I been out in the cold, my PBJ's would turn icy. My snack bars would loose their moisture and become as hard as a brick. And fruit would become a cannonball.
And if it gets really cold my bladder line will freeze completely.
I like a hot FBC or soup lunch in the winter
Carry an insulated bicycle water bottle and fill with hot water
http://www.amazon.com/Polar-Insulated-Water-Bottle/dp/B000F7Z0KI
shelterbuilder
12-02-2008, 21:51
What does everybody recommend for lunch and snack items on trail during the winter months? Or how to keep your food from becoming a block of ice/hardened?
A few times when I been out in the cold, my PBJ's would turn icy. My snack bars would loose their moisture and become as hard as a brick. And fruit would become a cannonball.
And if it gets really cold my bladder line will freeze completely.
Try carrying your snacks/freezable lunch foods next to your body (maybe even under your sweater) so that your body heat will keep it from freezing.
The bladder line is another matter - you may never be able to keep it from freezing. The line is too narrow to hold enough of a "thermal mass" of water to keep from freezing. Try going back to a water bottle: I wear mine on my pack's waist-belt, and the consant sloshing around inside the bottle keeps most (not all) of the water from freezing. (Of course, a thermos bottle full of hot water will stay liquid all day long. Add your own flavorings to suit your taste.)
Keep your water bottle upside down inside your pack so any ice forms on the bottom
Alligator
12-02-2008, 23:05
Blow the water out of the line after drinking. I have encased mine in foam from an old sleeping pad as well as boiling 1 part water to 2 parts cold. The bladder goes in a blue foam envelope/cozy.
Go with chewy granola bars, they don't get so hard. The brand that's usually on end caps near the Little Debbies is good (Sun Valley??).
What does everybody recommend for lunch and snack items on trail during the winter months? Or how to keep your food from becoming a block of ice/hardened?
Trail mix(peanuts, raisins, m&ms etc.) and other smaller size candies and candy bars(bite size if frozen can be thawed in your mouth)Jerky too for snacks.
A sandwich kept near the heated body. dehydrated soups and hot chocolate are warming if you carry a stove.
On my last cold(10*) day hike I carried a bagel sandwich for lunch...breakfast sausage & cheese...mmmmmm
sticks&stones
12-02-2008, 23:21
In freezing temps there's little you can do to avoid everything reaching the same temp as the environment your in. You have only 2 ways to combat this, one is fire, the other is body heat. However sometimes you can use the sun and it's solar effect (even on very cold days) but this is rare, as well as inconvenient.
A snack bag pressed up against your ribcage, under your shirt, jacket, or whatever your wearing while hiking. A frozen snickers stuck under your glove, balaclava, or hat. Good grief
garlic08
12-03-2008, 18:26
You're just talking about day trips, right? Easy. My favorite trick is to heat my water in the morning at home, put it in a Nalgene (the only reason I have Nalgene anymore), wrap my emergency clothing (old down vest I never wear) around the Nalgene, and put lunch in there with the water. The water is still pretty hot when I take my first sips mid-morning, and pleasantly warm for lunch. All my food is at least room temperature all day. The water bottle is a great hand warmer, too.
If it's got enough fat or oil in it, it won't freeze. Starchy foods (eg. cookies, bread, pastries) won't freeze, either. In fact, the only foods that are going to freeze are those with water in them -- just the sort of foods that long-distance hikers make a point of not carrying.
Candy bars don't freeze persay but they do get teeth shattering hard :p
I carry the stuff to make soup on nearly all winter trips (I start doing that by October when it gets cold). Keeps me hydrated and is easy to digest :)
Lots of easy soups one can whip up in only a couple minutes! For dayhiking? I have been known to carry a bullet thermos full of soup as well when snowshoeing. Yum!
Dicentra
12-06-2008, 11:07
I second the soups on the trail idea. Either pack in a small thermos or boil some water at lunch. Couscous is virtually instant and a great lunch option as well.
Fatty crackers - ritz etc don't freeze. Top with ss cream cheese.
What does everybody recommend for lunch and snack items on trail during the winter months? Or how to keep your food from becoming a block of ice/hardened?
A few times when I been out in the cold, my PBJ's would turn icy. My snack bars would loose their moisture and become as hard as a brick. And fruit would become a cannonball.
And if it gets really cold my bladder line will freeze completely.
I have a few memories of food/water in the cold.
My mother always made these peanut butter sandwiches and for some reason she buttered one side and peanut buttered the other. Perhaps butter was cheaper then. Anyhow they were actually pretty good, but I had them once when I skated over to Long Island, on the Kennebecasis River, and it was very cold and so the butter was very solid, and stronger tasting that way. Still ate em'. Actually my mother probably buttered them extra thick for the cold.
The other memory is discovering narrow mouthed bottles were not good in the cold, and wide-mouthed were not much better, and water sources are few and farther between in winter. So I try and use aluminum bottles in winter, because you can reheat them when needed. When I was younger I used a wineskin and never had such problems. I think a bladder in a fleece cover under the sweater might be the way to go.
Breakfast is mostly oatmeal. Supper is mostly soup. During the day I try not to stop as the days are short. I sometimes stop for quick tea, and also eat snow while moving. On our last trip my daughter was the one that came up with the idea of spreading honey on the snow. We called it eating snow worms. It doesn't harden like maple syrup. It stays stringy, Very good though.
Breakfast = Oatmeal, plus stuff like honey, almonds, currants, to bring the calories up.
Supper = Veggie&Lentil soup, plus tea with honey to bring the calories up.
For extra protien I will add lots of skim milk powder to my tea. Also bring some jerky for chewing. For flavours I use stuff like nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, and stuff I find in the woods. I avoid so called trail-mixes, unless they look like something I can add to oatmeal. I bring at least 500g of honey, sometimes 1kg, as my extra food in case of delayes, as it simple goes back on the shelf if it doesn't get used as emergency food.
For extreme cold I am not sure if fatty foods are better than tea and honey if you already have lots of body fat to burn. I used to bring more high-fat foods in winter, but lately I've stuck to a high carb diet for burning body fat, even in winter. Once I lose weight I will switch back. If it was going to be really stinking cold I would likely bring a more balanced diet, just because I don't know for sure what's best. More almonds, other nuts, chocolate, maybe a pound of bacon. :)
A big chunk O' cheese! If you're going to have a little fire for lunch you can take some kielbasa or other sausage. Bring a skewer from your shishkebab stash at home.
JumpInTheLake
12-09-2008, 22:00
Delicious and non - nutritious Ramen Noodles! Pork Flavor!
I carry the snacks i'm planning to eat in the inside pocket of my coat. I have also ran the tube thu my coat to keep it warn. Now I just drink from the platy a small one and keep it in a coat pocket. Thanks goodness my coat has a lot of pockets! :-)
ofthearth
12-17-2008, 12:13
Another reason for a PACKA. So far my water tube has not frozen as the PACKA covers the pack and the tube.
I found out in the Catskills last year that if I put the food in an Igloo fabric cooler then in a food bag then in my pack it will stay cold but won't freeze.
nurseygurl
12-20-2008, 01:10
everclear in the waterbottle will keep the line from freezing because... oh, sorry we are hiking. never mind.
Cool AT Breeze
12-20-2008, 01:40
That's an awesome first post. We need more of you here.
stargazer0311
12-23-2008, 12:13
on my winter trips I like to take pemmican..... basically beef fat with powdered jerky and dried berriesformed into a cake the size of a muffin tin bottom and wrapped in wax paper and vacu packed. I use it as a mix in with meals or just eat the cakes like powerbars... it worked for the native americans and i can see why loads of energy your body needs.