Fuelling Is Part of the Kit List

Most hill days go wrong slowly. Not with a dramatic slip or a navigational blunder, but with a quiet fade two-thirds of the way round: legs turning wooden on a steep pull, hands fumbling with a zip, the sudden conviction that the summit is not worth it. Nine times out of ten the cause is fuel, not fitness. A long day on the hills can burn anywhere between 2,500 and 4,500 calories, and the difference between striding out at dusk and shuffling is what you put in your pack and when you eat it.

The good news is that hill food is a solved problem. You do not need sports science degrees or expensive pouches. You need slow-release carbohydrates, something salty, a bit of easy protein, and the discipline to eat before you feel like it.

Build the Day on Slow-Release Carbohydrates

Carbohydrate is the fuel your muscles prefer when the gradient steepens. The trick is to avoid a spike and crash, which means choosing foods that release energy steadily rather than a handful of jelly babies at the bottom of every climb.

Your base should be dense, oaty, chewy stuff that travels well in a rucksack and survives being squashed:

• Flapjack — the classic for good reason. Oats, butter and syrup give a steady trickle of energy and a decent dose of fat.
• Malt loaf — sticky, dense and around 100 calories per thick slice. Slice it at home and wrap the pieces individually.
• Oatcakes — light, robust, and an excellent vehicle for cheese or peanut butter.
• Fruit cake or bara brith — traditional, calorific, and far more appetising than a cereal bar at 700 metres in a cold wind.
• Cold cooked potatoes or pasta — a slightly odd-sounding suggestion that works brilliantly. Toss in oil and salt, bag up, and eat with your fingers.

A rough target for a big day is 250–400 calories an hour while moving, with more on sustained steep ground. That sounds a lot, and it is why you eat little and often rather than stopping for one heroic lunch.

Salt: The Nutrient Walkers Forget

On a warm summer round you might lose a litre of sweat an hour on a steep ascent. Even on a cold, windy day in the Cairngorms you are losing fluid and electrolytes with every breath. Sodium matters more than most people assume — it keeps your blood volume up, your muscles firing and your brain making sensible decisions about navigation.

Rather than relying purely on sweet energy food, pack something properly savoury:

• Salted nuts and roasted peanuts — energy, protein and salt in one handful.
• Pork pie, scotch egg or sliced chorizo — salty, fatty and deeply satisfying halfway up a ridge.
• Olives or salted crisps — light to carry, and the salt hit is genuinely welcome after a long climb.
• Cheese — mature cheddar or a hard sheep's cheese keeps well and pairs with everything.

If you are a heavy sweater, or out for more than six hours, add an electrolyte tablet or a pinch of salt to one of your bottles. Cramp on a descent is miserable and usually preventable.

Easy Protein for Repair and Satiety

Protein will not fuel a climb the way carbohydrate does, but it stops you feeling hollow and helps muscles recover overnight. The key word is easy: anything that needs chewing for five minutes in a cold wind will stay in your bag.

• Biltong or jerky — salty, light, and slow to eat in a good way.
• Boiled eggs — boiled the night before, peeled at home, eaten on the first summit.
• Cheese and oatcakes — the most reliable hill lunch in Britain.
• Nut butter in a small tube — squeezy, calorific and no chewing required.
• A flask of soup or hot chocolate with milk — protein, fluid, warmth and morale in one go.

Eating Well When It Is Cold, Wet and Miserable

Cold suppresses appetite, which is exactly when you need calories most. Do not wait to feel hungry; set a rhythm instead. Eat something small every 45–60 minutes, starting within half an hour of leaving the car park, long before the first big pull.

Practical tricks that make a real difference:

• Cut everything into bite-sized pieces at home. Gloves stay on, and you eat with one hand.
• Keep the day's food in your chest or hip pockets, not buried in the rucksack. Anything in the top lid tends to freeze solid in winter.
• Choose food that stays soft when cold. Chocolate bars and cereal bars turn to brick below freezing — flapjack and malt loaf do not.
• Drink before you are thirsty. Aim for 500ml every two to three hours in cool conditions, and considerably more in summer.

Packing a Workable Hill Food Plan

For a classic eight-hour day, a sensible load looks something like this: two large slices of malt loaf or flapjack for the morning, a cheese-and-oatcake lunch with a boiled egg, a bag of salted nuts and a pork pie for the afternoon slump, a handful of fruit gums for the final descent, and 1.5 to 2 litres of water with an electrolyte tab in one bottle. Add a flask if the forecast is grim. That is roughly 1.5kg of food and fluid — about the same as a spare fleece, and far more useful.

Test your menu on shorter days before you commit to it on a big round. The food that works for you is the food you will actually eat, and on a long day in the hills, that quiet discipline of eating and drinking steadily is one of the most valuable outdoor skills you can develop.