Winter Trail Snacks

With the exception of gorp, trail mix and granola. What types of snacks (food) hold up well without freezing solid in winter. I really love bars (various brands and flavors) ,but I have trouble keeping them warm enough to enjoy .
Any suggestions?

Thanks

yummy

i always like to have a bag of hard candy (jolly ranchers are the best) in one of the front pockets of my jacket. they give a good little boost of sugar to help keep you going. i also like to bring along chocolate chips. basically anything that's sugary is good, though it won't replace a proper meal. on long dayhikes in the winter i always bring along my stove so i can have something hot for lunch with a hot cup of tea. it weighs more, but it's definitely worth the extra weight.

luke

A thermos with a hot drink or soup (Thank you Spencer for that idea), oreos and crackers and cheese are also at the top of my list. For dayhikes, bananas do well and most anything with a high fat content and low water content would do well. I usually just stick stuff in the freezer and do a test run of what does and does not freeze, this usually brings some strange looks from the family members, but hey it works . . .

sli74

I like some of the cereal bars out now with "the milk already in them"...
Ones like Frosted Flakes and Cheerio's are decent and don't seem to break your teeth when it's cold on the trail.
Also, some of those orange peanut butter and crackers in the six-pack always do fine (except when they're in your front pocket and you fall on them ).

I got this idea from Guinness - I put my gels, candy, energy bars in a fleece bag with several of those chemical hand warmers and have not had problems with frozen snacks. Depending on the temp I have a small thermos that I put a hot beverage in. I usually take cheese for a snack and have not had it freeze in my pack.

Nutter Butters!!!

My favorite.

I also will bring soup or hot tea or hot chocolate (depends on my mood). I also have taken cheese (already sliced) with pepperoni and wheat thins, which makes a good snack and holds up pretty well to the cold (depending on long you are out).

I love gorp and brought in on my first winter hikes, but found that in really cold weather that the chocolate got really cold and hard and it wasn't any fun to eat, so now I bring Nutter Butters.

Peanut butter balls are my favorite winter snack....as long as they don't get smooshed! The thermos with soup or coco is always nice to have too, especially when it's real cold out. Sometimes I'll throw in a hard boiled egg or two or the pre-packaged ham & cheese sticks.
MEB

Canned octopus, the olive oil thickens up a bit in the cold, but still a tasty snack.

String cheese & peanut butter....

I keep a bunch kraft string cheeses in my pocket. They're small, easy to eat on the go, don't freeze easily (not at all if in my inside coat pocket) and are a good source of protien & fat which is better for you to burn than sugar for long hikes. Also peanut butter packets and of course a snickers or two All this plus GORP of course... I could live on trail mix... I make my own with whatever I happen to pick up at the store that week.

Capt. Jim

I ALWAYS keep a small bullet thermos with a two packets of cup of soup (Spicy Thai Chicken or Tomato and Crouton) with me, as Seema said. It adds a 1/2 liter of water to my intake (which I always need) and warms up my insides on cold days.

I was a Power Bar (the original ones) junky when they were still trying to make the grade by giving them out for free to us rowers at the Head of the Charles. It took one winter trip to realize they are useless in cold weather. Since then I had given up on powerbar type things.

now that a whole new generation of bars are availabe, I've just discovered Cliff Bars. I know they've been around for a while, but I just hadn't bothered with them. Anyway, I'm addicted now. They don't seem to harden very much, even in very cold temps. Long live Mint Chocalate Chip Cliff Bars...

Sunshine granola and cereal bars are tough to beat. A box of 8 costs only $1.39 and they are terrific. They don't freeze either.

spencer

Mint Chocalate Chip Cliff Bars...

OOOhhhhhh Mint Chocalate Chip Cliff Bars... I'll have to try those ... mint chocolate chip anything is my favorite flavor

Cheese-sliced pepperoni-spicy beef jerky for the tough uphill trails
Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on toasted english muffins. You can squish 'em in your backpack and they still taste great!

Winter Snaks

animal crackers
cheese popcorn
paul newmans oreo cookies
celery stix w/ peanut butter down the middle
marshmellows
thermos of ovaltine mixed w/ about 1/3 coffee flavored 1/2 and 1/2 and a handful of marshmellows! warms ya rite up and the caffeine doesn't hurt either.
hard candy
i haven't purchased yet but "thermos" makes a nice smaller/ wider thermos which would be great for some hot foods like rice n' beans, chili , garlic smashed potatoes - all that yummy stuff that sounds great on a chilly afternoon! ($19 bucks on thermos site)

Peanut butter and jam on multi-grain bread and chocolate chip cookies.

I am allergic to nuts and typically bring candy bars, peanut butter crackers, (peanuts are not nuts), munster sheese, chips, combos, imitation crab meat (this stuff rules), etc.. AND SOME TUMMS. I always get heartburn on the way down.

For some of this stuff, you just have to throw it in your breast pocket an hour before eating it.

(2) litres of warm Gookinaid
(1) litre of tomato soup in a thermos (for longer hikes)
(2) PB&J on whole wheat sandwiches
low fat fig newtons
Two days of pre-hike carbo loading and hydrating

JohnL

ripple said:

Canned octopus, the olive oil thickens up a bit in the cold, but still a tasty snack.

Click to expand...

I like to share my snacks.....sorry if we never hike together.

Cliff bars (almost any flavor), and gorp. Sometimes I take along some Designer Protein and mix it in with my water.

Easy foods with plenty of carbs and low in sugars.....provide longer lasting steady energy rather than peaks and valleys.

Keep the cliff bars near the body or they get hard just like any other energy bar...

I almost never stop for more than a few minutes, so I don't bring "lunch", but just snack continuously all day. Gorp includes anything bite sized I find in my kitchen such as:

Raisins
Peanuts
Chopped dates
M&Ms
Reeses Pieces
Sunflower seeds
Pretzel nubs
Kit Kat bits
Cinnamon graham cracker bits
Etc.

Everything gets mixed up and stored in a 500 mL Nalgene bottle which goes into a carrier on my belt. This way, I can grab a mouthful of Gorp every time I stop without getting into my pack or even taking my gloves off. Washed down with hot Gatorade (orange or grape, 66% strength), this usually keeps me going all day.

If we do find a warm summit for an extended stop, I always squirrel away a few granola bars for a change of pace.

Some of my usual foods-

Snacks: green grapes, cashews, tootsie rolls, energy gels, balance bars, pineapple chunks, cheddar cheese
Drinks: hot chocolate, hot Gatorade
Food: PB&J on oatmeal bread; ham, swiss and mustard on an egg bagel; grilled mesquite chicken breasts