Food is the single largest variable consumable on a tahr hunt. Get it right and you have energy for the long days. Get it wrong and you are running a deficit that turns the last forty-eight hours into a march of attrition.
The energy demand.
A fit hunter walking 8–12 km a day with 1,000 metres of elevation gain at altitude in cold weather burns somewhere between 4,000 and 6,000 kilocalories. Some days more. Almost no days less. The colder, the wetter, and the more time spent stationary glassing, the higher the figure climbs.
Most hunters cannot eat that much, and shouldn't try to. A target of 3,500–4,500 kcal per day, packed sensibly, is workable. You will lose one to three kilograms of body weight on a five-day trip even if you eat well. That is normal.
Calorie density.
The right metric for hunting food is calories per gram (or per ounce, if you prefer). A target of around 4.5–5 kcal per gram across the whole food bag is achievable. Anything less and your food bag becomes too heavy.
Some reference points:
- Olive oil and pure fats: 9 kcal/g. The densest calories you can carry.
- Hard cheese, salami, peanut butter, nuts: 5–7 kcal/g.
- Dehydrated meals (commercial): 3.5–4.5 kcal/g.
- Energy bars, muesli bars: 4–5 kcal/g.
- Chocolate: 5–6 kcal/g.
- Fresh fruit and vegetables: 0.5–1 kcal/g. Heavy water content. Pleasant in camp on day one, dead weight on day three.
The macronutrient mix that works in cold mountain conditions skews to fat. Roughly 50% fat, 30% carbohydrate, 20% protein is a reasonable target. Carbohydrate is the engine that fires when you need to climb fast; fat is the long burn that holds you up through a slow day.
A typical day's ration.
Breakfast (camp, 30 minutes). Instant porridge or oats with milk powder, butter or olive oil added, plus a hot drink. 600–800 kcal. Coffee with butter or coconut oil added — sometimes called bulletproof coffee — works well in the cold.
On the hill (small, frequent). Snacks every 60 to 90 minutes. Bumper bars, salami, hard cheese, nuts, chocolate, pre-cooked rice cubes if you brought them. Aim for 200–300 kcal each time. Total on-hill intake: 1,500–2,000 kcal.
Wraps for lunch. If you are stopping somewhere out of the wind, a wrap with cheese and salami plus oil makes a 600 kcal meal in five minutes. Not glamorous. Effective.
Dinner (camp, 30 minutes). A commercial dehydrated meal of about 800 kcal, plus a small splash of olive oil for density and a sachet of powdered cheese or instant mashed potato to bulk it. A second hot drink. Total dinner intake: 1,000–1,200 kcal.
Treats. A small block of chocolate or a flask of whisky after dinner is worth the weight. Morale is a tactical resource.
Buying in NZ.
For international hunters, the simplest food strategy is to buy the bulk of your camp food in New Zealand. Christchurch, Methven, Ashburton, Hokitika, Wanaka and Twizel all have good supermarkets. Buying locally avoids customs declaration headaches and saves the weight of flying food.
The standard NZ outdoor food is well stocked: Radix and Back Country Cuisine for dehydrated meals (Radix tends to higher calorie density), Continental pasta and rice for variation, MiGoreng noodles for cheap calories on bad days, One Square Meal for emergency 850-kcal bars, Whittaker's chocolate, hard tasty cheese, salami and onion. The Cookie Time factory in Christchurch is a NZ hunter's tradition for bumper bars.
Bring from home only what you know you can't easily buy in NZ — speciality bars, electrolyte mixes, very specific dietary items. Anything else, buy on arrival. Declare any food you do bring on the arrivals card. Customs is firm but reasonable; sealed, commercially packaged dry food is generally fine.
Cold-weather practicalities.
In sub-zero camp temperatures, food behaves differently. Chocolate becomes a brick. Cheese becomes a brick. Anything with water content can freeze.
A simple set of habits:
- Sleep with tomorrow's water bottle and a snack inside your sleeping bag if it is genuinely cold.
- Eat one warm meal per day if you can. The hot drink with breakfast and the dehydrated meal at dinner usually cover it.
- Don't try to chew a frozen bar. Warm it inside your jacket for fifteen minutes first.
The first night and the last day.
The first night out, treat yourself: a fresh steak, sausages, real bread, beer if your party will carry it. You'll be glad of the morale.
By the last day, food becomes about getting home. A breakfast and a couple of bars is enough. Save the weight for horns.