What I Ate While Hiking Mount Whitney...and What I'd Do Differently

Hiking Mt Whitney is about 22 miles round trip and 6500' in elevation gain. It's a slog, in other words, but it's gorgeous which makes it worth it.


Altitude can make you feel less hungry since as your red blood cells rush to do their thing, your other functions tend to shut down. Like digestion. How fun. I swear I took 5 extra pounds of trail mix. Meanwhile I ate:

- 1 Cytomax energy chew packet
- 1 Margarita ShotBlok packet
- 1 ProFluids Recovery packet
- Kind Bar
- 1/2 bag of M&Ms
- small handful of roasted edamame
- small handful of trail mix
- banana
- 3 L H2O (packed in)

I usually eat way more calories than that over a 13.5 hour period, even when I'm sitting on my rear at my desk. Thankfully, it was enough that I didn't bonk. My partner who ate less than I did (and weighs more!) bonked pretty hard half way to the summit.

If I did it again, I would have brought more Cytomax energy chews as they were a fantastic pick me up and easy to snack on as we hiked. Not to mention carrying extra trail mix for 20 miles isn't the most fun; it's rather heavy. The salted edamame was great too as salt intake is key, and the protein in edamame is more easily digested than jerky IMO. I made it myself so I added more salt than I usually would. I should also probably note that pre-hike (at 2 am) I ate a quinoa muffin and a boiled egg. Those sat like rocks in my stomach for hours. I should have stuck to a bagel and almond butter for my 2 am "breakfast."

Oh, and the Japanese have a saying about Mount Fuji that I think applies to Mount Whitney too, "He who climbs Fuji-San once is a wise man, he who climbs it twice is a fool."