Najjar, Lawrence (2008).  Gear Guy - Caving food. Texas Caver, 54(4) (pp. 15-16). Austin, TX: Texas Speleological Association.

Gear Guy

Caving Food

Lawrence Najjar

It can be tough to figure out what food to bring into a cave. Athletes seem to like bananas, but bananas in caves quickly get crushed into messy mealy masses. GORP, the traditional granola-oatmeal-raisins-peanuts that hikers love tastes great, but is hard to eat and easy to spill, especially when your hands are caked with mud. Familiar, leak-proof plastic Tupperware containers are great for holding sandwiches, crackers, or nuts. But Tupperware can be large and cumbersome and tells you it doesn't like being sat on, tossed, or dragged by occasionally exploding its contents all over the inside of your cave pack. Candy bars are small and pack lots of calories, but candy bars are mostly short-acting sugar and empty calories that can't keep you going for long.

So what's a caver to do?

First, let's figure out what to look for in good cave food. I believe cave food has to meet these very tough requirements:

• Filling -- Good cave food should have plenty of protein and carbohydrates to fill you up and give you the energy you need to make it through a long day of tough crawls, challenging scrambles over breakdown, and long rope climbs.


• Water resistant -- Cave food should come in packages that keep dirt and water out. The packaging should be able to handle dusty crawls and light rain or quick dunking.


• Small -- Cave food should fit easily into a closeable pants pocket or Ziploc bag in your pack. Cave food should be so small that it does not get your pack caught on rocks and knobs in tight crawls.


• Tough -- When it is in your pocket or pack, you should not worry about sitting, tossing, or dropping the cave food. You should not worry about your cave food getting hot or cold.


• Crumble-resistant -- You should be able to eat cave food with filthy hands without littering the cave with crumbs.


• Reasonably tasty -- I know. I know. When you're famished, almost anything tastes good. But the cave food should taste pretty good and you should enjoy eating it throughout the cave trip.


• Light -- When I was a kid, I carried a can of Dinty Moore Beef Stew and a can opener in my pack. It tasted great but weighed a ton. Cave food should be light. You have enough to drag around in a cave.


• Convenient -- Cave food should be easy to get, pack, carry, open, and clean up.


• Reasonably priced -- We don't need exotic astronaut food here and we don't need to pay crazy prices. A few bucks seem like a good price to pay for cave food.

It is a challenge, but I managed to find cave food that meets these tough caving requirements. I present to you ... Clif Bars.

Clif Bar.

Clif Bars are convenient, small, light, and filling. They come in 18 flavors, so you're sure to find one you like. My favorite was chocolate brownie. Ingredients often include rice, soy protein, and oats. Each Clif Bar is 2.4 ounces (68 grams) and includes about 10 grams of protein and 45 grams of carbohydrates, so they are filling. Seventy-percent of the ingredients are organic. I used to take about three or four Clif Bars on an all-day caving trip and ate one just before entering the cave.

They come in water-resistant packages that are easy to tear open. You can open them then use the packaging to hold the bar. That way, you don't touch the food with your stinky, filthy, cavy hands.

Clif Bars appear to be part of the extruded family of food products, so they don't crumble much and are easy to clean up. Just fold up the package and put it in a Ziploc bag in your pack.

You can get Clif Bars at REI and many grocery stores, gas stations, and online stores for less than $2 a bar. You can get a box of 12 bars in one flavor for a slight discount.

For those of us with dietary challenges, a good choice is the ANDI bar (http://www.autismndi.com/store/gallerysearch.asp?search=category&show=andi+bars). ANDI bars are free of gluten, casein, soy, corn, artificial flavors, artificial colors, and artificial preservatives. They contain rice, flax seeds, juice, and other pretty wholesome ingredients. They are about two ounces (57 grams), are the consistency of a Clif Bar, and pack 15 grams of protein, over 200 calories, and big doses of carbohydrates into a water-resistant, foil-wrapped, 2-ounce package. They fill your belly.

ANDI bars come in a wide variety of flavors, including chocolate shake, blueberry muffin, peanut butter & jelly, strawberry shake, and vanilla shake. They're no candy bars, but they taste pretty good. I like the chocolate shake ones best.

ANDI Bar.

A box of ANDI bars is about $27 plus shipping, so they cost less than $3 each.

Another bar I've heard that might be good is the UltraLean Gluco-Support Energy Bar by BioGenesis. These are harder to find, though you can always order them online. They are fortified with a whole bunch of vitamins and minerals to maintain blood sugar, energy, and lean body mass. They come in chocolate, chocolate covered mocha, chocolate mint, crispy rice, peanut better crunch, and spice and are supposed to taste pretty good. UltraLean bars do not contain refined sugar, wheat, gluten, dairy, casein, corn, or soy protein. They are about 1.8 ounces (50 grams) and contain 10 grams of protein and 24 grams of carbohydrates.

UltraLean Gluco Support Bar.

To protect the bars and make them easier to find in your back, consider putting them in tough Ziploc Freezer bags. The bags are cheap and will keep out the dirt, dust, and brief splashes of water you run into while caving.

Clif Bars and ANDI Bars are filling, small, crush resistant, reasonably tasty, inexpensive, convenient, and come in water resistant packaging. They are good caving food.

Great gear. Great caving.

I'll see you underground.