As a skier, the chance to go on a ski hut trip is one of the coolest things you can do outside the ski resort. In fact, Colorado is famous for the 10th Mountain Division Huts, originally created for the 10th Mountain Division's combat training. The best part of a hut trip is the ability unplug from the real world and go skiing with your friends. Does it get any better than that? Want to see what we eat on a hut trip? Check out our pre-built ski hut box here! Use code "skihut" to get 15% off your first order. Planning for hut trips is largely focused on food as many skiers will pack 1 change of clothes and use their everyday ski gear for the hike in. What's left are the ever-important questions: What to eat for dinner? Will we run out of beer? How much bacon will fit in our packs?! Next week, I'll be traveling to Icefall Lodge in Eastern British Columbia. It's a little bit like a 10th Mountain Division Hut, only way way harder to get to. Icefall lodge is a 20 minute drive and 15 minute helicopter flight from Golden, BC. The plan for our group will be to ski tour 7-8 hours every single day and average somewhere between 5,000-7,000 vertical feet of climbing each day. Pictured below: put the work in and you'll reap the rewards. 
Nutrition on a trip like this is a little bit tricky, and it's easy to get wrong. The consequence is that I'll be tired on day 4, 5, 6 and won't ski well. Even though I'm not competing, we weekend warriors need to maximize the time we have doing what we love. How to handle hydration: Hydration matters a lot for backcountry skiing. My strategy is to carry as much water as possible each day, likely around 40 ounces. This is NOT enough to sustain my hydration needs for a full 8 hour day, but carrying more water isn't practical due to space in my ski pack. Because of this, I'll take this into account by drinking a more water at breakfast and dinner than I otherwise might. Since I'm focused on keeping my blood sugar balanced, I won't consume any calories with my water...I'll focus on drinking plain water with the food listed below. If you want to add some calories to your water for backcountry skiing, Skratch Labs Exercise Hydration works very well. I especially like drinking their Apples and Cinnamon hot during long ski days. Products I recommend for a ski hut trip (and WHY):
Nutrition on a trip like this is a little bit tricky, and it's easy to get wrong. The consequence is that I'll be tired on day 4, 5, 6 and won't ski well. Even though I'm not competing, we weekend warriors need to maximize the time we have doing what we love. How to handle hydration: Hydration matters a lot for backcountry skiing. My strategy is to carry as much water as possible each day, likely around 40 ounces. This is NOT enough to sustain my hydration needs for a full 8 hour day, but carrying more water isn't practical due to space in my ski pack. Because of this, I'll take this into account by drinking a more water at breakfast and dinner than I otherwise might. Since I'm focused on keeping my blood sugar balanced, I won't consume any calories with my water...I'll focus on drinking plain water with the food listed below. If you want to add some calories to your water for backcountry skiing, Skratch Labs Exercise Hydration works very well. I especially like drinking their Apples and Cinnamon hot during long ski days. Products I recommend for a ski hut trip (and WHY):
- Untapped Pure Maple Syrup, 1-2 per ski day. As the name suggests, Untapped is 100% pure Vermont maple syrup. Although my primary focus for nutrition during the week will be balancing blood sugar, I love to add in 1-2 Untapped packs to use at the end of long days. Since we're backcountry skiing, I'll take an Untapped Maple Syrup shot 15-20 minutes before my final ski run of the day.
- Justin's Nut Butter Singles, 1 per ski day. As I mentioned above, my focus is balancing my blood sugar during the week so that my energy levels are as steady as possible. Justin's singles are a great addition to any low-intensity and long duration activity, but I find them to work especially well during the winter months. Keep in mind that it helps to follow Justin's with some water to avoid a sticky mouth full of nut butter!
- Fuel for Fire Pack, 1 per ski day. Fuel for Fire is a great skiing product because it offers a reasonable amount of whey protein that you can pack on the go. With an easy to re-seal package, Fuel for Fire travels really well in a ski pack and provides 10g of whey protein along with great flavors. Banana Cocoa and Mixed Berry are my favorites. I like to eat Fuel for Fire slowly throughout the day to create a balanced nutrition profile.
- Wild Zora Meat and Veggie Bars, 1 per ski day. I can't say I'm a fan of meat bars, but Wild Zora blurs the line between a meat bar and beef jerky. In addition, they taste amazing and only include the finest ingredients with no added sugar or preservatives. I use these all the time while skiing and prefer the Turkey Masala and Lamb flavors.
- WholeMe Bar, as needed depending on total calories required. The WholeMe Bar is straight up delicious, which is a theme you're seeing here in this blog: why eat anything if you don't think it tastes good? I'm not sure. The WholeMe Bar is also my go to source of healthy fats during a week when I don't have control over everything else that I'm eating. Two birds, one stone - these bars are delicious and provide me with the healthy fats I need for long, low-intensity physical exertion.
- Skratch Labs Fruit Drops, 1-2 per ski day. As mentioned earlier, I want to make sure that I have every opportunity to maximize my ski time during the week. When the skiing is good, the skiing is good and it's inevitable that you're going to "need" to hike another 1500 feet for that last lap of the day. That's where Skratch Fruit Drops come in, a little delicious boost when I need it most.
- UCAN SuperStarch Drink Mix, for recovery post ski as needed. This one probably comes as a surprise to everyone who's ever been on a hut trip. To me, UCAN is purely functional, it doesn't taste bad, but it doesn't taste great either. What it does allow is a low-glycemic source of carbohydrate that can be really hard to find in a kitchen with ramen noodles, soup and macaroni and cheese. I'm going to use UCAN as a supplement throughout the week only as needed. This is a great way to ensure that my glycogen is topped up while I'm eating generally higher fat and protein than I otherwise might.
- SFH Recovery Whey Protein, for recovery post ski as needed. Similar to UCAN, I'll be taking a couple SFH Recovery Protein Single servings to the hut. Easily digested, high quality protein is basically impossible to find on trips like these and I view this product as a key component to daily recovery and skiing well. I'll use it only when I haven't already had enough protein during the day.
