Ask Cavers: What is the Best Caving Snack?
August 8, 2012
Photo by ell brown/flickr
When you take a break in a cave to have a snack, you need something that can handle being battered around a bit. Bananas, although delicious, are usually out of the question.
This week, we want to know what rugged, yet great tasting foods you bring with you during your underground adventures?
Please share your favorite caving snacks with us in the comments section below.
Comments (32)
Malt loaf
Chocolate. It may not be a nutritionally sound choice but it suits me.
Bagel sandwiches, peanuts and Bakers semi sweet chocolate!
wtf is a malt loaf?
Malt loaf is a common snack food in the United Kingdom. Malt loaf has a sweet taste and a very chewy texture like very heavy, soft bread. It is made from malt and often contains fruit such as raisins. Malt loaf is usually eaten sliced and with butter. via Wikipedia
Kinda sorta but not really like fruit cake
Mars Bar.
Its a British thing…
Smuckers Uncrustable Peanut Butter and Jelly pockets. Lots of protein, very filling and taste great. Everyone in the cave tries to trade me for one. Sold at all grocery stores. http://www.smuckersuncrustables.com
Sardines in a can; they’re indestructable.
Speaking from experience, those sardine cans are not indestructible. I unfortunately learned my buddy had brought some along on a trip when the cave started to smell a little funky.
Trail Mix
Bananas are definitely not out of the question – all you need to find is dried ones! Not the hard banana chips, but whole ones that are still soft (something like this:
http://www.diytrade.com/china/pd/5892223/Dried_Banana.html#normal_img )
Really tasty and full of energy that lasts much longer than Mars Bars
Neat, thanks for the heads up!
Good thing caves are dark because those things aren’t very attractive.
Just what I need. 2000 Kg of dried bananas!
Payday candy bars. Lots of carbs and sugar for quick energy, and slightly stale ones (about all you can find) are a bit more indestructible than I’d like.
Peanut butter and slices of kosher dill pickles. Always satisfying and taste the same even if a little smashed.
Snicker bars hit the spot, and are sufficiently durable.
Small can of Pinnapple (pop top lid), Dried blueberries/cherries, Beef Jerky and finally Peanut butter and whaterver. All are small and easy to carry. Oh and a Red Bull.
Best cave snack — home made energy bar:
1/4 peanut butter,
1T butter,
1T olive oil,
1 ounce bakers chocolate,
1/4 cup rolled oats,
1/4 cup flour,
1/4 cup raisins,
1tsp honey,
1/4 cup coconut,
1/4 tsp Nu-salt (electrolyte),
1/4 tsp Salt.
Melt chocolate, peanut butter, butter, and oil in a pan. Add everything else and stir. Put in frosting container, Refrigerate.
Has lots of energy both immediately available (honey, flour, chocolate), and lasting energy (oats, coconut, and peanut butter) and tastes good too.
Adjust as desired.
My guess, Spelunkers would probably say Peanut Butter and Jelly.
I personally like trail mix.
Depending on my mood a variety of the following: Teriyaki beef nuggets, Snickers bar, Builder’s Bar, Sheetz sub, trail mix, almonds and always Atomic Fireballs!
Sardines are an awful choice if you are the unfotunate one that has to dig through your friends unkempt cave pack after he has eaten the sardines, trust me it pi**es you off!!
Nutella on bread.
Tasty Bites Indian Food in vacuum sealed pouches. They are pretty rugged and precooked.
Mars Bar – definitely the cavers snack. Still edible even after being dragged through crawls, sumps, ducks and whatever the cave can throw at them.
Snickers. Durable, relatively water resistant, mix of quick energy chocolate and sugar and durable energy peanuts.
It’s too cold in Montana caves (~39 deg F) for Snickers unless you like broken teeth. That makes them inhospitable enough to only bring quick-eating food like cashews, nuts, fruit leathers, and chocolate. That said, I loved the Snickers bars back in the warm caves of Missouri!
Daryl G,
Keep your snickers bars tucked in the space between your helmet cradle and the outside (like some folk do with a survival blanket) – easy to carry and it keeps them at the right temprature not to snap teeth off!
Peanut M&Ms arealso good as they are not salty.
ProBar Superfood Slam, hands down. That is if, of course, you are willing to drop the jack.
I like to take Jack Link Beef Jerky. Easy to carry, only down side is the damm Sasquatch keep following and they are not prepared to go cavin!
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