Basic food rations Tinned fruitcake or Mainstay Lifeboat bars?

[Moondog55]

It may never happen but I find fun in planning
After the Meet & Greet with you felllers in 2020 I want to head up to Alaska and have a good look at Denali and the Brooks Range.
Yes this is well out of the Northern Boreal but collectively this forum has a lot of good information and knowledge.
Menu planning for a long haul deep winter sled-hauling trip is difficult but I have another full year and a half to get some stuff together.
I hate freeze dried meals but weight limits will mean that these will be needed for at least half the calories needed on the trip, and I'm sure I couldn't eat Scotts ideal Antarctic ration of pemmican and ships biscuits for more than 3 days without throwing up either.
My standard tinned plum pudding is no longer made so are there any North American companies still making a tinned plum pudding or fruit cake? If so are they palatable?
OR
Would an allocation of one of the 2400calorie Mainstay bars per day be reasonable?

[Bothwell Voyageur]

Check Amazon

You can still buy "pudding" in cans, including meat puddings, but maybe not what you are looking for. A lot of things are in plastic now for use in a microwave.

You could probably just vacuum bag and heat seal fruitcake. That would also have the advantage of being able to slice it first.

You should probably also check MRE army rations as an alternative.

[Old Guide]

It may never happen but I find fun in planning
After the Meet & Greet with you felllers in 2020 I want to head up to Alaska and have a good look at Denali and the Brooks Range.
Yes this is well out of the Northern Boreal but collectively this forum has a lot of good information and knowledge.
Menu planning for a long haul deep winter sled-hauling trip is difficult but I have another full year and a half to get some stuff together.
I hate freeze dried meals but weight limits will mean that these will be needed for at least half the calories needed on the trip, and I'm sure I couldn't eat Scotts ideal Antarctic ration of pemmican and ships biscuits for more than 3 days without throwing up either.
My standard tinned plum pudding is no longer made so are there any North American companies still making a tinned plum pudding or fruit cake? If so are they palatable?
OR
Would an allocation of one of the 2400calorie Mainstay bars per day be reasonable?

You'll need more than 2400 calories per day if you are winter hauling and camping

[Moondog55]

I think you either read my post wrongly or I wasn't clear enough OG.
A half of the days ration in a 2400Calorie Mainstay bar or a fourth in a 1200 calorie bar. With modern LW gear and clothing and a 1 in 7 rest day 4800 calories per day should be sufficient

[Bothwell Voyageur]

sufficient maybe but miserable certainly! 

[Old Guide]

I think you either read my post wrongly or I wasn't clear enough OG.
A half of the days ration in a 2400Calorie Mainstay bar or a fourth in a 1200 calorie bar. With modern LW gear and clothing and a 1 in 7 rest day 4800 calories per day should be sufficient

I did read it wrong-thanks for the clarification

[southcove]

I am glad you are having this discussion about food and your intended travels up front.  It lets me tighten up my own schedule a bit - I am staying home, lol, the cook treats me much better than that!

[Moondog55]

Why miserable BV?
Would it be the boring repetition in the menu or the perceived lack of kilojoules?
4800 calories is a massive amount of food although I suspect we may lose our spare tyres doing the trip too which adds a lot to the daily count if we do.
I'd appreciate some advice from you on this matter because if I ate 4800 calories a day during my winter ski trips here I would gain weight rather than lose it.

[Old Guide]

Why miserable BV?
Would it be the boring repetition in the menu or the perceived lack of kilojoules?
4800 calories is a massive amount of food although I suspect we may lose our spare tyres doing the trip too which adds a lot to the daily count if we do.
I'd appreciate some advice from you on this matter because if I ate 4800 calories a day during my winter ski trips here I would gain weight rather than lose it.

You'll lose weight, I'd bet on it. Football players eat 4800 calories in a diet to lose weight. After the Adirondack Ice Storm of 98 I was felling trees and doing clean up, chipping etc. I ate breakfast, break food, lunch, break food, a snack on the way home, supper and a snack. I lost 25lbs in 3 months. You'll be just as active and I was eating far more than 4800calories.

[Moondog55]

If that is so Old Guide then we need to add in another hundred grams of fat and an extra 100 grams of starch and sugar in the planning, that's another 1000 calories or 3 Mars /Snickers bars [ or another 1200 calorie Mainstay bar as per the posts title]
My maintenance calorie intake is about 2500 per day, the others in the party are of similar age and requirements.

[Bothwell Voyageur]

Miserable. A combination of things. Lack of variation certainly, possibly hunger. A number of studies have shown big strong guys burning as much muscle as fat in arctic conditions when they go short of food. But also the process of switching from your normal style of food to something you would not routinely eat (though perhaps you do!) at a time when things may not be going well could leave you feeling a less than happy puppy.

[Moondog55]

Variety is important, this is true and it is also true that most Freeze-Dried meals are simply awful.
I leave for my skiing camp in a week or two; despite their stupidly high cost in this country I should; perhaps; buy a small batch of Mainstay bars and see how they work as part of my winter food.

[Bothwell Voyageur]

It took me less than 30 seconds to find links to recipes to make your own bars so if you do like them and they don't set like bricks at cold temps you could save money that way.

Same for meals. Freeze dried meat and veggies and mixes for cheese, butter and eggs can be found on Amazon. We have spent the start of many overseas trips in a hotel room surrounded by bags of ingredient, measuring stuff out into Ziploc bags.

[buddhabelly]

just to be clear....you're talking about camping in Alaska right ? you're going to need lots of candles and books cuz there ain't going to be much light in either place since there's not going to be much time for hauling;)

[Moondog55]

Yes I can make my own bars easily.
The problem being time and a place to do it as I can't bring home made bars into the country from here. Only commercially packed/factory made food products are allowed through. I know people break this rule all the time but I won't take the chance. Also I need the full luggage allowance for my gear; apart from that only having 90 days on my visa and not wanting to spend a lot of my O/S time cooking and prepping foods
I just thought something like a mainstay bar would make things a lot easier and quicker