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PREFACE

I’VE BEEN A RECREATIONAL MOUNTAIN athlete for 18 years. I started as a climbing gym bunny, then moved on to outdoor sport climbing trips abroad, traditional climbing, big wall climbing in Yosemite Valley, outdoor bouldering, and alpine rock climbing. As a 47-year-old chef, restaurateur, nutritional coach, food consultant, and author with family priorities, I find that my mountain time often goes to the bottom of the list. Sadly, this is common for a lot of us who dream of spending more time playing in our cherished green spaces.

In all these years, I’ve yet to come across a comprehensive nutritional cookbook that is dedicated to mountain sports. Professional and recreational mountain athletes require proper nutrition to fuel their bodies, minds, and spirits. This book is for outdoor athletes who want to perform at their best.

Do these experiences sound familiar? You stayed up a little late eating and drinking with friends, knowing full well you have to get up at 7 a.m. to go climbing with a partner. Tired and groggy, you slam a couple cups of coffee (as opposed to water) and grab a banana. While on the road to the crag, you grab a double espresso, just to make sure you crush it on the rocks and keep the stoke level high. You say to yourself, “Self, I should probably purchase that giant, fresh-baked cinnamon roll, covered in icing, to get some carb loading in for my one day out this week. That’ll keep me going.” Now you’re good to go!

Reaching your destination, you hop out of the car and charge the approach, super jittery and practically foaming at the mouth with excitement. Visions of ascending hard fill your mind. But by the time you get through a few warm-up pitches, you start to feel lethargic. Focusing becomes difficult; your motivation dwindles—the familiar feeling of bonking. But it’s your only day outside, so you charge ahead as best you can. As you get into the harder climbing, your hands cramp up and your technique falls apart. You feel a bit nauseous, and the top of the route is epically far away. You’re not about to let your climbing partner down, so you pull through the rest of the climb. You’re exhausted at the end of the day. It takes you a full day to recover, and that nagging overuse injury has really got your attention now. Perhaps the empty carbs and coffee combo wasn’t the best fuel. You decide to change your ways.

You’ve spent months planning for your epic big wall, vertical camping trip. It’s going to be amazing! You’ve managed to not get injured, you’re fairly fit, your partner didn’t bail, and the weather looks great. The stoke meter is at 110 percent. On day 1, you start up the route, estimating a 12-hour day of climbing, which slowly and painfully turns into 16 hours. The weather report the day before said 80 degrees F, which turns into 96 degrees. You hadn’t anticipated the heat absorption of the granite you’re attached to. You feel a bit of heatstroke—you didn’t put enough electrolytes in your water. It’s too hot to eat your allotted food. Your brain is foggy, your breathing labored. “Just focus. You’ll eventually get to the top of this pitch,” you tell yourself.

Relieved, you finally get to the anchor. Now you have to haul a 100-pound bag all the way up the pitch. You want to cry, scream, slump over, and rest. But your climbing partner is waiting down below so they can release the bag and start cleaning the pitch. You go into beast mode, stoically hauling away before eating or drinking. By day’s end, you’ve switched on your headlamp and fought with the portaledge before eating, drinking, and taking a break. You and your partner eat dinner in silence. It’s late, you’re beyond tired, and the team is in need of a serious morale boost. “I know what we need right now!” you say. “Bourbon!”

Your partner’s eyes light up, and for a moment you forget about the intensity of the day and the 2000 feet of additional climbing waiting for you in the days to follow. After a few sips, you relax, and you and your partner are the best of friends again. You snuggle in for a five-hour sleep on the cramped, unevenly pitched portaledge. Smelling your partner’s stinky feet and the fermented poop bag, you toss and turn all night. You bumble around, as quietly as possible so as not to disturb your buddy, while trying to pee off the side of the portaledge and not on the ropes or haul bag. The next morning—unrecovered, undernourished, dehydrated, inflamed, and achy—you’re at it again. “Wall hands” have set in. Your cramping, swollen, cuticle-battered, scraped-up hands struggle to unscrew your water bottle lid, stuff the sleeping bag in its stuff sack, and tie your torture box shoelaces. Morning chores feel epic. You’re rethinking your poor nourishment from the day before. You promise yourself, “Today I will do better!”

If you’ve had similar experiences on any outdoor adventures, this book is for you, my friend. This nutritional guide and cookbook will empower you to be a stronger mountain athlete through peak nutrition. It will help you gain a better level of fitness as well as improved health, brain function, and energy. In addition to offering recipes that will help reduce injuries and stress, this book will make cooking easy and delicious, so that getting outside is more fun. You’ll gain endurance, have a more resilient immune system, and take less time to recover. My hope is that this book will become your mountain athlete resource and toolbox for peak nutrition.

—Maria Hines

THE IDEA FOR THIS BOOK TOOK ROOT ON a climbing trip where Maria and I were talking about nutrition and training. Maria was getting ready for a climb on El Cap, and I was there as her coach, to make sure her body was physically prepared. She asked a million questions about nutrition and then said, “I wish there was a book about this specifically for climbing.” Well, with Maria’s drive and go-getter attitude, she decided to write that book herself and invited me to join her. Honored and privileged, I took the opportunity. At the time my nutrition knowledge was in its infancy. Nutrition and biochemistry were not at the top of my list. For the past decade as a coach, I’ve been furthering my expertise in athletic strength and performance, which brings me so much fulfillment. But nutrition was always tricky for me. Everything I’ve read has contradicted something else I thought was true. It was a world I felt lost in.

After agreeing to write this book, I committed to making sure my understanding of nutrition was as comprehensive as possible. For my nutrition coaching certification, I took the Precision Nutrition Level 2 course—in my opinion, the best resource out there for nutrition and behavior change. I read around 30 nutrition books, more than 100 research articles, tried some whack food protocols for myself, and talked to experts. But I’ve got to tell you, I still don’t feel like an expert. I’ve sifted through a lot and followed in my teachers’ footsteps (Dr. John Berardi, Dr. Krista Scott-Dixon, Charles Poliquin, Christian Thibaudeau) to provide you, dear reader, with the most useful and friendly information. Sure, some crazy diets do work in the short term, but I’ve learned that if you want lasting results and a healthy relationship with food, you have to master the basics. And for athletes, this is key. If you can master the basics, you’ll master your performance.

This comprehensive resource for professional and recreational mountain athletes is different from other nutrition guides: your results will come from lasting habit change, where you will feel in control of your eating habits while eating delicious food. As you read this book and find other information that is supported by research, don’t hesitate to email us. Much of this content is evolving. We want to continue to learn with you.

—Mercedes Pollmeier