On Crushed Chips for Touring

On The High Route, we do a lot of technical things. There are skis. There are boots. There’s the 2+ buckle class. The much heavier, but better, ski boot class. And every so often we explore food—what the more well-versed in the art and science of feeding oneself call nutrition.

What’s cool (and yummy) about food on the go is that it can take many forms. And flavors. However, some basic tenets hold. And since we do the human-powered thing, usually when it’s cold, we don’t waver on these tenets. Food must pack a calorie punch and be somewhat low-volume. Mostly, we aim for about 2-3 pounds of food/day, amounting to 3500-5000 kcals. But one unbreakable tenet is this: the food you bring must taste good to you. 

Let’s set the context. 

You’ve hauled a 30-35 pound pack 5k and 18 miles. It’s day three of a six-day traverse. While the ambient temps hover around and just below freezing during the day, you’re sweating. You’re hangry. You must have food you want to eat. And sometimes, the key is to prevent a calorie deficit, never mind meeting the daily requirements of the food pyramid, or whatever it is called nowadays.

Before we data dive into unglamorous and maybe unnutritious food, on long trips it is important to think about body maintenance over the long haul, which means consuming fats, proteins, and carbs—and being mindful of eating carbs at a steady rate while on the move. And sometimes, maybe at the end of the day, the sleeping platform is stomped, moments after the mid is set up, snow is melted for drinking, you want to onboard calories. Oftentimes on these trips, I fantasize about being back home, returning from a day-long outing, and justifying ripping open a big bag of Lay’s Salt n’ Vinegar potato chips and downing the whole thing. Say this aloud, don’t just think it—there’s no shame in that. 

(I will admit, on trips, I sometimes lean into calorie-efficiency benchmarks and slack on the “this is tasty” metric. Another tenet: learn from mistakes.)

Twice this summer, people mentioned hauling a bag of chips on a single- or multi-day tour. Obvious things you might consider if you take this advice. 1) The chips, unless strapped to the outside of the pack in some place I cannot think of, will be crushed. 2) A bag of chips, with all the air sealed inside, is tough to pack efficiently. So moving forward, assume we are referring to a bag of crushed chips. 

Before we continue, a whole, unbroken chip has characteristics that no longer apply once it’s crushed. There’s the audible crunch. Researchers call the relationship between the audible crunch and our savoring more chip the Crunch Effect. If you crush the bag of chips, making them more packable, you lose the lovely auditory additive known as the crunch. Therefore, when you eat them, the chips will be just a wee bit less satisfying. But now, they meet the tenets of tasty, high-calorie, lightweight, and packable.

In the pantheon of calories/ounce, crushed chips hold up pretty well. 

Olive oil/Coconut Oil: Fat, Cal/Oz 240

Ghee Butter: Fat, Cal/Oz ~240-250

Almonds/Cashews: Fat/Carbs/Protein Cal/Oz ~170

Your Basic Potato Chip: Mostly Fat and Carbs Cal/Oz ~150

All Chips are not Created Equal

The heading above bends in fidelity because we all have different tastes and preferences. Some may want to haul along pulverized Hot Cheetos; others might prefer something more rarefied, like crushed Kettle Brand Krinkle Cut Potato Chips Truffle Oil & Sea Salt. And if you want to get rowdy with your taste buds, Lay’s makes a Bacon Grilled Cheese flavored potato chip.

Below is a ranked list of calories/single chip.

1. Tostitos Restaurant Style: 20.0

2. Ruffles Original: 13.3

3. Doritos Nacho Cheese: 12.5

3. Takis Fuego: 12.5

5. Kettle Brand Sea Salt: 11.5

6. Lay’s Classic: 10.7

7. Pringles Original: 10.0

8. SunChips Original: 9.3

9. Cape Cod Original: 7.8

10. Cheetos Crunchy: 7.6

11. Fritos Original: 5.0

Based on the raw data, Restaurant Style Tostitos offer the best bang for the weight. Taste aside, absent salsa, I cannot disagree. Perhaps Tostitos are the way to go if you are adding calories to a meal, like Ramen, for example. All things considered, and with personal taste and the calorie-per-chip metric in mind, I’m opting for a crushed bag of Kettle Chips.  

We’ll report back this winter on how effective this feeding strategy is.