Bergström Tuomas wrote:

> My "hobbies" include mountaineering and I'm a bit
> anxious how to maintain performance for extended
> perioids of time. I'm talking 9 to 10 hours of hard
> walking and climbing, 10 miles horizontally and 1 - 2
> miles vertically, up and down.

Just yesterday I looked at the Atkins Diet site in the
science/exercise section. He has abstracts of various experiments done
with athletes on different diets. Naturally (being the Atkins site) it
showed that high fat low carbo diets do not detrimentally affect
athletic performance, especially aerobic endurance sports. In fact
some of the tests show up to a 40% increase in endurance of the high
fat group over the low fat/high carbo group.

Personally, I run and jog an hour several times a week. I feel best
when my carbs are the lowest. On days when I have eaten nothing but
meat, fat and eggs, plus a few greens, I feel great running. I believe
my endurance is better than if I have carbs.

I have tried grape juice before running, and other sweets, but I
always get a cotton mouth effect that I do not get when I am on very
low carbos. Also, there is no up and down swing of energy levels
during the run on low carbos that there is on high carbos. There is no
"second wind" because the first wind never fails. Over the last 8
months since I started this diet, I have gradually been lowering my
carbs, and my running seems better and better. In a few weeks I have a
10K race, and I will try it on high fat/low carbs for the first time.
I will see how it compares with the last race, where I had a lot of
carbs and fat for the race.

For an endurance drink during climbing, I recall seeing an article on
a British marathoner whose race drink was fatty beef broth mixed with
tea. Might be the thing to try? Your 10 hour mountain hikes sound far
more strenuous than my one hour runs. I would be slow changing
something that has worked well for you in the past. Change one item
and see how it goes, then change one more etc....

I am very interested in your question. I would like to hear more about
your climbing and the food/drinks that work for you. I am trying to
build up my running endurance and speed. This year has gone very well
so far on a paleo diet. I would like to see how far I can take it.

Philip Thrift is the exercise man on this list, what does he have to say?