Pies vs Gels: The Great Big Hill Day Fuel Test

Ask any group of hillwalkers what they pack for a big day and you'll get a full cross-section of British food culture. There's the traditionalist with a pork pie and a flask. The ultra-runner with a chest pouch full of gels. The parent armed with a Tupperware of homemade flapjack and a prayer. Somewhere in the middle is the truth about what actually fuels a summit day — and having spent the last few months testing all of the above on everything from Snowdon to a grim, sleety day on Cross Fell, I've got opinions.

The Contenders

For this entirely unscientific but thoroughly enjoyable trial, I pitted four camps against each other on walks of six to ten hours:

• The classics: pork pie, Kendal Mint Cake, a bag of Jelly Babies
• The modern kit: energy gels, chews, and electrolyte tabs
• The homemade hero: proper flapjack, plus a malt loaf
• The 'just eat lunch' approach: cheese sandwiches and a bag of crisps

Each was scored on three things: energy delivered, behaviour in bad weather, and calorie-per-gram efficiency — because on a big hill day, every gram in the pack is a gram you're carrying uphill.

The Numbers That Matter

Rough calorie density per 100g tells you a lot before you even set off:

• Pork pie: ~400 kcal, but heavy and greasy
• Kendal Mint Cake: ~430 kcal, almost pure sugar and fat
• Energy gel: ~300 kcal per sachet, but light and fast-acting
• Homemade flapjack: ~450 kcal, depending on how generous you are with the golden syrup
• Cheese sandwich: ~250 kcal, plus it gets sad in a rucksack

On pure numbers, flapjack and mint cake win. But numbers aren't the whole story.

How They Performed on the Hill

The pork pie is a magnificent thing and I will not hear otherwise — but it's a lunch-stop food, not a moving fuel. Eating one at a windswept cairn on a cold day is one of Britain's great experiences. Trying to eat one while moving, at hour six, with cold hands? Not recommended.

Kendal Mint Cake does exactly what it says: a fast sugar hit that genuinely wakes you up on a drag of a climb. The crash comes about forty minutes later, so ration it for the steepest sections rather than grazing it all day. It also survives freezing temperatures perfectly, which is more than can be said for most things.

Energy gels are undeniably effective — quick to absorb, easy while on the move, and they saved my legs on a relentless final pull up to Helvellyn. But they're expensive at £1.50–£2.50 a pop, the packaging is a litter nightmare if you're careless, and after four or five in a day, flavour fatigue sets in hard. For a family hill day, they're overkill. For a fast, long push, they're brilliant.

Homemade flapjack was the quiet champion. Cheap — a full tray costs about the same as two gels — calorie-dense, robust in any weather, and it actually makes you want to eat it, which matters enormously when cold and fatigue kill your appetite. Cut it into chunks, wrap it in foil, and it'll survive a pocket all day.

A Flapjack Worth Carrying

The recipe that earned its place in the pack:

• 250g porridge oats
• 125g butter
• 100g brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons golden syrup
• A fistful of sultanas and a spoon of peanut butter if you're feeling fancy

Melt, mix, press into a tin, bake at 180°C for about 20 minutes until golden but still soft. Let it cool completely before cutting, or you'll have crumbs. This makes roughly 1,800 kcal of hill fuel for about £1.80.

The Verdict

There's no single winner, because hill days have phases. Fast carbs — gels, mint cake, Jelly Babies — for the steep, grinding bits where you need energy now. Slow burners — flapjack, malt loaf, the odd sandwich — through the middle of the day. And one proper treat for the summit, because morale is a nutrient too, and a pork pie at 2,500 feet tastes better than any gel ever will.

Eat little and often rather than saving yourself for one big lunch. Start fuelling within the first hour, not when you're already bonking. And in winter, keep your food close to your body — a frozen gel is a genuinely miserable experience.

Chase your summits. But feed the chase properly.