The Organic Climber – Vegetarian running, cycling, swimming, rock climbing and raw foods.

I am psyched about this next week! For one, it will be my first full week off work in over a year; needless to say, this is much needed time off. And two, it will be my first long trip attempting to maintain a high raw food diet. I recently received some inspiration from The RAW Sunny Kitchen, and so began a crazed frenzy of making RAW foods for my trip. They key to maintaining a high RAW food diet on a trip like this is to plan ahead. I don’t have specific meals planned out, but I will have plenty of things to choose from and will have several cooked vegetarian options as well for those nights I crave something different.

Two staples I have prepared are Matt Amasden’s famous onion bread and his RAW burgers from his book RAWvolution (a book I highly recommend for anybody interested in or just getting started in a raw food diet). Other items I will have in tow are chocolate chia seed crackers from Kristen’s RAW, RAW vegan cheese from Rawmazing as well as one of her bread recipes.

Other tasty treats I will be munching on are dehydrated apples and mangoes, homemade trail mix and my own Buckwheat Treats.  The snack foods are key, as they help hold you over until they next meal. They will also be a staple on the Longs Peak portion of my trip, as I will have to sacrifice RAW meals for cooked. I haven’t quite figured out how to make a RAW diet work well when backpacking, but I will have plenty of RAW snacks to get me from breakfast to dinner.

So, it should be interesting to see how I do when faced with the temptation to cook food with my climbing partner and stop at fast food restaurants for the sake of convenience. But knowing the amount of time I invested in prepping food I think that will inspire me to eat what I prepared myself.  But know this, I will surely be eating at least a few meals in town, one after we arrive back from Longs Peak (which will also be accompanied with a beer or two), and hopefully another with Twitter friends in Boulder.

I head out this Friday morning for Colorado Springs, we will climb there one day then head to Boulder to climb the first Flatiron, then head up and do Longs Peak in two or three days, after that we will climb at Lumpy Ridge and conclude our trip with climbing in the Boulder area. If you will be around any of those locations be sure to let me know and maybe we can meet up.

So with all that being said, I will be out of the office for over a week. I hope to bring back an amazing trip report with plenty of splendid photos!

Climbing, RAW Food, Trip Reports by OrganicClimber
backpacking, Boulder, Climbing, Colorado, Colorado Springs, Estes Park, Flatirons, Garden of the Gods, hiking, Kristen's RAW, Longs Peak, Lumy Ridge, Matt Amsden, RAW Food, Rawmazing, RAWvolution, The Sunny RAW Kitchen
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Wow, it just dawned on me that I have been into RAW foods for about a year now. My first real exposure to RAW foods was 4th of July weekend while visiting friends in Austin. I had known they were RAW foodies for a while and even joked around about it with a mutual friend. I merely saw it as “extreme veganism” and never once did I stop to realize the true health benefits from the diet. But that weekend I had my first taste of RAW foods and actually enjoyed it. Prior to this you would rarely even see a vegetable on my plate – much less going into my mouth. After realizing there were lots of ways to eat and prepare RAW foods I began researching it on my own when I returned home.

By the end of the month I knew I wanted to start eating RAW foods. I started off easy at first, making smoothies in the morning and snacking on RAW foods throughout the day. After I purchased a dehydrator I started having simple RAW meals for lunch, but after realizing that was pretty hard to do every day, I replaced the “meals” with salads. Pretty soon I was eating around 70-80% of my diet RAW. At the time I was still eating meat and had zero intention of giving it up, I had been a hardcore omnivore up until that point.

However my omnivore mentality slowly went away. The healthier I ate the less I wanted to eat meat. I remember the day I decided to give it up. Before heading off to a one day climbing trip with a friend I decided I would no longer eat meat, however I inadvertently purchased a Lunchable to snack on, thinking it was only cheese and crackers; I had forgotten momentarily while in a hurry to leave the gas station that they contained ham. I mention this because it led to me eating a huge greasy burger and fries from Whataburger on the way home that evening. My friend had offered to pay for dinner since I drove, so I didn’t want to pass it up. I remember feeling slightly sick afterwards, but that, for the most part was the last time I had meat.

I have to admit though I have not held 100% to that standard, I occasionally slip in a slice of peperoni pizza with my veggie supreme and one time attempted to eat a very rarely cooked piece of red meat, but it just turned my stomach into knots. I have also very willingly had fish on occasion, although I could probably count those times on one hand.  I occasionally consider introducing chicken and fish back into my diet on a more regular basis, but the thought is usually fleeting, all I have to do is think of all the health benefits I have had from becoming vegetarian.

I don’t even know that I would consider myself a “raw foodie,” in fact I prefer not to be called that because that is not really who I am. However, my RAW food intake is usually pretty high, I don’t think it ever slips bellow 50% on any given week and on a good week I find myself eating as much as 80% of my foods RAW. The main reason I don’t go 100% RAW is primarily fellowship with other people. My life revolves around it, and I never want to have to pass up a social occasion to spend time with people and I don’t want to have friends strictly based on my diet, I would miss out on so much.

As for the health benefits? Well there have been many. I am rarely tired in the afternoons after lunch now, I never feel as though I need a nap. I feel fully functional off only six hours of sleep, sometimes less. I have a lot more overall energy than I had before. I dropped 10 pounds and keep a stable weight. My climbing ability also took a big jump as well once I started eating a high RAW diet; my cardiovascular health is also really good. I also have seen clearer skin and a few benign tumors I have shrink a bit. I am pretty amazed at the changes that have happened to me, it pretty much keeps me motivated to continue on this journey.

For anybody considering starting a RAW food diet I would say just start off simple; make smoothies in the morning, eat salads, snack on fruit throughout the day and just make wiser food choices overall. I believe you can improve your overall health simply by increasing your intake of fresh fruits and veggies, but at the same time you can’t expect to continue eating junk and see positive results. I liken it to an over weight person who makes lots of poor food choices and becomes frustrated when they don’t drop pounds after running and working out. It’s all about making wise choices, and I will admit I’m not perfect. There are STILL times I make poor choices. Usually it’s because I simply want to enjoy a certain food. I always enjoy it going down, but often times the after effects are not so great.

But I think the most important advice I can give is to not let food become an idol. People will always be way more important than food, thus why for me personally I will never go 100% RAW.  I also won’t do something that I don’t enjoy and for me maintaining an all RAW lifestyle would be too much work. Find a balance that works for you and go for it.

Health & Fitness, RAW Food by OrganicClimber
energy, food, health, junk food, omnivore, RAW, vegan, vegetarian, veggies
2 comments

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I was very hesitant to head to the Wichita Mountains for a day of climbing this past Sunday due to the forecast of 100+ degree heat, but my climbing partner for my upcoming trip to Colorado insisted on going. I decided it would be a good idea since we needed more practice on multi pitch routes together.  I also have wanted to lead Crazy Alice, a 5.8 zigzagging crack – classic trad lead. I had top roped it for only the second time last trip out their and was confident I could lead it. The idea of bagging this lead also had me psyched for the trip.

Our alarm went off at 5:30 a.m. I was in such a daze I didn’t hear one word from the radio announcers voice. We had only put in five hours of sleep, but quickly got moving and were out the door before 6 a.m. About half way to the Wildlife Refuge I realized we could have slept in another 30 minutes and still arrive just as the gate opened. So at that point I slowed down a bit so we could get better gas mileage and we took our time at the only rest stop we made.

About an hour and a half after our stop we arrived at the gates to our climbing area – The Narrows. In the past the gates had always been open early, but today they were not. We arrived about 10 minutes till 9 and ended up waiting until 20 after, during this time about 10 different cars drove up to the gates in hopes of getting in, but we were the only ones that stayed to wait. During our wait we decided to tape up for our climb and organize our packs so we would be ready to roll once the gate opened.

After the Ranger opened the gates we quickly made it to the parking area and hit the trail almost immediately.  As we approached our climb I our fist climb would still have some shade on it, but as we got closer I saw that it was in full sun. At this point the temperatures were already close to 100 degrees and I was feeling exhausted from the two mile hike in.

Once we arrived at the base of the climb I was feeling a little weary so I drank more water, ate a bit of food and took my time gearing up for the climb. After being fully geared up I sat in the only shaded spot we had at the base of the climb (everything else as in direct sunlight). After I felt only slightly better I decided to start the climb and just get it over with so we could move on to a climb in the shade.

As I started the climb I had a bit of trouble with the start, but soon figured out the moves and was on my way up, climbing with great confidence. Although the rock felt like I was touching a hot frying pan I was fairly ok if I jammed my hands deep into the crack. Once I got about 20 feet up I started feeling fatigued, my confidence began to wane and I rested on a marginally placed piece of gear. I became frustrated; my hopes of climbing the route clean on my first lead attempt were shattered. I overcame the frustration though and continued climbing. After placing a couple more pieces of gear I placed a bomber number two Camelot and yelled to my belayer, TAKE. At this point I was starting to feel heat exhaustion kick in so decided to lower down and rest a bit before finishing the route (seeing as how I had already rested on gear and was not going to have a clean ascent).

After resting a bit and drinking more water I began to climb again. This time I was tired by the time I got back to my last piece of gear, likely because I climbed so fast and got my heart racing. I again had to rest before proceeding with the climb. After gaining my composure, or so I thought, I began to climb again. Shakily I paced another cam blindly into the crack, which turned out to be bomber, and reached for a draw to put on the cam; while doing this my hand trembled as I pulled off a cam and draw at the same time, dropping a number three Camelot 40 feet. I watched it hit solid rock and then bounce into the dirt. My yells of frustration echoed throughout the canyon walls.

But after the frustration subsided I began to climb again and as I neared the top I placed my last piece of gear and still had about 12-15 feet of climbing to go, so I gathered myself mentally and confidently climbed the last section of the route. Once I reached the top I pulled off my extra locking biners and clipped in to the chains and alerted my belayer I was clipped in.

My plan at this point was to belay him to the top and photograph him coming up the route, but by my this point I felt heat exhaustion had completely kicked in and there was no way I was going to be able to safely belay him to the top without potentially passing out. So, I lowered back down to the ground. At this point I sat there for about 15 minutes sipping on water and pouring it over my head until I felt a bit of energy come back. After that I belayed my partner to the top so he could clean the route. By the time he had come back down to the ground I felt my energy restored and decided we should try to find a climb in the shade.

About this the only other climbers we saw that day were leaving and told us about an area I had not been to yet that would be in full shade. After seeing my next projected climb was in full sun we opted to seek out this coveted shaded area.

After hiking another two miles back to the car I was once again feeling exhausted, but after eating more food and drinking more water I gain re-gained some energy.  Searching for this shaded wall, The Meadows, was slightly more difficult than expected, but after pulling out the compass and realized we were heading in the wrong direction we managed to get back on course and find our destination without much time lost.

Because we were so weary we opted for an “easy” 5.6 bolted route. However as typical in the Wichita Mountains the route was fairly run-out. The first bolt being about 30 feet off the ground (although we realize latter I passed one about 20 feet up) spooked my confidence a bit, likely from the heat exhaustion, but I began the climb anyway and found a supplemental gear placement about 15 feet off the ground, once I pulled onto the ledge above my piece of gear I was able to make one more move up and clip the second bolt. I quickly yelled back down to my belayer, TAKE. My pride was shot, I rested on a 5.6 climb, but in the end it’s always better safe than sorry.

I eventually got to a point on the route that I felt like I couldn’t move any higher, I looked up and it appeared the next bolt was about 20 feet away. The bolt also looked HUGE. I thought it was some sort of weird anchor. In fact, I thought it was the anchor. So I lowered down to get a bail biner to go back up to clean my draws, but my less experienced partner decided he wanted to try finishing the route. I feared he would fall, shattering has ankles on a ledge, making our trip to Colorado a bust. I didn’t want him to go, but he wasn’t going to not let me belay him up.

So, I gave him the gear he needed and told him how he was going to have to clean this strange looking anchor I saw. After that John was quickly off and arrived at the last bolt I had clipped and rested there before proceeding. As he attempted to move up he took a couple of falls. I encouraged him to just leave the bail biner and lower off, but he insisted on proceeding. I prepared myself to run back as far as possible to prevent him from hitting a ledge, but to my dismay he made the moves and reached out clipping the anchor without having to girth hitch it. WHAT THE CRAP, I thought. How did he clip that anchor, it was HUGE. I realized then the heat exhaustion must have made me hallucinate, seeing a regular sized bolt as an oversized horizontally placed bolt.

After some struggle to make the final moves John realized he couldn’t finish and lowered back down. I then jumped back on the rope and climbed back up to the last spot he fell.  It took me a while to spot the anchors because the blazing hot sun was just peering over the top of the cliff, but after several attempts I finally managed to reach the anchors, clipped in and then cleaned the anchor and lowered off, removing gear along the way down.

That climb would conclude our climbing for the day. We were both obviously exhausted, getting our butts kicked on a 5.6 climb when both of us can climb much harder. After a few minutes of resting we headed back to the car and loaded up the gear. The plan after that was to head to a deli we saw in town for sandwiches, but at this point I was SO hungry and wanted more food than just a sandwich, so with the help of my iPhone we managed to find a Chilis that was off the main drag that cut through the town of Lawton, Oklahoma. John enjoyed a juicy burger, medium-well, I inhaled a black bean burger and entire plate of fries, including some of John’s. I regretted eating that much food about 30 minutes down the road, but it was very satisfying at the time of consumption.

The lesson learned this day was simple. Never climb in 100+ degree heat. My car was registering 106 degrees when we left, when I checked the weather on my iPhone in town it gave a temperature of 103 degrees, so no matter how you look at it, it was crazy hot out there and no amount of water helped us to stay hydrated. Between the two of us, we polished off 8+ litters of water.

I can say this though; this trip will make us REALLY appreciate Colorado this summer! I can hardly wait to climb in temperatures below 90 degrees. Hopefully we are lucky and will experience a few 75-degree days. That would be so sublime!

The photos you see here are of Crazy Alice (5.8) that were taken from my first trip out here in April of 2007. It was a magical experience that included crossing a “creek” that was really a river at the time due to recent rains and ended with snow flurries as I toped out Crazy Alice for the first time on top rope. So, it has actually been over two years since I returned to the climb. Despite the heat exhaustion it was well worth it and I am confident I will climb the route clean next time.

And for those of you that might be wondering what the new Subaru Outback looks like, here she is…

Climbing, Trip Reports by OrganicClimber
crazy, crazy alice, fatigue, heat, heat exhaustion, hot, oklahoma, Outback, rock climbing, Subaru, The Narrows, trad, Whichita Mountains, Wichita Mountains
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One of my favorite fruits is the mango, especially ripe juicy ones. One problem I have though is that often times I can be lazy and not want to mess with deseeding a mango just to eat a snack. I also frequently crave these when on climbing trips, but they are often quite messy and would certainly be a pain to deseed while out on the trail or even while car camping for that matter. So I decided to dehydrate this tasty fruit after tasting a store bought version.  Mine of course are cheaper, taste better and have zero preservatives or artificial ingredients. I would most definitely say this is the beef jerky of fruit. Anyway, without further or do here are the directions on how to dehydrate mangoes.

First grab two to three ripe juicy mangoes.
Step two, deseed those bad boys. See Image below.

To deseed a mango hold the mango vertically and find the “knot” at the top of the mango. Take your knife and move a bit to the side and then slice all the way down. You may have to maneuver around the seed a bit as they are never exactly in the middle. After this, repeat on the other side. Also, it will be worth your time to remove excess mango flesh from the seed to throw into the dehydrator with your slices. No need to waste.

Third, skin the mango. You will notice from the picture I skinned the mango after deseeding. I have since discovered it is much easier to skin the mangoe FIRST, then deseed. However, if you wish to leave some skin on your dehydrated mangoes you will want to skin them after you deseed. In this case I was leaving the skin on several of them so this would be the best method. Although the skins are harder to eat, especially dehydrated, they contain lots of nutrients.

After skinning the mango, cut into evenly sized slices and line them on a mesh dehydrator sheet. I believe one mango makes about a tray of evenly spaced mango slices if using the Nine tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator.

After placing the mangoes on the dehydrator trays, insert them into the dehydrator and dehydrate at 115 degrees for about 24 hours.

The finished product will have a nice leathery texture but still have somewhat of a moist feel to them. You don’t want to turn these into chips, so be careful not to dehydrate for too long. I also recommend about 1/4 inche slices, but feel free to experiment and find out what you like best. But remember the thicker the slice the longer you will have to dehydrate.

For those that don’t have a food dehydrator I highly recommend the investment, especially if you are the outdoors type and spend lots of money on things like granola, nuts, seeds and things like Power Bars and Cliff Bars. With these bad boys you can make your own homemade version for a fraction of the cost, and you have fun doing it in the process. It’s also much more gratifying to eat something you made yourself.

They dehydrator I used and recommend is the Excalibur. They have a 4, 5 and 9 tray model. I rarely use all 9 trays, but when I do need that extra space I am glad I have it. The size of the trays also are different on each model, so that is something else to consider as well when looking to purchase a dehydrator. I would also suggest staying away from the circular dehydrators that are stacked. The downside to these is your drying temperatures are not even at each level, you have to rotate your trays throughout drying times. With the Excalibur you get consistent drying temperatures on every tray.

Feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions about dehydrators or anything else I post about for that matter.

Peace…

Climbing, Health & Fitness, RAW Food, Recipes by OrganicClimber
dehydrated, dehydrator, dried, Excalibur, foood, fruit, mango, mangoes, RAW, vegan, yummy
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