Mountain Bars - Gluten Free, Awesome, Addictive

Chomping on an energy bar at Healy Pass

I've been making this these Mountain bars since I adapted an energy bar recipe in 2009 from the Joy of Cooking.  They have come with Meghan and I on so many backcountry trips I can't keep track... Bugaboos, Assiniboine, Wapta, Egypt Lake, Fundy, Loch Alva and many more. There are a huge hit with everyone we travel with.

They are especially great in the winter - the cold keeps them from crumbling and yet they don't get rock hard like so many other bars do. They are packed with calories to keep your furnace burning on ski and climbing trips. I've tried many recipes and after find that these bars sit well in my stomach.  Just the right combination of fat, carbs, and proteins for quick and sustained energy.

They hold together pretty well (I recommend freezing them before cutting). For longer trips I wrap them individually in parchment paper and store in a ziploc bag (this also keeps us honest to our daily rations!). They don't last long around the house so better to make them just before the trip!





Ingrediants

• 1 cup Rolled Oats (I use Only Oats because they are Gluten Free and delicious)
• 3/4 cup Flour (*I make them Gluten Free* See note below)
• 1 cup (packed) Brown Sugar
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1 Tbsp Cinnamon
• 1 1/2 cup Dried Fruit (could be a mix of raisins, chopped apricots, cranberries)
• 1 cup chopped Nuts/Seeds (In this order depending on what I have on hand- Almonds, Walnuts, Pumpkin Seeds, Sunflower Seeds, Buckwheat groats)

• 3/4 C Melted Butter (Dairytown Butter if you can get it!)
• 2 tsp Vanilla

Options:
Ginger Version is so good! 1/2 cup Chopped Crystallized Ginger  & 1 Tbsp Ginger Powder
1/2 cup chopped Milk Chocolate
*Gluten Free*: If you're making them Gluten Free like I do, then I would recommend GF Oats, standard featherlight flour (white rice, potato flour, and tapioca starch) and 1-2 tsp of ground Chia Seeds or 1/2 tsp Xanthum gum. 

Directions:

Mix all dry ingredients in large bowl (oats, flour, nuts, fruit, etc)

Melt Butter in Microwave/stove until liquid. Add Vanilla.

Now add the melted butter to the dry ingredients and stir together well.

Pour this sticky-gloppy mixture into a 9"x9" greased (buttered) cake pan.

Bake at 350 F for 35-40 minutes until top is browned. You'll see some butter bubbling around the edges.

Let cool/freeze before cutting to keep them from crumbling. Keep the extras in the freezer. They freeze well because there isn't any water in the recipe, just fat!

Sticky but not wet texture

Tamped down ready to bake

Bars on our ski camping trip to Skoki

 gluten free, energy bar, granola bar, camping, skiing, graham waugh, wapta, skoki, assiniboine,

Tracks

Cross country Skiing, March 2013

Grotto Falls and Chickadee Valley

Chickadee Valley. A beautiful half day ski in Kootenay National Park.
Wish I had known about it a couple years earlier!

Challenging wax conditions as the temperature hovered around 0'
 in the Chickadee Valley.

Rock and Ice

Rock and Ice

Coire Dubh Integrale

On Friday Seb and I climbed Coire Dubh Integrale. It ascends a gully on Goat Mountain, at the edge of the Rockies. In fact you start among the prairie grasses. The route climbs through short steps of waterfall ice, snow slopes, and a couple interesting rock sections. The wind was ridiculous as we descended the ridge - knocking us off our feet. 

Coire Dubh Integrale ascends the gully in the center of the photo, topping out on the ridge.

Hiking the snow slopes

Fun rock climbing in Crampons and gloves on the first rock band.

Seb starting the final rock section

Reedonkulus wind on the ridge.

Almost down to the highway with sun setting in the Bow Valley.

Grotto Falls Ice Climb

Seb leading Grotto Falls

On the final day of our climbing week, Seb and I headed into Grotto Canyon for some mixed climbing. We started off the day with a ramble up Grotto Falls, a friendly WI3 at the back of a pretty little canyon.

Vivid shadows on the ice

Rappelling out of a blue sky

Seb on the left hand side of the "His" mixed climb.

On the trail to Assiniboine

We had a fantastic trip to Assiniboine. We went just after Christmas and spent a total of 6 days out there. The conditions for cross country skiing were superb – a deep base with 10 cm of powder on top. Pulling 30 lbs of firewood (all found!) over Assiniboine Pass is something that we’ll have to laugh about for years to come. Otherwise it’s just a swirl of good memories of cooking food in the Wonder Creek Shelter, touring in the sunny meadows, and laughing with some new acquaintances at the lodge.

Skiing through the Cautley Meadows at Assiniboine

Halloween Ski to Egypt Lake via Healy Pass

Early morning drive through the town of Banff

With fresh snow on the ground from the season's first big storm, Meghan and I could think of nothing but skiing. This was by far the earliest I've ever skiied. I called Banff Parks and found out that the Egypt Lake Shelter was empty for the Halloween Weekend. Despite uncertain snow conditions and route finding we decided to go for it. Turned out to be an amazing trip!

Fresh snow at Healy Pass

Crossing creeks on our way to the Egypt Lake Shelter.

Reading by the fire in our own private cabin.

Not a soul for miles around.

Bugaboos!

The Bugs at last! Jeff and Pascale's Corolla with the Hounds Tooth and Snowpatch Spire.

I remember the first time I saw a photo of the Bugaboos. I think it was an CMH ad in an issue of Gripped back in 2006. At that point I was doing a lot of indoor bouldering while attending university. I remember that full page ad because it was the first time that an image of the mountains really called to me. At that point top-roping was still terrifying and I dismissed alpine climbing as too risky. Oh how times have changed.

In my climbing trips on the continent, I had avoided climbing in the mountains. Hiking and backpacking yes, but not climbing. That is until some friends invited me to Katahdin in December 2010. That experience, of ice climbing gullies and scrambling over rock with crampons, opened my eyes to the joy and adventure of alpine climbing. Shortly after I moved to the Rocky Mountains.

It took me over a year to get it together for a trip to the Bugaboos. Skills, partners, and time finally came together in August 2012.

So far I've never experienced anything like the alpine landscape - of rocks, snow, and deep sky. The Wapta felt the same way. I'll be honest though, my first trip to the Bugs was humbling and ass kicking. Type 2 fun punctuated by plenty of honest to goodness fun at the Applebee campground.

I'm looking forward to going back. And I'll leave it at that.

Snowpatch after Sunrise from Applebee Camp.

Jamie framed by Bugaboo Spire on Crescent Towers.

At the famous Gendarme on the Kain Route of Bugaboo Spire.

Jamie on the Gendarme with Snowpatch in the background.

 

Pigeon Spire with Meghan