Korean Climbers’ Secret Boost: Home Cooking and Calorie Counts Powered Historic Expeditions
Creatrip Team
2 months ago
A look back at meal records from Korean mountaineering expeditions (featured in Monthly San) shows how food — “bap-sim” (the powering effect of Korean meals) — helped climbers succeed from the 1970s to 1990s. Early teams on Eiger and Everest-era expeditions favored familiar Korean dishes like rice, kimchi stew, and seaweed soup at basecamp, but struggled with Western rations while on steep climbs. Training camps aimed for extremely high energy intake (up to 4,000 kcal/day per person) and wrestled with weight and packaging; later teams switched to lighter dried foods and combat rations (C-ration, Mountain House). Reports note careful weight calculations by the 1990s — even chewing gum was weighed — and a shift to canned and instant high-altitude meals. Across decades, teams learned to balance nutrition, taste, and pack weight, relying on favorite items (canned ham, dried shrimp, ginseng extracts) and evolving logistics to fuel Korean mountain achievements.
