The Best Energy Bars for Expeditions (2026)

Written by James Frost, founder of Flaming Phoenix. Updated October 2026.

The best energy bars for expeditions carry at least 4 calories per gram, stay soft enough to bite well below freezing and open easily in gloves. Of the UK bars I checked in October 2026, Phoenix Bars come first: up to 4.6 calories per gram and up to 557 calories in a compact, 120g bar, against 3.8 for Clif Bar and Kendal Mint Cake and 3.6 for Styrkr BAR50.

Before the list, a disclosure: I make Phoenix Bars, and they are in this comparison. How I compared: calories per gram from each label, how each bar copes with deep cold (from the UIAA's mountain medicine guidance and customers' expedition reports), and how many wrappers you have to open in mitts for every 1,000 calories. Labels were checked on brand and UK retailer pages in October 2026, and those pages are listed below.

Most bar round-ups are written for a two-hour walk or a ride, and they rank on taste. An expedition is a different problem: thousands of calories to find every day, in the cold, for weeks, at the point when you least feel like eating.

What makes an energy bar good for an expedition?

A good expedition bar packs a lot of calories for its weight, stays chewable at -20°C and below, and is quick to open and eat with cold, clumsy hands. Taste comes next, not first.

• Calories per gram. The mainstream bars in this list sit between 3.6 and 3.8. The gap between 3.8 and 4.6 is about 90g of food for every 2,000 calories (526g against 435g), which adds up over a fortnight.
• Cold behaviour. The UIAA Medical Commission's consensus statement on mountaineering nutrition warns that "extreme cold can result in some foods becoming too hard or brittle to chew easily". Where you carry a bar matters as much as its recipe.
• Wrappers and gloves. Count calories per wrapper: 40g bars mean opening seven packets for 1,000 calories, 120g bars mean two. Fewer packets is also less rubbish to carry out.
• Appetite. The same UIAA statement notes that appetite and taste both fade at altitude, so pick a calorie-dense bar you will still enjoy on day ten, in several flavours to rotate. Our guide to mountaineering nutrition explains why that happens.

The best energy bars for expeditions, ranked

Five options, all on sale in the UK, ranked on the tests above taken together: calories per gram, cold, wrappers and appetite. Figures are per bar from the label.

1. Phoenix Bars: 4.4 to 4.6 calories per gram. From 529 to 557 calories in a small, soft 120g bar, depending on flavour, with up to 66g of carbohydrate and 18 to 19g of protein, the highest calories per gram of the bars here. Shaun Weston took them on a South Pole expedition in January 2026 and wrote: "Easy to eat, even at -45c." Stuart Deel-Smith has used them cross-country skiing in the Arctic at -35 degrees. With 529 to 557 calories per wrapper, you open fewer packets than with anything else on this list.

One practical tip: break each bar into pieces and bag them before you leave. They are vegan and gluten-free, and you can order a pack of Phoenix Bars direct.

2. Romney's Kendal Mint Cake: 3.8 calories per gram. 379 calories per 100g, so about 152 in a 40g bar, made from sugar, glucose syrup, salt and peppermint oil. Nothing here has a longer expedition record: the 1953 British Everest expedition asked for 38lb (about 17kg) of it, and Romney's history of that climb records a team member rating it the most popular item in the high-altitude ration packs. MyRaceKit describes it as keeping its consistency over a wide range of temperatures. The catch is that it is sugar and nothing else. With no fat or protein it is a lift for the last cold hour of the day, not a meal, and 40g bars mean seven wrappers per 1,000 calories.

3. Clif Bar: 3.8 calories per gram. The Chocolate Chip bar is 68g at 381 calories per 100g on Hancocks' listing, which is about 259 calories a bar. It is widely stocked, so it is easy to pick up at short notice. It contains oats and barley, so it is not gluten-free, and like most chewy oat bars it firms up as it chills, so carry the day's bars inside your jacket. Four wrappers per 1,000 calories.

4. Styrkr BAR50: 3.6 calories per gram. 249 calories and 50.4g of carbohydrate in a 70g rice-based bar, vegan and gluten-free, according to Styrkr's product page. It is designed for carbohydrate on the move, so it suits a summit push or a long, hard pull when you want quick fuel. With 2.5g of protein and 8.5g of fat it is fuel rather than food.

5. Nut butter sachets: a top-up, not a bar. Pip & Nut smooth peanut butter is 593 calories per 100g on Ocado's listing, so a 30g squeeze pack is roughly 178 calories. It sits fifth because nut butter thickens as it chills and a squeeze pack is awkward in mitts. Keep sachets against your body and treat them as a top-up alongside bars.

Treks with a hut, refuge or teahouse meal every night are covered further down.

How many energy bars do you need per day on an expedition?

Plan for bars to cover the calories you eat on the move, often 1,500 to 2,500 a day, and let breakfast and a hot evening meal do the rest. At 529 to 557 calories a bar that is three to five Phoenix Bars; at about 250 calories it is six to ten standard bars.

The daily total can be huge. Research by Lewis Halsey and Mike Stroud, published in Physiological Reviews in 2012, put man-hauling sledges in Antarctica at an average of about 7,000 calories a day, reaching 11,000 on days climbing onto the polar plateau. Our 10,000 calorie a day meal plan shows what a day at that level looks like, and the sledging rations guide covers packing it.

Here is the weight arithmetic for a 20-day ski crossing where bars cover 2,000 calories a day:

• Phoenix Bars: 4 a day (2,116 to 2,228 calories), 480g a day, 9.6kg over 20 days, 80 wrappers.
• Kendal Mint Cake: 13 a day (about 1,976 calories), 520g a day, 10.4kg, 260 wrappers.
• Clif Bar: 8 a day (about 2,072 calories), 544g a day, 10.9kg, 160 wrappers.
• Styrkr BAR50: 8 a day (1,992 calories), 560g a day, 11.2kg, 160 wrappers.

So the densest bar saves 0.8 to 1.6kg on the pulk over 20 days, and you open 80 wrappers instead of 160 to 260. On a seven-day trek the same choice saves about 0.3 to 0.6kg. This weight-for-calories problem is why I started making high calorie bars: the idea began in my third year at Exeter as a better food ration for hunger relief, the most calories in the least food. For the meals around the bars, see our expedition nutrition guide.

Which energy foods won't freeze at high altitude?

Phoenix Bars won't freeze: Shaun Weston found them easy to eat at -45°C on a South Pole expedition. For everything else, the fix is where you carry it: the day's food in an inside pocket, against your body, already broken into pieces.

Recipes differ a lot, and customers who took Phoenix Bars into real cold have said so. On the Winter Spine Challenger South, with temperatures around or below freezing, Christian Poulton wrote that "the bars remained soft enough to eat unlike some other food that I had that was too hard to eat". Our polar expedition nutrition guide sets out a full cold-weather food plan.

How to eat a bar with gloves on

Do the fiddly work at home, because opening a sealed wrapper in mitts at -25°C is slow and every minute with a bare hand out costs warmth.

• Snip a notch in each wrapper, or unwrap the day's bars into a zip bag.
• Break each bar into bite-size pieces before you set off. One customer training for the Yorkshire Three Peaks broke each bar into about six pieces and ate them through a 24-mile run.
• Keep today's bag in a chest pocket and tomorrow's in the pulk or rucksack.
• Eat a piece or two every 30 minutes or so, as Christian Poulton did on the Spine, instead of a whole bar at a long stop.

Our expedition kit list covers the rest of what goes in those pockets.

Which bars suit trekking rather than a full expedition?

On a trek with a refuge, lodge or teahouse meal every night, bars only fill the gap between breakfast and dinner.

Toubkal is a two-day round trip from Imlil via the refuge, and our guide to climbing Mount Toubkal covers food for the 3am summit start. On the Everest Base Camp trek you eat three teahouse meals a day, and our Everest Base Camp nutrition guide puts the daily snack gap at 700 to 1,500 calories. For UK hill days and multi-day walks, the best energy bars for hiking comparison ranks bars on weight carried and weather, our guide to the lightest high calorie food for backpacking covers the rest of a multi-day bag, and short, hard days on rock have their own page on rock climbing energy bars.

Frequently asked questions

Are energy bars enough food for an expedition?
With two hot meals a day, yes. Phoenix Bars are the no-cook food for the hours on the move, alongside a hot breakfast and a rehydrated evening meal. Over two or three weeks variety keeps you eating, so pack at least three flavours; Phoenix Bars come in six. The same logic applies to topping up ration packs, covered in our guide to military field nutrition.

What is the most calorie-dense energy bar?
Of the bars checked here, Phoenix Bars, with up to 557 calories in a compact, lightweight 120g bar. That is more than double the 249 to 259 calories in a Styrkr BAR50 or Clif Bar, from less than twice the weight. Our highest calorie bars in the UK list ranks more bars.

How long do bars keep before an expedition?
Check every best-before date against your return date, because expedition food is often bought months ahead. Phoenix Bars have a shelf life of up to two years (Cherry Bakewell 12 months). The UIAA's advice on rations is to weigh up shelf life, storage temperature, weight and packaging together, not one at a time.

Can you turn a bar into a hot breakfast at camp?
Soft bars can be. Phoenix Bars mix with water or milk into a porridge: Stuart Deel-Smith made one from a Chocolate bar, and a runner training for a 170km UTMB race mixed them with water for breakfast. It needs only water, so there is nothing extra to cook.

Which bars keep you going on a long day out?
No bar releases calories evenly for hours; eating a little every 30 to 60 minutes does that. Bars with protein alongside carbohydrate, such as Phoenix Bars (18 to 19g of protein) or Clif Bar (about 10g), are more filling than pure sugar like Kendal Mint Cake, which works best as a quick lift late in the day.

About this guide: I'm James Frost, founder of Flaming Phoenix. Before launching in 2024 I had about 150 conversations with ultra-endurance athletes, expedition people and people who struggle to eat enough, and I still pack every order and answer every email myself, in London. Phoenix Bars are rated 4.9 out of 5 from 391 reviews. Other brands change recipes and prices, so check the label before you buy.

Sources, checked October 2026: UIAA Medical Commission Consensus Statement No. 4, Nutritional Considerations in Mountaineering; Halsey and Stroud, Physiological Reviews, 2012 (summary); Romney's, Kendal Mint Cake and the first ascent of Everest; Styrkr BAR50; Hancocks, Clif Bar Chocolate Chip; Expedition Foods; MyRaceKit, Romney's Kendal Mint Cake; Ocado, Pip & Nut smooth peanut butter.