Tamara Lunger
My source of energy - FOOD
Tamara was born in Bolzano in 1986. As the daughter of a famous ski mountaineer, she grew up in the mountains. This is probably the reason why the mountains play such a big role in her life and have become her passion. “Every moment I spend in the mountains, I learn more about myself and I am grateful for this life.” Tamara tried various sports as a young child, but her true passion for the mountains remains undiminished. In 2002 she started ski mountaineering, became Italian champion as a member of the Italian national team in 2006 and 2008, and achieved other notable successes. At the age of 14, she had the dream of climbing an 8,000-metre peak one day. In 2009, during her first attempts at mountaineering in Nepal, it was no longer a dream. Since then, Tamara has been certain: “This is the life I want. And nothing else.” In 2014, she became the second Italian woman to climb K2. !
Food is very, very important for me on expeditions – it gives you the energy you need to accomplish everything you want.
It is hugely important to travel with light equipment. On an expedition, this means that everything has to be extremely light so that you can move reasonably quickly at high altitudes. Of course, the stoves and pots also have to be super light – exactly like PRIMUS products, which is why I love them!
In winter, we mainly cook with petrol, as this saves space and weight. But more importantly, you don’t have to take gas cartridges into your sleeping bag, which is very annoying and cold in the extreme conditions. Otherwise you have to put the cartridges in the sleeping bag to warm them up on cold nights when the temperatures are minus 30–40 degrees, and that’s gruesomely cold. So we mainly cook with petrol and that works fine.
I always have two stoves with me, the small OmniLite with a 0.5-litre pot. I prepare my drinks there and fill all the Primus vacuum insulated bottles, then once I have emptied them the whole process starts all over again.
I have a separate pot for food. Because for me it is very important that the food and drink are not cooked in the same pot. I can’t stand it when grease patches are staring at me from the tea and I can taste it too. You basically don’t have that much appetite on an expedition. You don’t like to eat and you don't like to drink. You have to drink litre after litre and that’s why it’s very important that the drink tastes good and not like soup or rice. The PRIMUS equipment is extremely reliable and works great.
- Tamara Lunger
