In the fall of 2020, pro-climber Sasha DiGiulian underwent her second hip reconstruction surgery. As she doubted whether she’d ever climb again, she found herself with a lot of downtime during her recovery. She took those months to fully commit to her long-time passion: starting a protein bar company.
“I registered the name Send Bars in 2012 when I was a freshman at Columbia University,” she says. Today, her superfood snack brand is stocked on shelves in climbing gyms and health stores nationwide.
Her passion for the protein bar business stems from her own experience of relying on nutrient-dense snacks for energy. When she’s not enjoying a Banana Bread or Lemon-Cherry Send Bar, she’s making one from scratch at home.
Her one rule for making homemade protein bars? It has to start with date caramel—a thick paste that you can make easily by blending water and mashed dates. She loves the dried fruit goo because regardless of the other ingredients she adds, it always seamlessly binds everything together into a chewy, tender bar that boosts her energy before training, hiking, or climbing. “If my…
