100 Pounds of Gear?!?

The 'final' pile of gear and packs.

Four people for 3 weeks need a LOT of stuff, especially in the winter! We've been agonizing over the trip for months and virtually packing for weeks. Today we started actually packing.

We had stuff all over every surface. Some items went into the piles easily. We already purchased and picked out trekking pants, long underwear, and socks. But other items weren't as easy. The toothbrush demanded a discussion of individual toothpaste or sharing. The solar panels brought up all sorts of complications around the new lightening tips required by newer Apple devices. Packing the passports required getting the scanner running to make copies of the first page.

Still, we ended the day with six piles of stuff - one for each of us, plus group gear and snacks. We're taking five backpacks - one each plus one for our porter. We'll be renting really warm sleeping bags in Kathmandu, so we had to figure those into our calculations:

5 empty back packs: 25 pound
Clothes, toiletries, etc.: 40+ pounds
Group gear: 15+ pounds
Food: 5+ pounds
Rented sleeping bags: 16+ pounds

So we're just over 100 pounds. Divided by 4 means 25 pounds each. Plus water. So we can't add anything else. Fortunately, we're hiring a porter and a guide to help - so we really can add that last water bottle, the new charging block and the other items that haven't arrived in the mail yet - and still not overload ourselves or our porter.

Can you believe we need this much stuff?

Toby