Friends in the High Places

I’ve learned over the years of expedition preparation to get everything ready early.  Several important things always compete for limited time in the last week before leaving – spending time with family, leaving work projects in a good state, not to mention making sure you have everything you will need for weeks on the mountain, and packing it all.  Packing is a challenge in itself, because you need to anticipate what you will need, when, what will be used together (so you can pack them together), and then try to balance out the weight between duffels, realizing it doesn’t all fit the way I expected, and ultimately leaving some items behind…  I have a recurring nightmare about this…

This time I was able to finish packing about a week in advance.  I’m a little on the heavy side, 127 pounds total, should be at 120.  Now I’ve got to look at what I really don’t need and can leave at home, and see what that does.  I think I can pull out about 3 pounds without too much trouble,  but then it gets harder, and I’ll decide how much I want to take my chances of having to carry a few extra pounds if the yak drivers complain!

Additional complication – Delta is fine with “up to three 70 pound bags”, but we are only on Delta as far as Bangkok, then we hop over to Thai Airways for the leg from Bangkok to Kathmandu.  The Thai Airways website says we are only allowed 2 bags of up to 44 pounds.  I’m having a hard time getting down to 60 pounds each, so 44 pounds just ain’t happening 🙂  Nobody at Delta, nor the travel agent, really has a convincing answer as to how Thai Airways is going to deal with that.  So, I’m packing an extra duffel just in case they make me repack at the airport, and I’ll just have to pay an extra bag fee.