Packing and Last minute details

By: Dan Piccininni, Kamloops, BC.

Packing is coming along nicely... well...its coming along. and relatively organized. But Dave is right in his last post, when he says there is a seemingly endless stream of things to do before departure. A lot of that stuff has less to do with the trip and more with having things squared away here.

In terms of gear, I will have travel clothes, which we can leave in a locker in Kathmandu, stuff for my day pack, and stuff for the bag that the porter/ yaks will carry.

This is one of the best gear lists I have found.

Generally my gear will be divided as follows.

Day Pack
Rain Jacket
Rain Pants
Gaitors
Fleece sweater
possibly extra long underwear on high altitude days
Down Jacket (most days)
toque
gloves
extra pair of socks
small first aid kit and other emergency supplies
Camera
Video Camera
Binoculars
Water
snacks

Trekking Duffle
Sleeping gear
Clothes that I'm not wearing
other miscellaneous items like extra first aid and medicinal supplies, a repair kit, toiletries


Obviously this will change day to day. On our flight to Lukla, I will probably pack a little more in my backpack in case our checked luggage doesn't make it from Kathmandu on time.

For extra snacks I'm bringing along chocolate bars, granola bars, fruit bars (I'm expecting to average a chocolate bar and another bar per day), a large ziploc of beef jerky, and gatorade powder. As an added treat, Dave and I are going to throw in a couple of of the dehydrated meal desserts...so halfway through the trip when we get a craving for apple pie we're covered. And lets face it, We're talking about Dave and I, we're going to want pie.

A staple of the Nepali Diet is Daal Bhat Tarkari (Lentil soup, rice, vegetable curry) There are a lot of meat and vegetable curries as well (including goat, which is quite tasty) Trek's like ours tend to westernize the menu as well, with items like pizza on a typical trekking menu. (If you're curious about Nepali food there is a Mount Everest Restaurant in downtown Toronto.)