UKC

I am going for K2 and Broad Peak with fieldtouring this year and looking for a suitable shipping agent in the UK to get gear shipped out. Anyone got a reliable source?

Be prepared to pay a bribe at the recieving end when u pick up your stuff. Think we had to pay about $100US to collect our stuff we shipped from australia. If you can do it through your trekking company its easier. The officials in islamabad were the ones to watch out for.

FYI gas canisters are easy to get, white gas not so much.

In reply to ninja_monkey:

Yeh, same here, it's common. I've shipped stuff twice, hassles both times. Once by post, once by DHL. DHL was stupid expensive and when we tried to get the price down shipping back out they just ripped us off in another way. This was using one of the most popular agencies too.

I'd avoid shipping gear unless it was really unavoidable, and do everything I could to take it with me. Even if it was $$$ at least you know you'll have it on arrival and won't waste time schlepping around offices in ISB in 40 deg heat.

In reply to Damo:

How does one schlep?

In reply to Damo:

I agree - you could consider upgrading to business class, gives you an extra 20kg. In 2010 Emirates were charging 25 quid per additional kilo to Islamabad, so you might break even on the additional ticket cost and have a much better flight into the bargain.

When you get ISB you can pick up your gear, go straight to the domestic terminal and be chilling in Skardu within a few hours instead of fighting the import system in ISB.

In reply to radson:

Schlowly

In reply to AndyC:

Yeah, this is what I have done as well. After a flurry of emails to respective airlines requesting their respective excess baggage charges, I plugged them all into a super-duper spreadsheet (at the very limit of my excel skills) and found that with the amount of baggage I expect to be taking ~60 kgs that it would only cost me $100 more to fly business to Islamabad from Singapore with Thai airways.

So $100 paid to get my little micro glass of champagne on take-off. Awesome deal.

Closer to the departure date, I may just email Thai Airways in Singapore and plead my case as to why they shouldn't charge me so much excess. The worst that can happen is that they not reply.

In reply to radson:

No, the worst that can happen is that they offer you some generous deal, you take it, even get a letter for proof, then turn up at the airport with 40kg of excess only to find the deskperson will have none of it, letter or not, it's too late to change anything and you end up paying full whack xs on an economy seat ticket.

Actually, no, the worst that can happen is that lots of people bribe the deskpeople to whack in a few extra kilos and the overloaded plane smacks into a hillside rice paddy on the approach to landing

Hopefully the Business Class thing works for you, let us know if it works out. It was always touted as a solution, but the problem was it used to be possible to fly Economy, then smile and cajole and niggle in several extra kilos on Thai's 25kg + carryon, so you ended up taking nearly 40kg total for no extra cost. But those days are gone.

Anyway, 60kg? Is that taking Personal Dwarf Sherpa and fresh undies for every camp?

OK guilty, there may have been some excess baggage creep seep into the equations to justify my glass of champagne....

My former climbing partner once told that the ladies at check in that our bags were filled with home made jam for the orphans of Nepal. Probably had to be there, but they laughed so much at this blatant lie that they indeed let us on without charge.


Sux about that letter

In reply to radson:

That's hilarious, love the sense of humour.

My technique works a treat too - wear everything, and fill every pocket with as much as possible (I know this has been said before)