I carry a lucky coin (old piece of silver coin from Indo China made in 1880 worth about $60). It's sort of my lucky charm. I was up in the mountains and got lil strapped on cash since instead of roughing it as I normally would I was forced to stay in lodges since it was my girls first trip. I sent my pack over the pass 3 days earlier and forgot that I left my fleece with cash in it. Also bank closed my account after one withdrawal on foreign soil and it costed a lot of cash to call the US. So out of the sudden I'm lil short on money but have some US currency as well as loose British coins that were more than enough. I went to pay for a meal and other stuff and guy is frowning upon US and GB money saying they aint so good lately. He is pointing to my $1000 watch, my leatherman or my headlamp, jacket and even boots (every vital piece of equipment) as a trade option but obviously trade on all this stuf is out of the question. Finally it hits me. I pull out a piece of silver and we make a deal. Obviously I wasn't in the position to bargain but somehow the silver was stronger currency than everything. But nice thing is that 10 days later I was able to acquire another lucky coin which was a silver US dollar ffrom late 1800s. Problem is that in 10 days without my lucky coin I was hit by a boulder and hoped along down. Still it is an interesting point of view how sometimes paper money would have no value but something worth of trade and looking serious has.

And as far as the EDC goes... I realized that flashlights are not as handy as headlamps (packed up my surefire gear and never touched it), knives have nothings on multitools (striders gave way to the leatherman), good FAK is essential (got hit by a boulder, did right first aid and was able to walk), good clothes (good gore tex/fleece made sure I'm warm and dry), boots (more on it below) and socks (dry feet = happy polak), good sleeping bag (warm feet = happy polak).

Also be aware that shoemaker who just resoled your shoes may have done a crappy job no matter how nice it looks. 5 days into the trek my heels on my Scarpa boots started to separate from the shoe body. Thank god for local crazy glue which I had to apply every day before bed.

Miox is great.

Garmin VistaCx and local maps are great tool but map is better. Map + GPS are the best. I downloaded special area maps in order to know where I am all the time but also bought NG map of the place. At no point those maps were in agreement with each other but between the two I was able to figure out my position. Sometimes GPS would freak and just jump the distance telling me that I did 50 km in one day.

Just few pointers here and there but the most important thing is: EDC up in the mountains changes a lot and every little thing adds up. My main pack in which I kept stuff for my girl and me that had down clothes, two sleeping bags and other misc equipment was about 25 kgs (~50 lbs). My personal pack that had "survival items", extra clothes and camera gear was at 20 KGs (~40 lbs). I started carrying liner for my sleeping bag on me just in case while the main pack was sent up by the porter and robed by Maoeist or bandits. When I finally had a day of acclimatization I decided to throw away (separate) the redundant items, items not being used and luxury items (including extra camera gear) and weight of my both packs was down to 32 Kgs (~64 lbs) together. All this extra weight is the stuff I could have done without but would have no safety net to fall upon (no extra blade, no extra dry clothes, no backup lights, less backup batteries, no waterproof cases (small pelicans substituted by ziplocks), etc...) Also my girls sleeping bag was around 2.5 Kg and her clothes were in the main pack as well. My point in all this is that we build up BOBs with a lot of backups in mind but if you ever had to carry it up and down for few days you may not have been to keen on redundancy.

That's about it and thanks for listening.

Hi Polak187,

Sounds like you should of had Mr TJ 'King' Kongs Aircrew Survival Kit as backup,

"Survival kit contents check. In them you'll find:

- One forty-five caliber automatic
- Two boxes of ammunition
- Four days' concentrated emergency rations
- One drug issue containing antibiotics, morphine,
vitamin pills, pep pills, sleeping pills, tranquilizer pills
- One miniature combination Russian phrase book and Bible
- One hundred dollars in rubles
- One hundred dollars in gold
- Nine packs of chewing gum
- One issue of prophylactics
- Three lipsticks
- Three pair of nylon stockings.

Shoot, a fella' could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff."

Please adjust currency values for inflation since 1963.

Sorry to here you had to give up your lucky charm.

P.S What was the country that wouldn't accept US dollars or UK Sterling (very strong currency at the moment)? It would be interesting to know as I have never had this problem unless it was Continental Europe (Euro Zone).

I always carry some coins (dollars, quarters, dimes, and nickels), since I have been dropped off at airports with no prior notice (while on a recon mission) to lighten the helo for 1 more body when the aircraft was diverted for SAR (when in doubt, dump the QM, and refuel). These coins allowed me to phone for a ride, get food and drink from vending machines, etc.

Being coins, I don't tend to spend them (too lazy to dig them out), unless I have a legitimate need for them. I add to them everytime I get some of the new dollars, quarters, and nickels. That's usually twice a month during each crew change.

It works for me.

It was in Nepal. I don't think that poor villager knew the value of Pound (indeed a strong currency) which I had in mixed coins (maybe he didn't like that fact) and US dollars are so down that he didn't want to hear about it. Well I was short of gun, ammo, morphine and 1 lipstick . I speak Russian enough to get me by.

I have never been to Nepal, must have been a great trip though apart from this incident. Maybe the poor villager knew exactly the value of the currency alright, a $60 dollar silver coin was certainly a good deal for him. Just from experience western tourists can easily become victims of certain scams involving cash. Not accepting cash such as Dollars, Euro's, Sterling or even Roubles and then trying to barter for high end value goods sounds like a bit of a scam to me. His face probably lit up when you pulled out your lucky silver coin, then bit in to it just to check it was real silver. Maybe a couple of cheap Rolex knock offs should be included in the inventory if I ever make to Nepal.

I was also interested in the problems you had with your boots. Making repairs in the field can be difficult as some boots begin to seperate between the sole and footbed/leather upper. I was interested in the glue you were using as a tempory fix. Was this a two part epoxy glue? I have never found anything that really works, even epoxies or super glues (cyanoacrylate), as they set to hard and crack when the boot is used again apart from Dow Cornings 3140 RTV, which is available at

https://www.ellsworth.com/display/productdetail.html?productid=225&Tab=Products

Its used mostly in the electronics industry but cures in air to form a tough rubber sealant with a high tear resistance and will even adhere to glass and leather.

I had a local guide with me (a friend of mine for 2 years) so I wasn't getting scammed. I got my $60 in goods and it all worked out in the end. And I found a different lucky charm at the end of the trip that I bought for pennies and just checked it's value in coin magazine In order for this guy to change money he has to walk 5-6 days than take a full day drive to town in order to do anything so this is also why he might have refused.

I have Scarpa vibram sole boots for last few years. After Everest trip last year they started showing wear. I brought it to the local shop that specializes in resoling and they used vibram to change heels on both boots. They looked pristine and perfect but 5 days into the trip they started separating. Glue I used was local crazy glue that smelled exactly the same as the crazy glue we get in the US and it was made in Japan. And yes it held well but at the end of the day it cracked and entire process had to be repeated over. I had to stick with local stuff since I had no other stuff and didn't predict something like that to happen.

Thats good to hear you weren't being scammed.

"...One issue of prophylactics..."

I've gotta ask...how many is an "issue"???

I assume you're referring to the MIOX® Purifier? How much will it hold? I ask because I noticed the MFR says it will need 4 hours to kill crypto.

True, 30 min to get rid of most of the junk and 4 hrs to kill crypto. I almost bought the UV pen but having read many things about Miox I ended up with it. At first it was still my concern that it takes 4 hrs to completly purify stuff but with the 4 bottle system I had it was all good. Plus since I run kayaking trips with 10 plus people possibility of purifying large quantities of water is a big advantage.