Packing List
October 7th, 2007 by Ken Mankoff
I've been asked a lot of people (and by “a lot” I mean “four”) what I packed, so here is a list. In rough order of importance.
We are limited to 75 lbs including the Extreme Cold Weather (ECW) gear. My pre-ECW bags weigh in at 42 lbs, which is pretty light for 2.5 months in Antarctica.
Clothing
- Towel (1 (why first?))
- Passports (2)
- underwear (7)
- t-shirt (7)
- socks (7 (pair))
- long underwear top (2)
- long underwear bottom (2)
- windbreaker (1)
- hat (1)
- gloves (1 (pair))
- sweater (2)
- pants (1 (flannel lined carharts))
- fleece (1)
- bars of chocolate (6)
- toiletries (usual plus special stuff for long flight)
- food for ~35 hours of travel
- books (Water for Elephants & La Jalousie)
- thai fisherman pants (1)
- bathing suit (1)
- dress shirt (1)
Electronics
- laptop (1)
- external hard drive (movies, backups)
- palm pilot
- iPod shuffle + headphones
- camera
- GPS (TrackStick)
- plug converters
Misc
- currency
- knitting
The ECW gear provided by the USAP includes: FDX boots, FDX boot liners, socks, long underwear, flannel pants, Carhartt bib overalls, wind pants, long underwear top, fleece, lightweight (for Antarctica) red jacket, “Big Red” jacket, neck warmer, 2 hats, 2 pair glove liners, padded gloves, leather gloves, mittens, water bottle.
March 21st, 2010 at 17:50
Missing items were: Lots of tea bags (about 2/day), and a bulk package of Emergen-C.
I don’t drink tea much, but I do enjoy it on the boats. Ginger tea helps with the sea sickness and also keeps me warm.
Other optional items include personal pillows and nicer sheets than what the ship provides. Also, make sure you have enough of the toiletries, as it isn’t easy to get extra toothpaste or deodorant or much of anything else while at sea, although there is usually a very good mini-hospital on each ship.