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Posted by Bill S on March 25, 2008 at 12:27:12 pm EDT
In reply to Stratagies for protecting backpack as checked luggage? posted by WISam on March 25, 2008 at 9:59:22 am EDT

I have been doing a fair amount of international travel for expeditions over the past 10 or 15 years, where I have to carry climbing, ski, and/or camping gear (including the "sharpies" that glacier travel and ice climbing require), things like skis, poles, snowshoes, ice axes and tools, crampons, etc. And I often have to get the stove and cook gear there as well. I haven't had anything damaged (yet!) or lost (yet!), although people in my groups have occasionally had problems with the baggage gorillas and conveyors (though more frequently with the airline getting the bags there late or losing them completely). Here's what I do:

1. Ski gear (skis, poles) goes in purpose-made ski carry bags. Ski gear and other "sports" gear is subject to special rules for the airlines (you can even take kayaks!)
2. Old style - I used to put the pack, containing most of the clothes, sleeping gear, tent, and cook gear (except stoves - see below), plus sharpies in a sturdy Outdoor Products duffle. My "blue foam" sleeping pad gets wrapped around the gear inside the duffle, and all sharpies are in cases or have covers over the points. This was checked as regular baggage. After a couple years, I started taking the down gear (sleeping bag, down parka, down pants) and the waterproof/breathable outer layers (shell jacket and pants) in my carryon, just to make sure they would get there, and I wear the boots (a bit of a nuisance with the TSA requirement of removing shoes, but then I know the boots and down gear get there, especially places where there are no good climbing shops that have double plastic boots with thermofit liners or the down gear, such as Punta Arenas, the jumpoff for Antarctica). Since then, the weight limit per bag has gone down, as has the "dimension" of each bag (exceeding these results in huge "overage" charges these days). I started getting worried when I would watch the baggage gorillas out the window of the plane as they loaded or transferred bags. So I went to:
3. New Style (last 5 years or so) - I use an Eagle Creek roll-around bag instead of the soft duffle. Because of the weight and size limits, I sometimes split the gear into the Eagle Creek and a medium duffle. The rollaround has a solid back frame, which protects the sharpies, snow shoes, and hiking poles, and is a lot easier to move around the airport and to and from the rental vehicle or public transportation (as my son and I did in Italy last year). This model of rollaround does not seem to be available anymore, and the one we got for Barb just before our Alaska photo and Denali trip is a bit harder to insert her Dana Terraplane. My Eagle Creek rollaround is nominally 3 inches larger than the current 62-inch limit, but cinching it tightly has so far gotten it past the checkin counters (the size limit is measured as length plus width plus depth, and is something like 62 inches - I find this method of measuring the geometric dimension incomprehensible as to the logic - why not volume?). If I am taking skis, I have to stick with just the one rollaround. And now, with United and some others allowing only one checked bag free for those of us flying on the tail, unlike the rich folk who ride in the front of the cabin, it gets hard to carry all the gear needed for an expedition.

Stoves are a special situation. The airlines differ in their rules, but none allow fuel (either liquid or compressed gas) or stoves or containers that smell of fuel. Some allow stoves and/or fuel bottles that pass the "sniff test" and have no carbon deposits or other indications of use (so you have to clean the stove thoroughly). Some allow new stoves in their original shrink-wrap commercial packaging. Some (most notably Alaska Airlines) do not allow stoves or fuel bottles at all. Check with the airline (you will get different answers from the website, on the phone, and at the airport checkin counter quite often). So what I have been doing is shipping my stoves and fuel bottles (empty, of course) by FedEx or UPS, depending on the destination and their service there. In some cases, you can ship it to yourself at the shipper's office in the town you are going to (I have done this in some foreign countries), but often you have to ship it to someone you know (which can be the hotel you will be staying at, a friend who lives there, or if you are using a guide service, to the guide service office).

I suspect you are more likely to be headed for something lower key than the expeditions I have been going on, but the basic idea of pack inside the duffle or rollaround will still work just fine. You might have a problem finding a rollaround with a hard frame wide enough to take your external frame pack (in my first few trips to Europe as a student, I just checked my Kelty (original version) without the duffle or other protective outer cover. After seeing a few straps ripped off other people's packs, I got a duffle and just put the frame pack inside it (I see lots of packs coming off the conveyors at airports with straps ripped off and have seen a few actually get caught on the conveyors).

More than you wanted to know, but you should be able to extract the information pertinent to your situation.

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