Nothing on this page was bought for a review. Each item was carried on a real trip, kept only if it survived, and written up after at least one long stretch of daily use where the alternative was available and the item was chosen anyway. Anything that lasted less than a month is not listed here at all.
What stays in the pack
The pack itself has been the same forty litre bag for years, because a replacement would have to earn its place against something already broken in. Inside it the list is short: one change of clothes beyond the day, a dry bag for the wet crossing, a head torch, a needle and a spool of thread, and a roll of tape that has fixed more failures than any tool carried. Everything else in the archive has been moved out at least once and never moved back.
Layers beat a heavy coat in almost every climate on these routes, and a single item that does two jobs always beats two items that each do one. The only exception in the whole pack is the rain shell, which does one job and earns it every time.
What failed, and when
The boots lasted one wet season and were replaced by a pair with a resoleable sole, which has outlasted two pairs of the first kind. A water filter clogged after four months of river use and was retired; a charging brick died in the rain and was swapped for one with a sealed case. The zipper on the main bag failed in the second year, and that repair took ten minutes with the thread that was already in the pack.
Repair before replacement
Almost everything that fails on the road can be kept alive for another week: a buckle can be wired, a strap can be stitched, a torn shell can be taped from the inside. The rule here is that the repair has to hold for the remainder of the leg, and if it does not, the item goes. Keeping a broken thing because it cost money is how a pack gains four pounds of dead weight by the third country.
Buying rules
Three rules decide anything new. It has to be replaceable somewhere on the route, it has to weigh less than what it replaces, and it has to have been needed rather than wanted on at least two previous trips. Anything that fails the third test gets borrowed first, which is how the stove, the tripod and the second camera were all ruled out without ever being bought.