Hi Dani,

Exciting times ahead for you! I suggest you wade through the various threads in this website and you'll find heaps of info that will help you out.

For what it's worth:
– You sound pretty fit and young (unless you're one of those that never leave uni….) so you should be right fitness wise. I'd suggest as much hill work with your boots on as possible. Your shoes sound appropriate – I had some similar sounding hiking boots with ankle support which did me fine. I uped the ante with jogging as well which helped with stamina.

– You're investing in the right things with your pack and shoes. Bear in mind a lot of stuff gets trashed as you're wet, muddy and stinky most of the time so I personally went pretty cheap on just about everything else. For example I walked in the same shirt every day. Everything was soaked in 30mins from sweat every single day, so multiple dry trekking shirts are a waste of time.

– You may wish to consider using a porter, it's great for the locals, but depends on why you want to trek as to whether you do that or not.

– I went in May, carried a sleeping bag, but don't think I ever pulled it up. You won't need a 5 degree rated bag, but if you've already got it and it's not too bulky, it'll do.

– You're going to find lists on this and other sites about what you need to take (headlamp, toilet paper, medications, blister remedies, gatorade type supplements, etc etc etc.) I'd suggest getting the non perishables as soon as practicable and trialling packing. Space is at a premium. [That's another advantage to a porter, you can carry a lighter pack yourself and fit in a bit more]. Also, if you are travelling with someone else you can share a lot of stuff.

I must say I enjoyed all the prep, good fun. People have lots of different opinions, just consult the lists and work out what's best for you. You need to be serious about the preparation, but don't take it too seriously if that makes any sense…..there are different ways to skin a cat. I'm rambling, sorry.

Any questions and there's people on here happy to relive their experience a little bit by providing some advice. You're going to LOVE it.

Hi Dani

I answered one of your earlier posts, not realising you were in another forum.

If you like you can get my email address of Gail and I'll email you a lsit of every single item and it's weight to use as a guide.

Also when are you trekking, as we (3 of us) are trekking April/May.

regards

Waza

Hi there, yes have purchased a few of these and they were ok. Of course not the same quality as say some of the more expensive brands, but if you are not a serious trekker and plan on walking heaps of other places, as long as the size is right (75 ltr) and the straps look strong, the cheaper the better. I purchased some cheap unknown brands on ebay to see how they would go as food packs (sight unseen) and found them terrible with only a couple of treks in them but at $50 a backpack, still a cheap option and still gets the job done.

Thanks for that…..I actually HATE bushwalking/camping etc, only purchasing as I plan on doing Kokoda in July 2013 and then again in 2015. Only asked about Denalli as it is stocked in my local Anaconda store and i was curious as to whether anyone had experiences with it.

I'm thinking Black Wolf Mantis 11……more room than the Mantis 1 and similar weight.

Andrew, I took a 3 man dome tent and shared it with my father. It was a cheap Kmart jobby and was perfect.

We had 6 nights on the trek and only camped "outside" once. All other times we were either in fully enclosed huts or lean-to type huts with no walls. On these nights we erected the inner part of the tent only to keep mossies out, but it was mesh so let welcome air in.

It's not much fun sitting in your tent by yourself while there's a fire going and the boys are singing. So I'd go for cheap, one with a fly screen type (mesh) inner, and small.

Re. your pack it really depends on how much you want to take as to whether you get a 75 or 85 ltr one. If you're able to arrange to share some stuff with companions you can cut down on a fair bit.