Shipping Gear to Thailand

Going to be traveling in SE Asia this fall and plan to end the trip by doing some rock climbing in Thailand. Since I'll be backpacking around for about a month prior to climbing, I'd love to not carry around a rope, draws, shoes, chalk, etc for climbing at the end of the trip. Is there any way to ship gear and pick it up in Thailand?

You might look into a storage situation at the airport in Bangkok. Maybe around the corner even. After you're done exploring, grab the gear. I think the trainride was 17 hours to Krabi from there. Easy to have gear on the train.

Steve

I personally wouldn't want to trust the postal system for all of my gear. The storage at the airport sounds like a good idea to me, should be reasonably cheap as well.

I looked into it, but the price of shipping to Krabi from Seattle by UPS (wanted to use a well known shipping company) was 3-400$, plus you have to find a place that you can ship to and that will hold it for you. One option is to buy gear (shops in Tonsai/Railay, Chiang Mai). You can get a harness for around 80$, shoes around 100$, ropes 220$ in Tonsai. Its not cheap, but thats the cost of shipping right there. Another option is buying from climbers that are leaving. People are always posting used gear for sale (usually ropes, harnesses and quickdraws) on the message board in Tonsai at Wee's.

I looked at it as an opportunity to upgrade and bought an arc'teryx harness (packs down very small) and some super lightweight draws. I was able to fit my harness, 16 draws (this was plenty), a 60m 10.2, some lockers, slings, 2 atc's, shoes and a chalk bag in the bottom of a 36L (Gregory Tarne) backpack, with room on top for everything I needed for over two months of travelling around Thailand and Cambodia. You really don't need lots of clothes in SE Asia in the fall. I had one pair of light weight long pants and one light fleece and was fine as far north as Pai (north of Chiang Mai in the foothills). The setup was perfect for me since the pack was small, but it was pretty heavy. I was able to carry the pack on to avoid baggage fees and not worry about people messing with my gear. Out of 8 or so airport security checkpoints with my bag going through the xray scanner, only once did they make me check it (flying out of Krabi Airport, said it was the rope I could not bring on board).

If you'll be in Myanmar (Burma) then, consider climbing at our newly developed sport climbing site east of Mandalay. PM me if interested in details. --Steve