Lost/Stolen Gear – LHR / Iceland

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 Solaris 21 Sep 2022

A rucksack went missing en route from Keflavik to London Heathrow on 14th Sept, so this is a heads up in case any one comes across cheap items for sale. If you see, or think you may know the whereabouts of, any of these items it'd be a real kindness if you could send me a PM, please.

Hilleberg Nallo 2 tent

Macpac Glissade 70L rucksack, blue - 1990s model, still going strong.

Mountain Equipment Glacier 450 Sleeping bags, one women's, one regular length

Soto Windmaster Stove + Soto pot set.

RescueME PLB (and in case anyone wonders - Thank you, I have notified UK Coastguard that it's disappeared)

Garmin GPSMAP66st with Iceland SD card loaded + Iceland waypoints.

2 x Thermarest NeoAir mats

Rab Xenon jkt

Almost all of these items have distinguishing marks by which I can identify them as ours, so if you come across anything you are not sure about, do please send me a PM.

A couple of closing thoughts that may be of help to others: put *all* small electricals in hand luggage! We tried to cut baggage down by putting as much as possible in a single, expedition rucksack but with hindsight, doing so has caused us to lose more than we might otherwise. And, finally (and probably rhetorically), why was our luggage initially reported to us as having been logged as arrived at LHR only subsequently to be logged as not having arrived?

Post edited at 11:26
 Hooo 21 Sep 2022
In reply to Solaris:

I gather it was lost by the airline? It might still show up eventually. Years ago a group of us flew in to Heathrow and none of our bags arrived. Over the next two weeks everyone else's bag got delivered to a random address from the group, but mine never showed up. A few weeks later I was arriving in Heathrow again and so I thought I'd ask about it. They took me to a room that was piled floor to ceiling with bags. After a bit of digging I located mine and took it away - with no checks or supervision I might add.

OP Solaris 21 Sep 2022
In reply to Hooo:

Not sure who lost it or how - as my final question was meant to imply. Did it arrive, or didn't it? If it did, and it was scanned before being deleted from the system, it makes us wonder about theft at LHR. If it didn't it was the airline – Icelandair, who I've used a lot in the past, without incident.

The lost luggage people now give it three weeks before the compensation process (such as it is) is initiated, so we'll be patient, and continue to hope.

Love your profile pic. Cham? What route is it?
 

 Hooo 21 Sep 2022
In reply to Solaris:

I'd say theft was pretty unlikely. It's a problem at some airports but never heard of it at Heathrow. It's far more likely that it's lost in the system somewhere. Probably in a huge pile in a back room somewhere like mine was. One thing I found out is that they are not interested in reading your name and address tag. They purely go on the baggage label that is applied at check-in, and if something happens to that then you are screwed. Eventually someone will get round to looking at it and reading your address, but I've heard of people getting bags returned years later. 

The route is the Aiguille d'Entrèves Traverse. I think you can reach it from Cham but we got the gondola from the Italian side. Apparently the exposure is breathtaking, but we didn't quite have the weather to see it.

OP Solaris 21 Sep 2022
In reply to Hooo:

Thanks for the info. Do you work in the airline/travel (related) industry? It's shocking to hear of the laxity in the system.

Entreves traverse - interesting. We scrambled up the easy bit of it once (before it was in an English-lang guidebook!) when we were stopped by the 'schrund on the Gervasutti couloir on the Tour Ronde but it was really busy. Looks good, especially in the mist.

 dread-i 22 Sep 2022
In reply to Hooo:

OP: Sorry to hear about your kit. Have a bump.

>I'd say theft was pretty unlikely.

Agreed. A dodgy baggage handler is likely to open a case and take small, high value items, they can conceal and sell easily. A rucksack full of kit, is probably hard to hide and sell.

I've heard of people using AirTags to identify where their lost luggage actually is. At least you can phone the right airport.

OP Solaris 22 Sep 2022
In reply to dread-i:

Thanks for the bump! And thanks for the encouraging words, too. They make sense.

Useful tip about AirTags; will look into them for the future. I've also had some good help from an Icelander who's posted the info on the Icelandic rock climbing club Facebook page.

But I want my beloved, trusty Macpac sac back!

 Hooo 22 Sep 2022
In reply to Solaris:

I don't work in the industry or have any inside knowledge, just relating my personal experience. Airline baggage handling is like any other large scale logistics business, such as parcel delivery. A huge number of minimum-wage staff who have no incentive to give a crap, kept running by sophisticated data systems. It works 99.999% of the time, which is good enough for them. As long as they can keep to that 99.999% figure there is no incentive to have a plan in place for the other 0.001%. Those few failures cost such a disproportionate amount to sort out that they just don't bother. They can afford to piss off that many customers.

Sorry, that's not really a very helpful reply! There's still a chance you'll get your bag back, but it could take a while.

OP Solaris 24 Sep 2022
In reply to Hooo:

> Those few failures cost such a disproportionate amount to sort out that they just don't bother. They can afford to piss off that many customers.

Sounds like my dealings with the importer of a formerly well-respected overseas brand of climbing equipment.

Meanwhile, I'll continue to hope!

OP Solaris 06 Oct 2022
In reply to Solaris:

Well, the three week period that the airline/baggage tracking company said should be allowed before next steps are taken is up, and still nothing.

So now will be contacting airline again, and travel insurers.

OP Solaris 18 Oct 2022
In reply to Solaris:

Well, 5 weeks after it failed to appear at LHR, the rucksack, complete with its contents, appeared on our doorstep this afternoon. Seems like it didn't manage to leave Iceland until yesterday afternoon...

Thanks to all for encouragement not to give up hope!

 Ridge 18 Oct 2022
In reply to Solaris:

Glad to hear that!

OP Solaris 21 Oct 2022
In reply to Ridge and all:

Thanks!

I'm particularly delighted to be reunited with my beloved Macpac Glissade.

On checking the original and replacement costs of the "lost" gear, I found the original swing tag for the pack. I bought it some time in the mid-90s and paid £159. Macpac rucksacks seem now to be unobtainable in the UK but I found a replacement model (a Traverse = more recent, detuned Glissade) second-hand but little used, going for £120. So I think I've got value for money out of that pack... and will continue to for a few more years yet.


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