The downside of the “Shack in a Pack” is weight. I was actually carrying 12.2kg plus whatever my coat weighs. I could have reduced the size of the power pack and used half the number of batteries on each summit, so saving around 0.8kg. That would require a certain amount of faffing around at the car to change the batteries over, so I just loaded up the full 16.4AH from the start.
The 857 set up was designed primarily for the S2S events when I would be staying on a summit for several hours, hence the inclusion of metering to monitor the power pack. On account of the poor conditions on HF in recent weeks, I have been carrying this up the hills on a more regular basis. I will probably need to include some ballast when I return to the 817.