I too have used that exact chain catcher thingee with great results.
Really good advice here, especially the example of barret and what he climbed in Italy (?) how much he weighs and about how much weight he had.
Can't recall if I or others have written, but with lots and lots of climbing, you will feel every 5kg more of stuff a lot, so we can give gearing recommendations, but what you can do is to start to put your stuff together and actually see how much it weighs, and perhaps over time try to figure out stuff you dont need.
Again, cant recall if this was mentioned, but the rough estimate of trying to keep your bike weight + load to half your body weight is a good one. I'm about 140lbs , so a 70lb bike+gear total is about what I have toured a lot with (and sometimes less, never bad to be less...)