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Travel Himalaya Nepal

Field-tested kit

What to buy, what to rent,and what to leave at home

Our guides walk these trails every season and watch the same kit fail in the same places. This is what we actually tell people — including the expensive things we think you should rent in Thamel rather than buy, which earn us nothing.

Start here: don’t buy these

Rent them in Kathmandu or Pokhara for a dollar or two a day. You will use them once, they cost hundreds to own, and the rental shops stock them properly. There are no buy links on these cards because there is nothing here for us to earn.

Down jacket

Rent it. We earn nothing telling you this.

A good down jacket costs $300-400 to buy and about $1 a day to rent in Thamel — a rate trekkers have reported consistently for over a decade. You use it for one trek. The maths is not close.

If you do buy locally, the risk is not the logo — it is fill. Counterfeit "down" is often feathers or foam, which looks convincing and is thermally useless. Squeeze it: real down springs back in seconds. Shona's and Sports Wear International are the two makers trekkers name repeatedly as genuine.

Rent this in Nepal. About $1-2 per day in Thamel or Pokhara. We earn nothing when you do.

Four-season sleeping bag

Rent it. Same reasoning.

A -15C bag is a genuine safety item on the high treks and a genuine waste of $400 for a single trip. Thamel rental shops stock them properly.

Bring a silk liner of your own if you are particular about hygiene — that part is cheap and personal.

Rent this in Nepal. About $1-2 per day in Thamel or Pokhara. We earn nothing when you do.

About the links on this page.Some go to Amazon, and as an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases — at no extra cost to you. It changes nothing about what we recommend: the down jacket and the sleeping bag on this page carry no buy link, because we think you should rent those in Thamel for a dollar or two a day, and we earn nothing when you do. Everything with a button is something we think is worth owning.

Boots & Footwear

All boots & footwear

More trekkers are stopped by their feet than by altitude. Nothing here can be borrowed — it has to fit you.

Mid-weight hiking boots

Half a size up. The single most important thing you own.

What to look for: Waterproof membrane, ankle support, stiff-ish midsole, half a size larger than your street shoe

Feet swell at altitude and on long descents your toes need room, or you lose toenails coming down from Kala Patthar. Ankle support and a stiff midsole matter on rocky descent more than on the way up.

Skip the heavy mountaineering boot unless you are climbing a peak. It is more boot than a teahouse trek needs and your legs feel every gram.

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Merino wool socks

Three or four pairs. The least glamorous item on any list.

What to look for: Merino wool, cushioned, mid-calf

More trekkers are stopped by their feet than by altitude. Merino manages moisture, does not stink after four days, and dries overnight on a teahouse line.

Cotton socks are how you get blisters by day two. Leave them at home.

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Eye Protection

All eye protection

The one thing nobody rents, and the one where getting it wrong is an injury rather than a discomfort.

Category 4 glacier glasses

For anywhere you walk on snow above 4,500 m.

What to look for: EN ISO 12312-1 filter category 4 (3-8% VLT), wraparound or side shields, full UV block

UV rises 10-12% per 1,000 m and fresh snow reflects up to 80% of it, so you are lit from above and below. Side coverage stops the light ordinary sunglasses miss entirely.

Not road legal in many countries — genuinely too dark to read traffic lights.

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Category 3 wraparound sunglasses

Enough for anything below about 4,000 m.

What to look for: EN ISO 12312-1 filter category 3 (8-18% VLT), wraparound, UV400

Poon Hill, Mardi Himal, Ghandruk, Annapurna Base Camp in a normal autumn. Prioritise fit and wrap over darkness — you will actually keep them on.

Above about $60 you are buying brand and frame materials, not more protection.

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Headlamps & Power

All headlamps & power

Our itineraries leave at 3:00, 4:00 and 4:30 AM. Teahouse power is metered solar that does not always deliver.

Headlamp with a red mode

250 lumens. The red button is the part people skip and regret.

What to look for: 200-350 lumens, red night mode, takes AAA as a fallback

Our itineraries leave at 3:00 AM (Manaslu), 4:00 AM (Thorong La, Larkya La) and 4:30 AM (Poon Hill). Red mode preserves night vision and lets you pack at 3am without waking a six-bed dorm.

Do not chase 1,000-lumen numbers. That is search-and-rescue brightness and it mostly blinds the person in front of you.

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Lithium AAA batteries

Plus one full spare set, carried against your body.

What to look for: Lithium (not alkaline), AAA, 8-pack

Alkaline runs on a water-based electrolyte whose ion mobility collapses near freezing. Lithium holds lower internal resistance when cold, and the gap widens under the high-drain load a headlamp puts on a pass.

Rechargeable NiMH is fine at teahouse temperatures but fades faster than lithium in real cold.

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Water & Health

All water & health

What you drink and what you carry for when things go wrong.

Hollow-fibre squeeze filter

Plus chlorine tablets as the backup.

What to look for: Hollow-fibre squeeze filter, plus chlorine dioxide tablets

Handles the bacteria and protozoa that matter on a Nepali trail, works from a teahouse tap, and saves buying bottled water — which climbs steeply with altitude and has been reported as high as several dollars a litre at the top lodges.

A UV pen works too; trekkers report using one for years, often alongside a filter for redundancy. If you use chemical tablets, note that chlorine dioxide needs several hours of contact time, not minutes.

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Hydrocolloid blister plasters

Twice as many as you think. The most-used item in any kit.

What to look for: Hydrocolloid blister plasters, assorted sizes

The hardest thing to replace once you are above Chhomrong. Your guide carries a kit, but it is not there to resupply eight people with blisters.

Do not rely on a pre-made travel first aid kit for this — they are thin on exactly the thing you use daily.

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Poles & Packs

All poles & packs

Worth owning if you hike at home. Worth renting if you do not.

Trekking poles

Rent for one trek. Buy if you hike at home.

What to look for: Collapsible aluminium, FLIP-lock not twist-lock, carbide tips

Aluminium bends where carbon snaps, and a bent pole still gets you down the hill. Trekkers repeatedly warn off twist-locks, which slip under load, and off ultralight poles that will not hold a grown adult slipping on ice. Descents are the agreed use case — the Thorong La descent is the one people name.

Buying beats renting here: a serviceable pair is $5-15 in Thamel or Namche, against about $1/day to rent. Plenty of experienced trekkers use one pole rather than two, purely as a brake going downhill.

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Not sure what your trek actually needs?

Tell us the route and the month and we will send you the real list — including the things you can safely leave behind.

Ask our guidesThe full rental guide