Nepal is open for the autumn season, and glad you are coming.
Everest, Annapurna and Thorong La are open. Langtang treks stay paused while the Rasuwa road is rebuilt; Mustang and Manang roads are still being repaired.
27things our guides put on the list for this route specifically — not a generic packing list. 3 of them we tell you to rent rather than buy, which earns us nothing.
See the trek itselfAbout 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 does not change what we recommend: every card here also says who the item is not for, and a few things we think you should simply rent in Kathmandu or Pokhara instead, which earns us nothing.
Best overallIcebreaker Merino 200 Oasis Long Sleeve Crew
Merino at 200-weight is the one true trekking base layer — warm damp, warm dry, and it does not smell; it is also three times the price of synthetic and it will eventually hole at the shoulder where the pack rubs.
Skip it ifA four-day trek where you can wash and change. Synthetic is cheaper, tougher and dries faster; merino earns its price on long trips without laundry.
Best sleeping layerSmartwool Classic Thermal Merino Base Layer Bottom
The single best sleep-warmth upgrade above 4,000 m and it doubles under trousers on a cold pass; at 250-weight it is too warm to walk in on any ordinary day.
Skip it ifLow-altitude treks. Below 3,000 m you will never take them out of the bag.
Best down jacket to ownRab Microlight Alpine Down Jacket
Warm, well-cut and light enough to carry all day — but understand what you are buying: a rental shop in Thamel will hire you a warmer expedition jacket for a few dollars a day, and we earn nothing telling you that.
Skip it ifOne trek and then a wardrobe. Rent a −20 °C jacket in Kathmandu for a fraction of this and spend the difference on boots.
Best warm hatSmartwool Merino Cuffed Beanie
Merino stays warm when it is damp with sweat, which a cotton beanie does not — it is thin enough that in real wind you still want a hood over it.
Skip it ifSub-zero summit mornings on its own. Layer it under a hood.
Expedition down jacket (−20 °C)
You need this for perhaps three evenings of an Everest Base Camp trek. Buying one costs several hundred dollars; renting one in Kathmandu costs a few, and the shops keep them in good condition because their business depends on it.
Skip it ifAnyone who trekks or climbs regularly. If this is your third Himalayan trip, buy your own.
Rental shops in Kathmandu and Pokhara carry this — about usd 1-2 per day in thamel or lakeside. We take nothing from that.
Insurance that actually covers a Himalayan trek
Standard travel policies exclude trekking above 3,000 m and almost all exclude helicopter evacuation — a rescue from the Khumbu can run to five figures in USD, and the insurer decides afterwards, not at the time. Read the altitude clause before you read anything else.
Skip it ifNobody. Three things to confirm in writing: your itinerary’s maximum altitude is covered, helicopter evacuation is covered, and repatriation is covered. If an insurer will not confirm all three, use a different insurer.
We take no commission from any insurer and recommend no brand. This is a checklist.
Pays for itself onceDigital luggage scale
Domestic Nepali flights have a 10-15 kg allowance and they enforce it at the desk in cash — a scale costs less than one excess charge and settles the argument in your hotel room instead of the queue.
Skip it ifTrips with no domestic flight and no porter.
Best compactSony ZV-1 II
A one-inch sensor is a genuine step past a phone in low light, and the wide end handles a valley that a phone flattens — battery life is poor, and in the cold it is worse than poor.
Skip it ifWildlife in Chitwan or Bardia. You want reach there, not width.
Best watchGarmin Instinct 2 Solar
The barometric altimeter is the genuinely useful bit — watching your sleeping altitude is how acclimatisation stops being abstract; the solar charging is marketing more than mechanism on a wrist under a sleeve.
Skip it ifAnyone who would treat its SpO2 number as a medical reading. It is not one.
Best overallNalgene Wide Mouth 1 L
Fill it with boiling water at dinner and it is a hot water bottle all night, then drinking water in the morning — that second job is why we recommend hard plastic over any soft flask above 4,000 m.
Skip it ifNobody on a cold trek. The hot-water-bottle trick alone justifies it.
Useful with caveatsFingertip pulse oximeter
Useful for spotting a trend across several mornings, and actively dangerous if you treat a single reading as a verdict — cold fingers alone can drop a reading by several points, and consumer devices are not calibrated for 5,000 m.
Skip it ifAnyone who would use it to overrule how they feel or what a guide says. Symptoms decide; the number does not.
Best overallSawyer Squeeze Water Filter
Effectively unlimited water for the cost of a couple of bottled waters, and it threads straight onto a standard bottle — it does NOT remove viruses, so pair it with chemical drops on trails below villages.
Skip it ifAnyone treating it as complete protection. Below the last village, add drops or a UV pen.
The honest necessityBiodegradable body wipes
Hot showers above Dingboche cost money, use a lodge’s scarce fuel, and leave you cold for an hour afterwards — a wipe wash is the realistic alternative, and "biodegradable" still means carry them out, not bury them.
Skip it ifAnyone unwilling to pack out used wipes. Then take fewer and use the shower.
Best overallOsprey Talon 33
Thirty-three litres holds a day layer, water, snacks and a camera with room for the down jacket you take off at ten — it is a frameless-ish pack, so above about 9 kg it stops being comfortable.
Skip it ifIndependent trekkers carrying everything themselves. You want 50-65 litres and a real frame.
Best overallBlack Diamond Pursuit Adjustable Trekking Poles
Aluminium bends where carbon shatters, and a bent pole still walks you down; you carry about 100 g more per pair than carbon for that insurance, and cork grips beat foam once your hands sweat.
Skip it ifGram-counters. Take carbon and accept that a fall on rock can end the pole.
Best overallMountain Hardwear Camp 4 Duffel 65 L
Weatherproof, takes a bus roof in rain without complaint, and 65 litres is the size that keeps you inside a porter weight limit. Take this rather than the 95 L version: the big one is a trap, because you will fill it.
Skip it ifAnyone tempted by a 95 L duffel. Our porter limit is 15 kg for two trekkers combined — a bag you cannot fill is a feature, not a compromise.
Best overallJulbo Shield M
The one pair that works from Lukla to the Cho La — shields on for snow, off for the walk-in. You pay roughly double a normal sports sunglass for that flexibility.
Skip it ifA short trek that never touches snow. A decent Category 3 wraparound at a fifth of the price does that job.
Best overallBlack Diamond Spot 400
Bright enough for a pre-dawn pass and simple enough to fix in the dark with cold hands — it runs on AAAs, which is heavier than a rechargeable and is exactly why we recommend it.
Skip it ifWeight-counting fastpackers. Take the rechargeable and accept that a flat battery at 4,800 m is your problem.
Best overallNitecore NB10000 Gen 3
The best capacity-per-gram you can buy and it clears every airline limit without a conversation — 10,000 mAh is about two phone charges, so on a fortnight above the solar line you will still be paying a lodge occasionally.
Skip it ifA camera-heavy trip or a group sharing one bank. Take the 20,000 mAh instead.
Best in coldEnergizer Ultimate Lithium AAA
Alkalines lose most of their usable capacity in real cold and a headlamp dies mid-descent; lithium does not, and it costs roughly three times as much per cell.
Skip it ifLow-altitude treks in warm months. Ordinary alkalines are fine below 3,000 m.
Best capacityAnker Power Bank 20,000 mAh
Four to five phone charges, which is genuinely a whole Everest Base Camp trek without ever paying a lodge — you carry 350 g up to 5,545 m to save perhaps twenty dollars.
Skip it ifShort treks, or anyone whose porter weight allowance is already tight.
Best overallKahtoola MICROspikes
The most useful 300 g in this whole catalogue on a winter or early-spring trek — they turn a terrifying frozen descent into an ordinary one, and they are completely unnecessary in a dry October.
Skip it ifGlacier travel or steep snow. That is crampon territory and this is not a substitute.
Best overallSalomon Quest 4 GTX
Stiff enough to carry weight over a pass and still comfortable on day fourteen — you pay for that in weight and in a break-in period you cannot skip.
Skip it ifYou are doing Poon Hill or a short lodge trek under 3,500 m with a porter carrying the load. This is more boot than that walk needs.
Best for cold lodgesNaturehike Down Booties
The single best comfort-per-gram item above Dingboche; useless as an outdoor shoe, so most people end up carrying these AND something for outside.
Skip it ifTreks that stay below 3,000 m. Your feet will be fine in socks.
WarmestSmartwool Mountaineer Classic Over-the-Calf
The warmest sock worth carrying, and the reason people sleep through a night at Lobuche — far too hot for anything below 4,000 m, so it is a single dedicated pair, not your daily sock.
Skip it ifTreks that top out below 4,000 m, or anyone whose boots are already a snug fit.
Four-season down bag (−15 °C), rented
A bag you would buy costs several hundred dollars and you need it for perhaps five cold nights. Kathmandu and Pokhara rent good ones for a couple of dollars a day, and we make nothing from telling you that — take your own silk liner and the hygiene question answers itself.
Skip it ifPeople who camp at home, or anyone doing three Himalayan trips. Then buy once, properly.
Rental shops in Kathmandu and Pokhara carry this — about usd 1-2 per day in thamel or pokhara lakeside. We take nothing from that.
Buy this even if you rentSea to Summit Reactor Thermolite Liner
The one sleep item everyone should own: it solves the rented-bag hygiene question and turns a borderline bag into a warm one — the warmth claim is optimistic, so treat 8 °C as nearer 5 °C in practice.
Skip it ifNobody who is renting a bag. This is the item that makes renting work.
