Best towelDries you, then dries itself by morning
Sea to Summit Pocket Towel
Dries overnight in a cold lodge where a cotton travel towel simply does not — it never feels pleasant, and it holds a faint smell after a week however often you rinse it.
One bottle, five jobs
Body, hair, socks and the dish you ate off
Dr. Bronner's Pure-Castile Liquid Soap
Concentrated castile, 60 ml travel size
Concentrated enough that a small bottle does a fortnight of body, hair and laundry — it is still soap, so it does not belong in a stream, however biodegradable the label is.
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What you get
- Genuinely replaces four separate bottles
- A 60 ml bottle lasts a long trek
- No plastic bottles left behind in the mountains
What it costs you
- Strips hair if used undiluted
- Biodegradable still means keep it out of watercourses
- Leaks if the cap is not taped
Do not buy this if: Anyone precious about hair. Take a small shampoo as well.
The alternatives
Everything else we recommend in hygiene & wipes, including the ones we think suit a different trekker.
Best towel
The honest necessityAbove 4,000 m, nobody is showering
Biodegradable 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.