Four-season down bag (−15 °C), rented
Down-filled, rated around −15 °C, with a liner
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.
Rental shops in Kathmandu and Pokhara carry this — about USD 1-2 per day in Thamel or Pokhara Lakeside. We take nothing from that, and we would still tell you to rent it.
Do not buy this if: People who camp at home, or anyone doing three Himalayan trips. Then buy once, properly.
Not every route needs it. These are the ones where our guides would put it on your list.
Everything else we recommend in sleeping bags, including the ones we think suit a different trekker.
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.
Best bag to ownMarmot Trestles 15 Sleeping Bag
Synthetic keeps working when damp and costs a third of equivalent down — it is also twice the packed size, which on a porter-carried duffel matters less than the internet thinks.
