Nobody warns you the teahouse nights are the hard part. Nine small things fix them

The walking is rarely what breaks people on a Nepal trek. It is the nights: an unheated plywood room, walls you can hear through, a toilet down a cold corridor, and a sleeping bag that feels colder at 2am than it did at 9pm. On the Everest route in peak season the nights drop well below −15°C near the top. None of that is fixed by a better jacket. It is fixed by a handful of small, cheap things, and most of them weigh less than a chocolate bar.

I earn a small commission if you buy through the Amazon links on this page. It costs you nothing, and anything you are better off renting in Thamel is marked as a rental, with no link.

Why the nights are harder than the days

Because the room is the same temperature as outside, and you are not moving. Teahouse bedrooms have no heating. The warmth is in the dining room, around a stove that is usually fed with yak dung or wood in the evening and left to die after dinner. You walk off a cold day into a cold room, and the body that kept you warm on the trail is now lying still.

Add thin walls, trekkers setting alarms for a 4am sunrise, dogs that bark all night in the villages, and a shared toilet at the end of an unlit corridor. None of it is dangerous. All of it costs sleep, and sleep is what your body uses to adjust to altitude.

The nine things, in the order they matter

A liner first, earplugs second, everything else after. This is the list I would give a friend, cheapest fixes first.

1. A sleeping bag liner

Rent the bag in Thamel for a dollar or two a day; bring your own liner. It adds a few degrees, it is the part that touches your skin, and it means you are not sleeping directly in a bag a stranger used last week.

2. Foam earplugs

The single cheapest improvement to a trek. A strip of foam plugs costs almost nothing and turns a wall you can hear through into a wall you cannot.

3. An eye mask

Headlamps come on at 4am in the next bed. A mask is the difference between waking up then and waking up at six.

4. Down booties or camp shoes

Boots off the minute you arrive, and something warm on your feet for the dining room and the corridor. Your boots dry out and your feet stop being cold.

5. A wide-mouth bottle you can fill with hot water

Ask the kitchen to fill it with boiled water, screw the lid tight, and put it in the foot of your bag. A cheap hot-water bottle that you then drink in the morning.

6. A headlamp with a red light

For the corridor at 2am without blinding the room. A red setting is the polite version.

7. A warm beanie to sleep in

You lose heat from your head all night. A thin merino beanie is the lightest warmth you will carry.

8. Wet wipes and a small towel

Showers cost US$2–4 where they exist and get colder the higher you go. Most nights, the wash is a wipe down before you get into the bag.

9. A power bank that sleeps with you

Charging costs a few dollars a time above Namche, and cold kills batteries overnight. Keep the power bank and your phone inside the sleeping bag.

What not to buy for the nights

Do not buy a sleeping bag for one trek. A good down bag costs US$200–400 at home. The rental shops in Thamel and Lakeside rent warm bags for about US$1–2 a day, and most organised treks include one. Ask for a bag whose comfort rating is around −10°C; that is usually the one labelled −20°C. Our sleeping bag guide explains how to read the label honestly.

Keep reading

The verdict: rent the bag, buy the liner and a strip of earplugs, and keep your batteries in the bag with you.