On top of the World - Equipment

Directly after receiving my invitation to join the university's Nepal trekking excursion I got excited to start a big shopping spree. You will notice sooner or later throughout my blog that I am, in fact, a little gear head. So while I was waiting for my feedback wether I will go to Nepal or not, I had already put together my very own shopping list. Yeah, right. I had no experience trekking from hut to hut. Never had I been to Nepal, the Himalaya or any mountains higher than 3600 meters. But I had a shopping list! I will not get into details about my first attempt but let me tell you, I even forgot the essentials. Luckily, Benjamin and Daniel not only prepared the whole journey for us, but provided a packing list as well.

Before I get into the details about what we needed I should give you a quick reference about the circumstances of our adventure. We were to take the plane on September 11th to Kathmandu. The trip was planned to last 23 days in total. from these 23 days, fifteen were designated to the Everest Basecamp Trek including all rest days. Therefore, we would arrive just in the hopefully last days of rain season that usually lasts from June to September. In Kathmandu we booked a hotel to have some time to explore the city and store our non-trekking gear during our hike. On the basecamp trek itself, we would hike from village to "village" and sleep in tea houses. This typical accommodation offers beds and mattresses and some even have linings and blankets. Temperature in Nepal between September and October usually graduates from 25-30°C in Kathmandu to temperatures near freezing point in the high altitudes. During the nights we expected temperatures between 10°C in Lukla and -5°C in Gorak Shep, our highest accommodation. As a self-organized group with knowledgable tour guides we decided to carry all our equipment ourselves instead of letting porters carry all the load.

Our weight limit for the flights to Kathmandu were 30 Kg, from Kathmandu to Lukla the backpack weight per person was limited to 20 Kg.

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So let's summarize:

15 days trekking + 5 days in Kathmandu and on the plane

Temperatures from -5°C to +30°C

burning sun to pouring rain and possibly snow

weight limit 20 Kg on the flight - you wouldn't want to carry more anyways

I will provide the original packing list below and add my thoughts at the end of the article. Maybe I will devote a whole article to the topic what I personally brought and used - or not used...

Packing list EBC.pdf

PDF herunterladen • 57KB

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Please understand this packing list as rough suggestion that needs personal adaptation for each and every journey. Even on our own journey I deviated from the provided list and adapted my luggage to my own needs. In the next article I will give insight into my thoughts and backpack and discuss the pro's and con's of my personal gear I used.

Stay tuned!