You’re about to trek to Everest Base Camp. You’ll be walking for 14 days and don’t want to load your porter up with unnecessary weight. What’s on your packing list?!
We tried to pack as light as possible and our duffle bag (which we shared) came to about 18kg. Most of our gear we picked up in Kathmandu (you can save A LOT of money by doing this, check out our post here for more info) the rest we took from home.
Our incredible porter, Ramesh.
Our most useful tip would be to pack everything into clear, zip-lock bags. This way, you can easily locate your gear- there’s nothing worse than having to rifle through a sea of black clothing to find your “teahouse clothes” after 6 hours of walking. If it’s all packed into labelled bags you can dump everything out of your duffle and get to it quick smart. For more handy tips, check out our Top Tips Everest Base Camp post.
We haven’t gone into specifics about the items we packed so if you have any questions at all, fire away in the comment section below and we will get back to you!
Key
BLUE: All the items we bought in Kathmandu at Shona’s (Jyotha Rd in Thamel) which cost roughly $80USD each. We hired the sleeping bags, liners and down jackets from Shona’s also for around $2 per day all up. We also bought a lot of our medicine in Kathmandu. We saved a heap of money here-especially on Diamox (around $6USD for the both of us versus around $70USD in Australia) and it was perfectly safe and convenient to do this.
GREEN: Items that only Sheena packed.
Packing List
Woolly hat
Cap
Sunglasses
Merino buff
2 x sports bras
Around 5 pairs of underwear each (we’d just hand-wash these along the way)
Uniqlo Airism singlet (the Airism items I took were a godsend. They breathed, didn’t smell and were perfect for the day time when the sun was out and it got quite hot).
Uniqlo Airism long sleeve t-shirt
Mid layer merino top
Short sleeved T-shirt
Fleece jumper
Wind jacket
Down jacket
Liner gloves
Outer gloves
Long johns (we slept in these too)
Track pants (for the nights in the tea-houses)
Trekking pants
3 x pairs of socks
Hiking boots
“Crocs” (really handy for the evenings)
Sports shoes
Day pack
Trekking poles
Hydration pack (absolutely necessary so you can keep your fluid intake up easily)
Nalgean bottle
Towel
Head torch
Sleeping Bag
Sleeping bag liner
Hand sanitiser
Body wipes
Sunscreen
Diamox, plasters, blister patches, paracetamol
Activated charcoal (really good in case of food poisoning)
Antiseptic cream
Loo paper
Aquatabs
Hikers wool (this was great- we didn’t get any blisters!)
Journal
Playing cards
2 x cameras
Dry shampoo
Travel size cleanser, moisturizer, toner, shampoo and conditioner, toothpaste
Contact lens solution plus spare lenses
Deodorant
Lip balm
Travel size Febreeze (our socks got a bit stinky!)
Snacks- roasted nuts, 2 x packets of jerky, chocolate bars
Cash
Purchasing our gear at Shona’s
Note: We trekked in November- the days were warm but as soon as the sun went down the temperature plummeted to around freezing or below.