This website is great. I’ve been sharing it with all my friends! Incredibly helpful!

I am going to Nepal to see EBC in a few weeks and curious what type of jacket I should bring. I was anticipating using my Patagonia Nano Puff jacket and a use layers with it (i.e. rain jacket shell, fleece, capeline base layer).

With that combo do you think the Nano Puff jacket will suffice or should I upgrade to something more warmer? Any suggestions would appreciated!

First of all, amazing site — really appreciate all the resources here! I will be trekking with a friend through the Annapurna Circuit and EBC during monsoon season (end of May, all of June, a bit of July) and am wondering what alterations you would make to your list. Specifically, it is my understanding we will be battling lots of rain, mud, and leeches at lower elevations so I would really appreciate your input on boots vs. trail runners. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

Best,
Spencer

Good question Greg. The tea houses may be heated in the main room, but fuel is expensive and most of the sleeping quarters are located in un-heated locations, so they can get quite chilly. You’ll never need to sleep outside unless you’re going with a guided camping trip. As for jackets, we brought a lightweight fleece jacket, a puffy coat, and a rain jacket. We use a layering system with the fleece on bottom, then the puffy, then the rain coat. With a hat, gloves, and warm pants (again layering with long johns, pants, and rain pants), you shouldn’t need much more. If traveling in the winter, you’ll probably want to bring a warmer coat, but in spring, summer, and fall, this should be enough. Also, it’s important to remember that when you’re hiking (especially uphill), your body will warm up very quickly, and you’ll be pealing off layers to keep from sweating. Hope that helps!

Oh yeah, and we almost always bring rain gear when we backpack. It’s REALLY rare for us to travel without it. An example would be a warm desert trip with 0% chance of rain every day and high temperatures. That way, if it did rain, which would be very unlikely, we would be wet but not in danger of hypothermia. For this type of hiking, spending weeks in the mountains, we would never travel without lightweight rain jackets at very least. Rain pants are a bit more optional and depend on how cold the weather will be. If there is a good chance of cold temps and rain, we’d recommend bringing rain pants.

Hi Mark,

We’d definitely make some gear switches for winter backpacking. The most important consideration would be how much snow will be on the trail and how cold the nighttime temperatures will be. If the trails are going to be very snowy, we’d wear boots (a rarity for us, and we only use them for heavy winter travel). If there’s a likelihood of hard snow and slippery ice around mountain passes, we’d also bring traction devices (micro-spikes) and ice axes so we could self arrest if we slip and start to slide down the mountain. Again, these choices really depend on how much snow will be on the trail, and we wouldn’t bring this type of gear unless it was really necessary. Also, if you’re backpacking in the winter, nighttime temperatures are likely to be quite cold, so I’d make sure to bring a warm sleeping bag (maybe 0-10 degree rating) and possibly some warmer layers (like a thicker puffy coat).

Hope that helps!

Thanks Jennifer! That’s actually a really good question. We did not, but there are a lot of hikers that do. Some take it just in case, and others will buy it in Kathmandu and have it with them in case they start experiencing symptoms. We felt some headaches and had a couple of restless nights, but didn’t end up needing to take any Diamox. There are some significant side effects to it, so I think avoiding it possible would be best. But that’s just my opinion. Hope that helps!