Apparently, the secret to trekking is local knowledge. So when I went trekking in the Indian Himalaya for the first time a decade ago, I contacted a knowledgable friend for his advice on what I should – and shouldn’t – pack.

‘Don’t bother with waterproofs,’ he counselled. ‘The region you’re going to is in the shadow of the monsoon so the heavens never open in July.’ I dutifully scrubbed rain gear from my kit list. Another kilogram saved.

A month later, I flew to India, and by chance met my friend mid-way through the trek. It had been raining. Heavily. I took some solace from the fact that he had also been getting wet.

My lesson was learnt the hard way. When you go trekking, any weather condition can strike you at any time, regardless of what anyone says. And nowhere is this more true than in the Himalaya.

So, into the backpack go the featherweight waterproofs. In goes an umbrella, too. Why? Because wearing waterproofs in a downpour when the air is hot
and humid is no fun.


All-weather items

Unless you deliberately go trekking in the monsoon, wind is likely to prove a greater climatic hazard than precipitation. For that reason, I always carry a windproof cagoule as well as a waterproof jacket. Despite what the advertising hype would have you believe, all waterproof/breathable fabrics reduce the rate of breathability to some degree. By contrast, a windproof nylon fabric without a water-resistant coating or membrane is always going to let sweat escape more rapidly.

When it comes to legwear, I don a pair of wind-resistant, quick-drying pants. I avoid the ‘convertible’ designs that seem so popular these days, not least because the zips that allow the legs to be detached have a tendency to rub one’s skin. Besides, I gave up wearing shorts in the Himalaya years ago for two reasons. First, the strength of the sun at high altitudes is sufficient to promote burning after only a very short period of exposure. And second, shorts are a cultural no-no. Monasteries are suddenly out-of-bounds and you’re unlikely to ingratiate yourself with tea house proprietors.

Ah yes, Himalayan tea houses. The use (or non-use) of them will go a long way to determining the weight of your rucksack. Tea houses aren’t found on every trekking route, and their quality often depends on the popularity of the region. But if you’ve chosen a route that’s dotted with these establishments, then throw out the stove and the tent and save yourself a bundle of weight.

The next decision is whether to trek independently or with a commercial group. Joining a group will make the weight of your gear pretty much irrelevant unless you pack so much that you exceed the maximum load (usually around 15 kilograms) that the company will arrange to transport on your behalf. Joining a commercial trek – especially to remote destinations – will also mean that camping equipment is supplied. In these days of rigorously enforced baggage limits, that’s no small bonus.

If you decide to trek independently, then you’ll need to shed every possible gram from your rucksack. This is always important when carrying all of your own gear, but doubly so in the Himalaya, as a heavy sack will severely hinder your attempts to adjust to the rarefied atmosphere. For this reason, savvy independent trekkers on tea house routes hire a local porter to carry the majority of their personal belongings. If they’re straying into a remote area, another couple of porters will be needed to move food, fuel and shelter.

This style of what I call interdependent trekking allows you to have total freedom over your movements while reducing the physical stress on your body.
At the same time, it provides a source of income for local people. If you do hire a porter, you take on responsibility for his or her welfare, including – but not limited to – clothing, shelter, and medical care, none of which costs very much unless your porter suffers an acute injury.


Warmth welcome

Regardless of the style in which you choose to trek, staying warm on a cold day or during the evening is vital. Lightweight aficionados might choose to wear a thin pair of thermal leggings under their trekking trousers; those with a greater weight allowance can afford the luxury of a separate pair of fleece pants. Torsos can be kept insulated while walking with one or two thin fleece pullovers or gilets.

Above 3,500 metres, some kind of insulated duvet jacket becomes more of a necessity, especially when camping. Up to 5,000 metres, a duvet jacket with up to 200 grams of down insulation that has a sewn-through construction will usually suffice; venture over high passes or trek at colder times of year and a mountaineering duvet jacket with a box-wall design (which helps to prevent cold spots developing) will be worth the extra  investment. If you’re trekking with porters, try to resist the temptation to give your assistant the duvet to carry. Porters often take extended lunch breaks, which can mean that you arrive at a damp and misty campsite several hours before your luggage.

At the end of each trekking day, somewhere warm and dry to sleep is essential. I prefer down-filled sleeping bags to synthetic models because I’m reasonably confident of being able to keep my bag dry in a waterproof liner during the day, and of preventing hot tea from being accidentally spilt over it at night. Besides, I love the instant warmth that down provides. That said, if you already own a synthetic bag, don’t feel that you have to rush out to buy a new one.

A quick word about sleeping mats: although many commercial companies provide them, they sometimes turn out to be open-cell mats that squish down to nothing when sat on. If you take along your own closed-cell or self-inflating open-cell mat, the worst-case scenario is that you will end up sleeping on two mattresses, which is hardly a disaster.

As I suggested earlier, heat can be a real problem while trekking. People unfamiliar with the Himalaya often think of Into Thin Air-style blizzards, but that can be a long way from reality down in the valleys. Use a strong sunscreen and lip salve, and wear a sunhat with a wide brim that doesn’t flap around. A silk neckerchief – pick one up from a bazaar in Kathmandu – will work wonders for keeping your neck from becoming sunburnt.


Boot camp

All of your trekking gear will ideally have been bought months in advance and used on several outings before you leave. In reality, you’ll probably end up buying some gear on the eve of your departure. However, the one item that should definitely not be a last-minute purchase is your footwear.

Call me a traditionalist, but I remain underwhelmed by the plethora of trekking boot uppers lined with waterproof/breathable membranes. In wet weather, the protection offered by high-grade, properly maintained leather has always been sufficient for my needs. In hot weather, waterproof/breathable membranes make my feet unnecessarily hot. Lightweight fabric boots without a membrane are surprisingly rare but can be an interesting alternative to leather boots if you’re trekking in the pre- or post-monsoon seasons. I usually wear a leather boot simply because I get more mileage from it at home during the rest of the year. Whatever boots you go for, make sure they have a decent tread and that you are able to walk multiple miles for multiple days in them without getting blisters or footsore.

All of your gear has to go in something. If I’m hiring a porter or joining a commercial trek, I carry a 30-litre daysack for the things I will need during the day and a large holdall for the gear that the porter will be shouldering. (Nepalese porters usually carry kit inside wicker baskets, called dokos, which are suspended from their foreheads with a woven strap.) In addition, I usually put said holdall inside a cheap bag bought from a local market; porter bags tend to get trashed and there’s no point in having an expensive piece of luggage destroyed on a three-week trek. I always lock my holdall so that if I mislay something, I can blame no-one but myself for its disappearance.

When I trek independently using tea houses, I use a lightweight expedition backpack that provides sufficient support and comfort. Ideally, an empty rucksack will weigh no more than ten per cent of the total amount to be carried. Remember that food and water can add a significant amount to your payload both in bulk and weight. A lightweight holdall will help to ensure that your rucksack hip belt isn’t torn off on the luggage carousel at the start of your journey.

Whichever style of trek you opt for, pack a map, guidebook, phrasebook, penknife, soft toilet paper, LED headtorch, whistle, sunglasses and a medical kit. If there’s any chance that you could become pregnant before or during your trek, discuss with your GP any medications (including treatments for altitude sickness) that you’re taking. And you should make sure to carry a copy of your insurance policy and leave another copy – together with photocopies of the appropriate pages from your passport – with your in-country tour operator or embassy.


Making sore feet a thing of the past

I’ve noticed a huge difference in the comfort and recovery of my feet at the end of a long trekking day as a result of wearing orthotic insoles. Off-the-shelf orthotics are now available from a number of specialist outdoor retailers. I’ve gone the whole hog and, for the past eight years, have used custom insoles made by Norbert Cauvas (www.footfactor.co.uk), who makes flexible orthotics for professional athletes of all disciplines, as well as for mere mortals such as myself. The orthotics cost about the same as the boots I wear, but I have to say that aching feet have become a thing of the past for me.


Three easy steps towards green trekking

1 Most Himalayan destinations don’t have facilities for dealing with toxic batteries. It’s much better to take them home and visit your local recycling centre

2 Empty glass bottles rarely make it back from villages in the hills to recycling centres in the valley, and plastic bottles end up (at best) being tossed into open pits. By reducing your dependence on sugary drinks, and by purifying stream water rather than buying bottled water, you’ll reduce your impact on the environment and save money

3 Trekkers who stay in lodges that use solar or hydro power for their lighting and hot water will be supporting owners who’ve invested in these technologies


How warm should your sleeping bag be?

I’m afraid there’s no definitive answer to this as the grade of insulation and quality of construction of sleeping bags varies enormously. Besides, every person is very different in their physiological make-up. And even the warmest sleeper can be greatly affected by a dodgy stomach, which can reduce the fittest athlete to a shivering wreck.

However, as a starting point, I would suggest that a healthy person used to sleeping outdoors and equipped with a thick closed-cell foam mat or self-inflating mattress will probably find that in the pre- or post-monsoon seasons, a sleeping bag filled with 700–800 grams of down (with a fill power rating of about 600) will suffice for camping treks at altitudes between 3,000 and 5,000 metres. If you are tea-house trekking, a bag filled with 500–600 grams of down normally suffices at altitudes up to 5,000 metres. If you are sleeping above 5,000 metres, trekking in winter, or know you feel the cold, add 100–300 grams of down to all of these amounts.

If you own a bag with a lesser amount of insulation, you might be able to use a heavyweight fleece liner or a superlight sleeping bag to uprate your existing bag. Some tea-house trekkers don’t bother with sleeping bags at all, and instead rely on blankets, which are often found in lodges. I prefer to avoid the risk of scratching at bites left behind by unwelcome guests.


October 2007