hey guys and welcome to today's video
today's video will hopefully one be very
useful
and actually give you some good
information
about what to pack and what to take with
you when you go trekking in
nepal
[Music]
so this video is going to be a complete
guide on
exactly what you need to take with you
you know
during those hikes and treks that you
can do so many of
here in nepal just to give you a bit of
context about myself i have actually
done
three treks here in nepal the mardi gras
maltrek
the langtang valley trip and the
annapurna base camp trek
and here and behind me is absolutely
everything that i took on those treks so
if you are planning to trek in february
and march
which is when i've done mine then you
know this should be a nice helpful video
so you you know can know exactly what to
take with you
okay so let's jump into it first things
first obviously
you need to take a proper trekking bag
with you now this is the bag that i use
it's the osprey 70 liter fair point or
far point i think it's called
this personally isn't a bag that i would
recommend to go trekking with
there are a few points that i would um
suggest that when you are
trying to you know decide on what type
of bag to take
um here's a few points that definitely
you need to bear in mind
so first things first when you come to
pick a good trekking bag
you need to make sure that you have
good hip and shoulder support because
what you don't want to do is be carrying
all of the weight of your bag
on your shoulders because then obviously
you get very sore
your upper back becomes very um you know
uncomfortable
the main thing that you want to do is be
taking all of the weight on your hips
so a good hip strap is very important
that you can do up nice and tightly
good support here i will of course
i'll put it on the screen now a bag
which i suggest it is another osprey bag
which is
amazing i saw loads of people using this
type of bag
it's just slightly different to mine but
make sure you get a bag
with good back and good hip support
that is key it is so important that you
do not over pack your bag
and bring unnecessary things if you're
obviously carrying the weight yourself
if you have a guide or a porter who's
actually going to be carrying your you
know your bag and
half your equipment then fine obviously
take as much as you want but if you're
trekking solo like i did
then uh you know wait is king honestly
i think the first three or four days of
the lang tank valley trek i over packed
my bag it weighed about 18 kilograms
and you know it made it so unenjoyable
to trek and so uncomfortable because i
was constantly trying to stretch my back
overthinking in my mind why the hell did
i pack so much stuff with me
so bear that in mind the weight is
king when it comes to trekking and
hiking one thing that this bag
is good for and i would highly recommend
if you can bring this
then definitely do is actually a day bag
a day pack maybe like a 15 liter
backpack something like that the good
thing about this bag
i will show you is that it actually zips
on the front here so this is
two bags in one now
i have my big backpack and then my day
bag
and this is obviously extremely handful
because with a lot of these tricks you
might stay
two nights somewhere and then one day
you'll go on a day hike
for a few hours so obviously when you do
that for example in the langtang valley
there's a day high called cerco re
um i did a video on that you can go
check that i'll link it up somewhere
here or here but this is great you know
you can just chuck your water in the
back your camera things like that nice
15 liters
and you're all set to hike for the day
you can leave your main bag
in your hostel or your hotel or guest
house whatever it is now the next
second most important thing is a good
sleeping bag this is a sleeping bag
which i actually hired
from kathmandu in one of the shops there
there's so many different shops and
places that you can hire them from
you don't need to buy one before you
come um unless obviously you're a big
hiker
then you know it's handy for you but uh
if like me
you're just trekking when you come to
countries like nepal then
you know just try and hire one this cost
me 100 rupees a day
it's a -10 sleeping bag i was meant to
give it back
one month ago but i haven't even been
able to get to kathmandu yet
because the uh the lockdown happens so
there's no buses or anything
but obviously very important because the
nights can get very cold and very chilly
some nights it gets down to kind of -10
but with this
and i also wear my jacket and a few
other clothes i'm perfectly warm and to
be honest even sometimes sweating
one thing that i don't have that i
actually would recommend is a sleeping
bag
liner because what that does is you put
the sleeping bag liner
inside your main sleeping bag and it
keeps everything clean
um you know so your main sleeping bag
doesn't get dirty and smelly because
trying to wash these is a pain in the
ass
if you have the sleeping bag liner you
can take it out nice and thin
chuck it in the washing machine and you
know it makes it a lot easier to uh to
stay clean and smell good
one thing that i already forgot to
mention when it comes to the bag
is get yourself a waterproof bag
cover obviously very important because
the weather does change a lot in the
mountains and you don't want to get
caught without a waterproof bag cover
because obviously then
everything will get wet they're light
they roll down
nice and easily i think i got this off
amazon before i came actually
so uh yeah make sure you bring yourself
a waterproof bag cover
okay so the next thing related to also
being waterproof
is a waterproof jacket obviously again
fairly essential this one is from
burkhouse i bought this again
in england before i came it's really
good
keeps me nice and dry it has a hood here
in the back
nice thin lining so you know you don't
get too sweaty when you put this over
your uh
your main sort of down jacket
uh obviously this is kind of a big
essential because as i said the weather
does change quite frequently
you know you don't want to be getting
caught in in rain or snow and having
nothing to keep you uh dry because
trying to dry some clothes up there is
very difficult unless there's a
sort of wood wood burning stove
personally i think it's worth spending a
bit of money on it because
you don't want there to be any problems
with it at all i think this cost me
about 100 pounds
but as i say totally worth it buy it in
a bigger size because
usually you're going to be wearing a lot
of clothes underneath for example a
fleece
a t-shirt a long sleeve and then
obviously the big down jacket so
a bigger size is better just because you
don't want it to be too tight you would
still want to
have some flexibility oh god i almost
forgot about
literally one of the most important
things which
are boots trekking boots
now it is worth getting yourself a
decent pair
not necessarily trekking boots but a
decent pair of footwear
because you're going to be walking six
seven eight hours a day most days
so your feet need to be comfortable you
need to make sure you're not getting
blisters they're not getting swollen
water's not getting in otherwise i don't
know you can get trench foot or
something like that
for me personally i went for trekking
boots just because i wanted that extra
ankle support
and i knew that the time of year i was
coming to trek there would be a fair bit
of snow
so as you can see these go quite high up
you know past the ankle
so uh no snow could really get in these
are
bloody good trekking boots actually
according to google and from my
experience as well
these are the salomon 4d xxx or
something like that
they're waterproof the good thing about
these ones is they tighten up
nice and tight you can really adjust
them i didn't actually wear them in
before i came to the pool which
caused a bit of a problem on the first
track because i started to get a few
blisters but
it is a good idea if you can maybe go on
a weekend before you come
trekking anywhere and uh you know try
and wear the boots in because once they
get molded to your feet they're a nice
snug fit
my feet were always dry the only
annoying thing is
for some reason they're just starting to
tear here
i'm not really sure why i have worn them
on sort of three tricks already
within the last like two months so uh
you know that's probably why there's a
bit of wear and tear and
they actually are gore-tex which is
great so uh
they're light they're durable they
protect your ankle they protect your
feet
definitely definitely recommend these i
know a lot of people do actually use
trekking trainers or i don't know what
you call them just trekking shoes
of course definitely worth bringing them
or taking them instead of boots
depending on the weather
and how much snow there is because
obviously they're lighter they're more
flexible
and they can be you know a lot more
comfortable so uh
it really depends on on what kind of
footwear you prefer
one other thing is some flip-flops
not these flip-flops it's a bit sad this
is my surname on these my dad got me
these but
in the evenings after you've taken your
trekking boots off
there is nothing better than just
putting on some comfortable comfortable
shoes
whether that's a pair of trainers a pair
of flip-flops or sandals whatever
i would definitely uh recommend to bring
a second pair of shoes
just to put on in the evening once
you've sort of showered and you're
chilling around the fire having a chat
having dinner
definitely worth to bring as i say some
comfortable shoes to wear in the evening
now onto the uh onto the main jacket
which i pretty much wore
every single day sorry my phone just
dropped on the floor
is a down jacket now you might be
thinking
well that doesn't look warm at all and
you're right it doesn't look warm
but it is warm this is actually a
synthetic down jacket
again from berghaus god knows why
everything is uh
from workouts i just won some vouchers
from work and then went to a shop in
england and bought all of this stuff
before i came here
this is fantastic it's light it rolls up
nice and smooth it's kept me warm in all
conditions
obviously still wearing a few other
layers underneath
it's got the nice little penguin hood so
you know it keeps your head warm at
night when you're sitting around the
fire which i really like
and as always you know it's nice and
light so uh and
i like the color black so definitely
make sure that you do get yourself a
nice
warm jacket if you are going as i say
maybe early january february
then you might need something a little
bit thicker than this because uh
for sure it can get very very cold then
so you need to be prepared
because the last thing that you want is
to be caught up on the mountains
and you've got all of your layers on and
you're still cold because then you know
you could be in serious trouble
trekking isn't really a joke especially
in countries like nepal
when i did the annapurna base camp there
was uh seven people
back in january who got caught in an
avalanche and they actually
unfortunately all died so
uh as i say it's no joke you need to
make sure that you have the right
equipment and you've done the right
research
rolls up nice and small the key to
packing
is rolling rolling i've learned that
over the few years
okay next thing that isn't berghouse
is a very standard north face
fleece where's the sign north face
fleece here
pretty much wore this every single day
especially in the mornings when it's you
know a bit chilly
definitely take a couple of fleeces i've
got one here and then a berghouse fleece
of course this one has a full length zip
which is good because obviously when it
gets hot you can undo it you can get
a bit more air in this one is a bit
warmer and uh goes higher on the neck so
it keeps you a bit warmer
but definitely i would say try and take
two fleeces with you
because what i could do is i could put
this one on underneath
and then this one on top and then i
could put my down
warm jacket on and you know i was nice
and toasty
next things are obviously t-shirts now
most of the tricks that i did were only
about
seven days long or so give or take so i
only took
three t-shirts with me which to be
honest with you is more than enough
probably could get away with just two
t-shirts but um
you know i just wanted to bring one
extra one just in case because
obviously when you're trekking it gets
very sweaty very smelly so
having that extra t-shirt to whack on it
is nice to have
make sure that you do try and stay away
from cotton because
cotton gets very hot very sweaty it
takes a long time to dry when it gets
wet
and it smells this is just a a polyester
t-shirt
again i won't go into detail in these
because they're just
a t-shirts really i would take this one
as i say
nice polyester stretch kind of sport
athletes t-shirt
this is some kind of northridge wool
t-shirt which was really good
and then i would actually take just my
levi's t-shirts
which i would most of the time wear in
the evenings these were the two ones
that i would wear most of the day as i
was trekking
but i mean the thing with trekking is
you will get smelly you will get hot
you can have showers up in the mountains
if you need them but
i mean most people to go trekking and
prepare to rough it for a few days so
if you smell a bit who cares you know
that's half the fun i think of it anyway
the next thing i took is a long sleeve
sort of farmer's jumper but i mean you
could get any kind of long sleeve
just to bring that extra protection of
layer
again always check the weather because
if you are going in those colder months
then
what i would bring is one of those kind
of under armour
sport long sleeve thermals because of
course that will always be handy just to
have that extra layer of protection
and they're quite nice to sleep in
apparently so uh you know maybe a long
sleeve thermal could also be a good idea
to bring
on the tops front i brought three
t-shirts and one long sleeve
and that was it and then obviously as i
said my down jacket my rain jacket
and the two fleeces okay to jump onto
the trousers let me show you
now i know what you're thinking will
these aren't trousers
no they're not trousers i had to cut
these trousers because
of the lock down here i had no shorts
and uh unfortunately i had to cut these
because i needed some shorts because
it's getting quite hot here in pokhara
but these were some really nice
legitimate i say north face
trekking trousers which again i bought
in kathmandu i think these cost me 1
500 rupees you don't need waterproof
trekking trousers just something that
has a bit of durability
maybe water resistance definitely good
that something can protect you from the
wind because you know if the wind picks
up and your legs are cold
that's no good or of course i mean what
you could do to be even smarter
is by those trekking trousers which then
turn into shorts because then obviously
you're saving space as well
so one thing that i definitely would
take which to be honest i didn't wear
that much but i always brought it with
me just in case
was some thermal trousers these are
great because obviously you can wear
them
even in bed if it gets cold which is you
know that's the time when it
when the temperature drops the most but
also in the mornings when
when you start trekking i would put
these on underneath my uh
my trekking trousers and then off i go
was nice and warm and then maybe i'd get
to a sort of
place to stop for lunch and then take
these off but
definitely worth bringing a pair of
thermal trousers for sure
another thing that i did take was just
some sort of
evening lounge tracksuit bottoms i mean
these are absolutely nothing special i
think i bought these at sports direct in
england before i came
just something to put on in the evenings
which is a bit more comfortable
uh and you can just lounge around in the
evenings and they do keep you warm
but if you are sort of worried about
space and weight
then i wouldn't say that these are an
essential if you can
wear your trekking trousers in the
evening as well then obviously no
problem
but for me i just wanted to bring an
extra pair of trousers just in case
i never really trekked in these only
wore these in the evenings after i'd
showered and you know cleaned myself up
along with footwear obviously we have
socks now
socks are again fairly important get
some nice wool
socks that are going to dry quickly that
are reasonably thick as well
obviously there's so many walking socks
that you can get out there these are
just some
jeep walking socks i took
three pairs with me which was more than
enough um
obviously you know once you wear them
two three four days in a row they start
to stink but
hey ho as i said earlier it's part of
the fun and you can always hang them on
the outside of your bag
to uh to dry but a good pair of walking
socks is definitely a must
i won't go into my pants because again
three pants for a week of trekking
that will do nothing special about these
pants just normal boxes
okay so the next thing that i took was
this
micro towel so micro towel
is great because they dry quickly they
are light and small
so you know they don't take up much room
in your bag
at all the only bad thing about these is
you know it doesn't really dry your body
as good as a normal towel does
but as i keep saying the main thing
when it comes to trekking is your bag
weight and the size of it
so something like this which rolls up
nice and smooth
look that that's not taking up any space
in my bag compared to maybe a bigger
towel
so micro towel is definitely a great
thing to take with you
the next important thing is a pair of
gloves
now if i was to trek again which
hopefully i will be able to obviously
depends on the lock down and what
happens
i'm probably gonna buy a new pair of
gloves i actually bought these in
kathmandu at one of you know just these
local shops
they're just a crappy pair of wool
gloves
i mean they're nothing special at all
but
it wasn't really anything more than i
needed you know i didn't need these big
kind of winter
skiing gloves these are just woolen
gloves they're already tearing as you
can see here
but i think they cost a 600 rupees
something like that
they're covered in food and chocolate
god knows what but
definitely bring yourself a pair of
gloves especially if you are trekking
with poles
because obviously your hands are going
to be on the outside of your body all
the time so uh
you know if the metal or the plastic's a
bit cold then obviously your hands get
cold
which isn't good because without your
hands you can't do anything you turn
into edward scissorhands
so uh yeah pair of gloves the other
thing
that i would bring is what has become my
mask during this lockdown
is abanaclava now this is good for a few
reasons
when you are trekking when it's dusty
and muddy obviously you can just
whack this up and then uh none of you're
not inhaling any of the crap dust and
mud and all that kind of stuff
or when it gets cold you have that extra
layer of warmth on your neck
and your face so next we have
sunglasses now these are actually very
very
underrated not these specific sunglasses
but i mean
bringing sunglasses with you 100
take some good solid
polarized sunglasses with you if you can
because
obviously when you get to higher
elevation the snow will start to appear
and you'll be trekking you know i don't
know four hours a day the sun will be
beaming down on the snow which then
reflects off that
straight into your eyes i remember i
actually broke
one pair of sunglasses on the trek and
there was another guy in luckily who had
a spare pair
but i tried for about an hour without
any sunglasses and god i was just
squinting the whole time like this
it's very painful and of course you can
get snow blind
so make sure you bring a decent pair of
sunglasses one
very handy thing to bring with you i
know i look ridiculous
is a head torch does it have any battery
i don't know where's the on button oh
god i haven't used it in a while
yes there we go head torch
the other thing is we need power when
we're on the mountains
a lot of the times at the tea houses and
the guest houses
they will charge you for electricity
that's just a standard thing on these on
these guest houses
so what i did was i actually brought two
power banks with me
i did have a third one but i thought wow
that's a bit excessive will i don't need
that much power and you know the thing
with power banks is they are quite heavy
i mean this is a 20 000 milliamp so this
lasts me a few days to charge my camera
batteries my phone
all that kind of good stuff and my head
torch but so yeah
i would you can you know if you can get
away with just one power bank then great
if you don't have a lot of a camera
equipment but for me um you know i
record and
upload a lot of my trekking videos so i
needed to make sure that i had enough
power to charge
my uh my stuff just to jump into some
quick toiletries
i call it medics just don't know why i
did that wrote it on there years ago and
just never changed it
hairbrush not important if you want to
then why not one thing that i haven't
used but i will always bring with me
is a mini first aid kit as i say
it's not something that i've ever used
yet but i mean it's got some good things
in there like little scissors plasters
blister
things like that so uh always bring a
little first aid kit with you it's got
one of those metal
um sort of blankets which you know if
unfortunately you do get stuck
then that could save your life so uh
definitely get yourself a little first
aid
medical kit you can buy them buy them on
amazon fairly cheap
one thing that i don't have here which
kind of goes along with the sunglasses
is sun cream
make sure you take some sun cream
because there was many times which i
didn't have it and i was having to
borrow it with other people
and i was getting very very burnt like
on some of my tricks you'll see in some
of my videos
my face is so red and especially my neck
because all day it was just so exposed
to the sun and then
the sun um coming off the snow
reflecting
everything was getting burnt and
obviously when you get burnt on your
face or anywhere
it's very painful so uh sun cream
definitely try and bring that and some
moisturizer if you can because you know
in the evenings it's quite nice just to
whack a bit of moisturizer on just to
lubricate the face
but again it depends exactly on what you
want to bring
toiletry wise but i think sun cream is
a must where are they
not these this is imodium but again
probably worth taking in case you get
the shits on the mountain
then uh you know if you eat some dodgy
chicken or some dodgy dal bat
imodium that should keep your stomach
like concrete
okay so what i wanted to show you was
these
these are diamox tablets or what they
are called is
a zolomide some weird name here in
nepali or i don't even know what
languages is
basically zolomide diamox
acclimatization tablets
this is obviously if you start to notice
any symptoms of
altitude sickness ams then you can take
one of these and within sort of half an
hour hopefully
it should uh you know it should do the
trick and sort of calm down your
symptoms because altitude sickness
is not a joke you need to take it
seriously but i didn't actually use
these because i didn't have any
headaches or
or anything like that i still have my
appetite so uh but don't muck around
with the altitude sickness
if you are really starting to decline in
terms of your health because of it
bloody hell get down because the last
thing you want to do
is have to get helicoptered off and you
know potentially pay thousands and
thousands
and you know the worst case scenario is
you could die from altitude sickness so
uh
it's no joke take it seriously and uh
these are definitely worth getting as i
say i haven't used them but
always had them just in case a lot of
this stuff that i've mentioned
you can buy in kathmandu or in pokhara
there's
loads and loads and loads of shops
especially in tamil
in kathmandu you can buy everything from
tablets to gloves to sleeping bags
to down jackets to backpacks literally
everything
a lot of the stuff don't get me wrong is
fake but it still does the job
which you know if you're going for a
week hike you probably don't need to be
spending two
three hundred pounds on a nice north
face jacket you know unless you've got
that kind of money to spend
one thing that i don't have here which i
would recommend is some crampons
because obviously the higher up you go
the more snow there is
and the slippier a lot the slipperier
that's not even a word
the more slippery it can get so if you
whack on a nice pair of crampons
then you're going to stop slipping and
the sound they make
when they touch snow is just delightful
that is just sensational that
that crunch sound oh that is pure
adventure to me once you put some
crampons on and you're going up the
mountain struggling to breathe
oh i love that another thing to also
bring with you which
i did have but i lost it on the trek was
a cap
again protects you from the sun and you
know i always wear a cap just to keep my
hair in order because
it can sometimes get a bit messy or
obviously a lot of people do take
beanies or
sort of like a warm woolly woolly hat
which is good especially in the evenings
when it's cold because obviously then
keeps your head warm so one other thing
to bring with you which is fairly
important is toilet paper
you can buy it um in the guest houses
and the tea houses
once you start the trek but they will
charge you an arm and a leg
for it because obviously uh they know
you're gonna need toilet paper at some
point
if you can brave it and you want to use
that ice cold freezing water
and your hand to uh do the business
absolutely
i'll leave you to it but for me
personally
i like to have toilet paper and you know
do a general
normal job sorted so toilet paper make
sure you bring plenty of that
and of course something to keep you
alive is water
drinking a lot of water during the day
obviously helps with altitude sickness
especially when you've just woken up
try and drink as much as you can don't
be a fool and just be buying these
bottles of water as you go up because
one
it's a waste of plastic and it's gonna
cost you more money
i bought this lifestraw uh water bottle
which is great
i think it's quite expensive in the
beginning maybe about 30 pounds
but as you can see here
it's got this nice filter in it
and then some sort of charcoal filter oh
it's just leaking everywhere
a charcoal filter here in the top i can
fill this bottle up
from the stream from the river whatever
put this on top
screw it on and then i can drink my
water safely this is apparently supposed
to kill
99.9 of all the bacteria i've literally
used this
every single day for the last three
months while i've been in the pal
because it's been so good it's kept the
water clean um which is obviously
very important when you come to
countries like this the last thing that
you want to be doing
is drinking dirty water and the great
thing about this i can just slot this
in the side of my bag and you know when
i'm trekking put my bag down
turn around have a sip all good
okay so the last few things that i don't
have with me but
i would recommend to take with you our
trekking poles
personally i didn't take these but that
is purely because i was filming my
tricks
and i didn't want the faf of having two
poles in my hand then having to
carry one under my arm while i get the
camera out and all that kind of stuff it
was going to be too awkward for me
but i have felt a few problems on my
knees
since those tricks especially coming
downhill because trekking poles
massively help taking the weight off
your knees when you're going downhill
which obviously stop your knees from
locking and things like that so
if you do need them trekking poles
definitely a handy thing to take with
you
and then the second thing is a map
personally
i like having the uh the hard copy of a
map just because it makes me feel like a
proper
old school adventurer but i never used
it i'm not gonna lie
i just used map stop me and my phone and
that was how i always knew that i was
heading in the right direction
and always make sure that you bring some
snacks with you during these treks
whenever i was hungry or anything
whack out a bar have a snack have some
water
put them back in my bag and then off i'd
go trekking again
so i think that is pretty much
everything
that i wanted to say um hopefully this
has been useful
and informative because as i said in the
beginning i had many questions in the
beginning about what the hell do i bring
trekking with me
i will put a full list on the screen in
the next few seconds or so
just to show you exactly what you need
to bring with you
personally what i do is i make a list on
my iphone of
every single thing that i need and then
once i've got it tick it off in the bag
bam i know it's safe know it sound i
know i've got it on my bag
happy days i'm going to put a link in
the description to everything that i've
mentioned in this video and maybe a few
other things which i think you should
take with you because maybe i have
forgotten something and if you do want
to
get any inspiration or you're wondering
what kind of trek that you should do
then i've made three trekking series i
guess you could call it of the langtang
valley trek which was the first one i
did
the mardi gras trick and then the
annapurna basecamp trick so uh
i will link to them here or here
somewhere in the description
go check them out if you're wondering
what those treks are like because
as i said it could give you some
inspiration on
which track you should do if you did
find this video helpful and
informative then please do give it a
like
and if you are going trekking in the
pool hopefully when this pandemic is all
over
whack a comment down below to let me
know what track you're doing because
you could give me some inspiration
because i am looking for that next trek
to do
anyway guys stay safe enjoy the day
whack your like subscribe if you're new
around here because i'm going to make
all sorts of
travel related content from vlogs to
trekking videos to informative
useful helpful videos like this and as
always thanks very much for watching and
i shall catch you in the next one
just as a motorbike goes past peace