Packing List for Everest Base Camp trek

The packing list is really an issue of great debate, varying greatly from individual to individual, and totally dependent on to what extent one could tolerate the amount of filth and sweat clinging onto his/her body and hair, and how OCD one was.

In retrospect, after the whole trek, I personally will bring these:

• Beanie 
• Buff to cover the nose 
• Glove - inner lining and an outer glove 
• Woolen socks 4 pairs. No need socks liners. 
• A good study pair of trekking boots. If it is for a long 15 day trek, it may be important to ensure that it's not too old a pair because after some years of use the hardened rubber soles do tend to open up. Buy a new pair if need be, but season them for a few weeks before bringing them to the trek. 
• Inner Fleece-lined trekking pants - 2 pairs enough. A third pair would really be a luxury. 
• Uniqlo Heat tech Base layers (may not be warm enough). May need double layers. Either these or buy the thicker fake North Face base layers from Thamel at 2200 rupees per set, damngood price)- three pants, three tops, good enough. Each pair could easily be used for at least 3-4 days with copious amount of powdering. At higher altitude I even used two layers of base layers on the top to keep myself warm. 
• A fleece middle layer 
• A down jacket as a middle layer (if the douwn feather count is less than 900. I have learned that often the actual amount is much less than what is advertised on the sleeves of the down jacket, even for original branded stuffs). 
• A waterproof and wind proof outer shell or a thick 900 down count down jacket as an outer layer - for EBC, 900 is an absolute comfort. 
• Disposable underwear 
• Sunglasses 
• Headlamps - very important for both trekking in the dark and searching for things in the dim guesthouses.  Get those that could be angled downwards to shine at an angle to the ground especially when trekking in the dark.
• Powerbanks 20,000mAh. One is enough. Just make sure it's fully charged every day while on the trek by connecting to the Solar panel. 
• Solar panel - 21W high efficiency 3 panel ones to hang from the back of the day pack as we trek. We used a variety of brands - Vinsic, Suaoki, X-Dragon - all around 21W-22W. Very good. And cheap. Only aout S$65 from Lazada.com   One full day of trekking in plentiful sun will fully charge a 20,000mAh powerbank and an iPhone.  So that one can be so much more independent of guesthouse charging. 
• Handphones as cameras- good enough 
• Heat packs- must get good ones 
• Thermal flask 500ml enough 
• Camelbak- literally useless high up when the water freezes inside the bag and the tubes. Just use normal mineral water bottles. 
• Baby Body powder 
• Wet wipes 
• Toilet paper - often used and often needed. At least two rolls per person.
• Aerosol dry shampoo spray for hair - I found this very useful 
• Emulsifying/ moisturizing ointments 
• Decongestant nose sprays 
• Forget about bringing extra T-shirts because they don’t come in useful up in the mountains. 
• Also can forget about bringing flip flop slippers because it will be so cold at night when one needs to pee that one will automatically put on the boots before walking to the communal toilet. 
• A good Garmin GPS trekking watch. 
• Trekking sticks- can buy them cheaply about 600 rupees from Thamel. 
• Crampons - not those real heavy duty ones, but shorter ones bought from Lazada.com at abour S$12 per pair. Just bring along and keep them in the day pack in case we encounter slippery ice. On this trip, we were lucky we needn't use them. 
• Walkie talkies - this was our own initiative. But they quickly proved their usefulness as the group was very spread out and we had to radio each other from front to back to maintain communication and when there were casualties. The batteries can't last long. So I made it a habit to stick on a heat pack on the back of the walkie talkie every morning so that the warmth could prolong the battery till the evening. But still, I had to change a set of battery about every one and a half day, with full turned-on monitoring. 

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