Sleeping bag for trekking in Nepal

Which sleeping bag to choose for trekking in Nepal? On popular trekking routes in Nepal (base camp of Everest, Annapurna and others), tourists spend the night not in tents, but in mountain shelters - lodges. But despite having a roof over your head, I advise you to take not a summer, but a winter or demi-season sleeping bag for trekking. Read on and find out why.

Where do we sleep

The standard room in the lodge is a tiny room with two wooden bunks. Each bed has a simple foam mattress and pillow. The mattress is tucked in with a sheet, and the pillow is usually in a pillowcase, but the cleanliness of this linen is by no means impeccable (but not terrible either). Of course, linen is not changed every day, but not once a month either.

However, for hygiene reasons, I never sleep directly on a sheet or pillowcase in lodges. To be honest, even in Kathmandu I prefer to sleep in a sleeping bag rather than on hotel sheets.

Lodge temperature

The first thing you should remember is that the bedrooms in the lodges are not heated. The temperature in the room differs from the temperature outside by only a couple of degrees.
What temperatures can you expect in the lodges along the route? A lot depends on the route itself. On the trek to Annapurna Base Camp, most nights can be classified as warm (at least +10), and only two as cold, when the temperature in the room can approach zero or even drop into minus.

And during trekking to Everest Base Camp, on the contrary, there are more cold nights than warm ones. The minimum temperature I encountered in the bedroom on this route was about -4. But my statistics only cover spring and autumn, and in winter, I think, it can be colder.

Choosing a sleeping bag for Nepal

When choosing a sleeping bag for trekking in Nepal, we must not forget that altitude makes its own adjustments to the perception of heat and cold. Lack of oxygen makes even a completely healthy person more “frozen.” So, to adjust, you can safely subtract 5 degrees from the actual temperature. Those. if the room is -4, then you will most likely perceive them as -9.

Therefore, for Nepal you need to look for a sleeping bag with a comfort temperature (not extreme, but comfort) no worse than -10. And these are already winter models.

How can you easily distinguish a “suitable” sleeping bag from one that is too cold? The easiest way is to search by weight. A proper sleeping bag with a synthetic fill will weigh at least 1600-1800 grams, and a down one - about 1100 grams. Do not believe manufacturers who claim that in a synthetic sleeping bag weighing 900 grams, you can sleep comfortably at -5.

By the way, do not forget that in Nepal you can buy locally produced down sleeping bags relatively inexpensively. In Kathmandu for $100 you can find an excellent down sleeping bag marked “at -20”. Original branded sleeping bags cost at least 3 times more.

But is it really impossible to get by with a summer sleeping bag (for example, with a comfort temperature of +5)? Let’s assume that you already have such a sleeping bag, but don’t yet have the money to buy a winter one. You can try to get out of the situation with blankets.

Blankets in Nepalese lodges

Many Nepalese lodges have blankets. Usually these are heavy cotton monsters in chintz duvet covers, but “fluffy” Chinese blankets are becoming more and more common.

If you cover yourself with such a blanket over a sleeping bag, it will add 5 degrees to the sleeping bag’s conditional comfort temperature.

Sounds good, but don’t forget about the important features of blanket insulation:

• Not all lodges have a sufficient number of blankets. If you arrive late, you simply may not have enough blankets. For the same reasons, lodges do not allow more than one blanket per person.
• Sleeping under a blanket without a sleeping bag is a bad idea. Blankets are washed once a season at best.
• Many Nepalese blankets are extremely heavy. It feels like you are sleeping under a mattress. Such a blanket compresses the insulation of the sleeping bag (especially if it is down) and somewhat reduces its heat-insulating properties.
• When you sleep on a narrow bed, the blanket constantly slides off the sleeping bag, and most often you are too lazy to adjust it (you need to unzip the zipper, stick your hands out into the cold and inhospitable surrounding space).

Personal experience

For the last 8 years I have been walking around Nepal with a down sleeping bag weighing 1100 grams (comfort temperature -10), rarely using blankets, but often taking a down jacket inside the sleeping bag for additional insulation.

Kirill Yasko, October 30, 2017