My Himalayan Trek: Things I carried

Akash Shende
Jul 30, 2017 · 3 min read

This summer I went to Hampta Pass, which is near Manali and summit point lies at ~14,000 ft. It was moderate to difficult level trek with variety of terrain. It starts with plain terrain to rocky steep climb, near summit there are glaciers to cross. Overall, Hampta Pass is good for beginner who don’t want to start with an easy trek.

It was my first trek so I decided to write series of post about my experience, learning and mistakes that i and others did. So starting the first post with my backpack and things i carried during the trek.

I was carrying two bags, one — my backpack, it weighted around 6–7 kg (without water) and capacity was 45 ltr, second— Camera bag which was approx 1.5 kg including all photography gears.

What was in the backpack?

  • 5 T-shirts
  • 4 Undergarments & 4 pairs of socks
  • 2 Pants
  • 1 Shorts
  • 1 Towel
  • Warmers (thermal & leg warmer)
  • 1 Fleece jacket & 1 padded jacket
  • 2 Power banks (each 500 gm)
  • 1 USB flood light, 2 USB cables
  • Kindle
  • A plate, spoon & bowl
  • Poncho
  • Water bottle 1 Ltr
  • Flip-flops
  • Swiss Knife
  • Mobile Phone
  • Toilette & Medical kit

Toilette & Medical kit

  • Tissue papers & Hand sanitizer
  • Tablets: Combiflam, Crocin, Diamox, (Nos 5 each)
  • Spray: Deo, Omnigel
  • Zendu balm, Odomos (Mosquito repelent), Sunscreen
  • Ziplock bags
Few Important Items
Fully loaded

Photography Gears (All items borrowed from brother)

  • Canon 550D (~500 gm)
  • Canon 10–22mm (~380 gm)
  • Canon 50mm fixed lens (~150 gm)
  • Action Cam + Selfie stick + Nano-Tripod
  • 3 Canon batteries
  • 1 Camera handbag
Canon 550D with 10–22mm lens

Learning

  1. Kindle: Weight was not the factor but i always had to took care of it as it is delicate. Anyways, i didn’t use it.
  2. Plate & bowl: Not at all used but they occupied valuable space.
  3. 50 mm lens: Didn’t get single chance to use this lens.
  4. Power-bank: I was carrying 2 10,000 mAh powerbanks, however one was sufficient to power Action Cam and Mobile phone for 5 days. Note that each powerbank weighs around ~500 gm.
  5. T-shirts: I packed 5 T-shirts but used only 2. I learned that, always carry lightweight, quick dry t-shirts. But if you don’t have sufficient layers then you need carry more t-shirts.
  6. Pants: Shorts are comfortable during the day trek, full pants is helpful to keep legs warm at night.
  7. All-in-one jacket: I had Poncho with me as rain protector and it is not comfortable to use all the time. Sometimes it was difficult to trek wearing poncho.
  8. Gloves: I had forgot my gloves to carry. One should wear synthetic gloves during trek as sometime day temperature drops and you could feel numbness in hands. Woolen gloves keep your hands warm at night.

This is all for the first post, check out my photos here.

Akash Shende

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Python आणि बरच काही .

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