I'm leaving in 1 week for a 3.5 month trip to China, Nepal and India. I'll be getting to Nepal after 2 weeks in China. While in Nepal, I'm planning on doing ~ 3 weeks of trekking in the Everest Region. So I definitely need warm clothes. That being said, I'm not excited about carrying all the warm weather gear (down jacket, sleeping bag, windbreaker, fleece, hat, etc) during the China leg and the subsequent 2 months in India.

Would you recommend buying/renting gear/clothing once I get to Kathmandu? If so, what are the good things to buy there and what would you recommend bringing from home? Are things that you wish you would have packed more of before going?

After Nepal, my plan was to ship all the warm weather gear back to the US. Has anyone tried doing that? If so, did it get home in one piece?

Cheers,
Doug

You can buy everything you'll need in Kathmandu , but ... a lot of it is fakes and not as good quality. You can find good stuff , but ask around , some brands are ok to buy and some are fakes that will just about last the trek. A lot of Northface stuff around. We did a similar thing to you , ie bought warmer clothes as we needed to , but didn't bother sending them home , they were cheap-ish and the cost of posting just clothes wasn't worth it , so we gave the clothes away to some street kids when we got back to Delhi from Chetwin. I have no doubt anything you post home will make it , we posted a large box from Delhi full of goodies and it all arrived safely some months later.

here you go , found this on the net -

"the stuff they pass off as North Face is generally fake. If you have and use real Goretex stuff the difference is obvious. However, some tourists who have not had first hand experience with the real thing go for it and think they make a tremendous bargain. The difference is comparable to that between "Rollex" watches you can buy in Bangkok and real Rollex.

: Occassioally, there are better second hand goretex and down jackets available. However, they are very attractive to the locals who live on high altitude, to keep them warm in the winter, and sell fast (if they are available at all) so if you are going to trek in such a style that you really need good gear don´t depend on finding critical things in Kathmandu. If new stuff is available at all it will be costly, not least because of enormous custom duties.

: There is a rumour that North face produces stuff in Nepal. As far as I can understand it is false and has most probably been spread for obvious reasons by those who sell the fake stuff. If you search for instance the Nepal homepage you will not find any referrence to a north face production unit or anything of the sort in the new archives (www.nepalnews.com) or in the yellow pages. "


Might be better to hire ? i suppose it will depend on the level of treking you'll be doing and how crucial your gear will be.

Actually, all of it are fakes. (I was the Warranty Manager at The North Face for a decade) The North Face does not manufacture in Nepal and there are no authorized dealers in Nepal. Here is a dealer list.

There is, however, one authorized Mountain Hardwear dealer in Kathmandu.

With a down or fleece jacket, it doesn't really make any difference: it's just an insulating layer under the hard shell. The hard shell should be the real thing, so bring one with you, preferably made out of Gore Paclite.

Damn! I just bought a North Face at a market in China 3 weeks ago and it seemed pretty real to me! Ha well... I guess I'm a sucker for these things...

If it works OK for you, then that's all that counts.

quote:

With a down or fleece jacket, it doesn't really make any difference: it's just an insulating layer under the hard shell.

Static is 100% correct. With fleece and down, it really doesn't matter who the manufacturer actually is, you know what insulating material you are getting. Fleece you can tell by sight. And down, there is nothing out there as compressible with so much loft and so little weight with little feathers popping out. It'd be hard to fake.

But, what you may not get in the "el cheapo" versions is the exact same cut, quality and construction of build. But then again it's not like we're climbing Annapurna and would really need those features anyway.