April 2026

Preparing for Everest is a monumental task. There’s training, acclimatisation, kit preparation, and administrative tasks that will be needed. The last four weeks before your trip even starts will be very busy. Let’s go through some of the planning that you might think about doing.

Kit

High-altitude kit is specialist, and you won’t be able to order it from Amazon Prime or get next-day delivery. If you don’t want to pay top-end prices, you’ll probably find yourself on European websites or sites like TrekInn/SnowInn. Prices are cheaper, but delivery time is a lot longer. Expect items to arrive 2–3 weeks after you order them, but it could take longer. Ordering from the UK might take a few days or 1 week to arrive, but you’ll be paying top-end prices.

Before I went on to summit Ama Dablam, I ordered most of my kit from TrekInn/SnowInn. This was a mistake. The kit all arrived late, after I had left. When I ordered the kit, the estimated delivery date was 1 week before I was due to leave. However, when items are sent from Europe, sometimes things arrive later than expected. If you use cheap websites like TrekInn then bear in mind the customer service is shocking, especially if you need to send items back.

Fortunately, most kit items can be bought in Thamel, Kathmandu. Before my trip to Everest I was short on some kit items and left for KTM knowing I would buy some things out there.

Training

I’ll cover this in a separate article.

Boots

8000m boots are expensive. I bought them from the UK and I would recommend going to a shop to buy them. I bought mine from Ellis Brigham in Covent Garden. The benefit of this is you need to get the right size. I was surprised that I needed one size higher than my normal size. I felt very lucky not to have ordered it online, or I would have ordered the wrong size.

When I came to pay for the item, I asked the attendant if I could get a discount and he price-matched the price I found online. My 8000m boots are the Scarpa Phantom 8000 Thermic HD.

Admin

I made the mistake of not getting enough admin done before I left for Nepal. Things like setting up a new laptop, setting up my new phone, and clearing my Dropbox. This all took time in Nepal and was cumbersome and difficult to do from my laptop rather than at home on my desktop.

Whatever admin you have, I would strongly recommend you do as much as possible from home before you leave. It will just make your life easier.

Bag Tracking

It’s inevitable when things go wrong, it will be at the worst times. Unfortunately my kit bag with all my Everest Summit gear did not leave London. I had put it in an oversized area, and it was not put on the plane. When I arrived at KTM, my bag was not there.

Fortunately, I was able to track it using an Apple AirTag, and I would recommend buying one for each luggage bag so you can track your bag if it does not arrive. I waited two days for mine in KTM, and it was very frustrating, but at least I could see its location on the Find My app.

Mitts

I suffer with cold hands, and got some frost nip in Ama Dablam. I had two numb fingers for about 4 weeks but got about 90% feeling back after that (although they are still very slightly number than the other fingers).

For Everest, I was recommended PHD mitts. They are expensive at £330 and will need around 4 weeks to manufacture in the UK, so give yourself plenty of time to order them.

Will

Writing a will for Everest is a tough thing to do, but sensible. I wrote my will and put it on a memory stick for my wife in case of emergency. Nobody likes to write a will, as there’s always that fear of “tempting fate”. But I believe it’s responsible to do it.

Fortunately, I already had a will in place so I just needed to amend it before my Everest Summit trip.

In Case of Emergency

For Everest, you’ll be gone for 7 weeks or longer. It’s not a short trip. Obviously Everest is not a walk in the park, so I wrote a document for my wife and saved it on an external USB stick.

It detailed my properties, assets, ISAs, bank accounts, usernames, pins, and passwords. Again this is a very difficult thing to write, but you don’t want to leave your loved ones in a mess should something serious happen.

Altitude Training

I’ll cover this in a separate article.

Drones

Flying a drone in the Khumbu region, around Everest, is very problematic. Getting a drone licence is very difficult as a non-local and can be costly.

I did get a drone permit, however it meant that I had to buy the drone (DJI Mavic 4 Pro) in Kathmandu. I found a local contact who helped arrange the whole process. Buying a drone is not cheaper than in the UK and is slightly more expensive in Kathmandu, but it makes certification easier.

Otherwise, you would need to get clearance at the airport which is likely to be expensive and problematic.

Getting a drone permit is a challenge. We hired a drone videographer who obtained the permit in his name. However, the CAA would only issue the permit for 30 days and 200m altitude above take-off point, which is again a limitation.

Ultimately, unless you are a big company or have a large budget, flying a drone legally in Nepal is very difficult.

DJI

DJI are a nightmare to deal with, especially their FlySafe team. If you want to fly a drone in Nepal, you will want to get the height restrictions lifted. The Mini drones are limited to 120m above ground level, and the Mavic 4 Pro to 500m above ground, which is not suitable for mountain filming.

You will need to contact FlySafe, but their website is extremely difficult to use and often does not work properly. Raising support queries can be ineffective.

I ended up emailing [email protected] and had 18 emails back and forth. Despite providing coordinates, permits, and documentation, they ultimately refused approval, citing restrictions related to Chinese airspace.

This was particularly frustrating given DJI have filmed content on Everest themselves.

My advice: if possible, consider alternative drone brands and avoid DJI for an Everest Summit expedition.