Trekkers get medical kits wrong in two directions. Some carry nothing but a strip of plasters and hope. Others pack a field hospital — suture kits, three antibiotics, a splint — and never open it. Neither is prepared for what really happens on a trek, which is small, predictable and mostly manageable with a dozen items.
A good personal kit covers the first hours of the common problems, lives in your day pack, and weighs about as much as a paperback. Anything bigger is your guide's job. This is the list we recommend, with the reasoning for each item.
This article is general information for trip planning, not medical advice. Prescription items, and whether any medicine is suitable for you, are matters for your own doctor or pharmacist.
What Your Guide Carries and What You Carry
| Guide's group kit | Your personal kit | |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Emergencies and anything serious | Everyday problems and your own prescriptions |
| Wound care | Bandages, dressings, antiseptic, wound closure strips, splinting material | A few plasters, tape, antiseptic wipes |
| Altitude | Pulse oximeter; emergency medication; oxygen on high passes and peaks | Your own preventive medication if prescribed |
| Medicines | Stronger pain relief, rehydration, a broad stock for the group | Painkillers, rehydration salts, stomach and cold remedies |
| Where it travels | With the guide | In your day pack, every day |
The division matters because your main bag goes with a porter, who may be an hour ahead or behind you. Anything you might need during the day — and all prescription medicine — stays on your own back. More on how loads are divided in guides and porters in Nepal.
The Core Personal Kit
| Item | Quantity for two weeks | For |
|---|---|---|
| Paracetamol 500 mg | 20 tablets | Headache, fever, general pain. First choice at altitude |
| Ibuprofen 200 or 400 mg | 20 tablets | Sore knees and muscles, altitude headache. With food |
| Oral rehydration salts | 6 to 8 sachets | Diarrhoea, vomiting, heavy sweating |
| Loperamide 2 mg | 10 capsules | Stopping diarrhoea on a travel day. Not with fever or blood |
| Antacid tablets | 10 | Heartburn from lodge food and altitude |
| Non-drowsy antihistamine | 10 tablets | Allergy, bites, itching |
| Throat lozenges | 2 packets | The dry cough and sore throat of altitude |
| Decongestant tablets or nasal spray | Small supply | Blocked nose and sinuses; ears on flights |
| Blister plasters (hydrocolloid) | 6 to 8, mixed sizes | Blisters |
| Zinc oxide tape | 1 small roll | Taping hot spots before they blister |
| Plasters and sterile gauze | A handful | Cuts and grazes |
| Antiseptic wipes or small povidone-iodine | 6 wipes or 1 small bottle | Cleaning wounds |
| Antifungal cream | 1 small tube | Feet and skin folds after days in boots |
| Sunscreen SPF 50 and SPF lip balm | 1 each | Sun at altitude burns in under half an hour |
| Hand sanitiser | 1 small bottle, refillable | Before every meal |
| Water purification tablets | 1 strip or bottle | Back-up when your main method fails |
| Small scissors, tweezers, safety pins | 1 each | Tape, splinters, slings |
| Digital thermometer | 1 | Telling a real fever from feeling rough |
That is the whole kit for most teahouse treks. It fits in a one-litre zip bag.
Prescription Items to Discuss with Your Doctor
| Item | Purpose | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Acetazolamide (Diamox) | Preventing altitude sickness on high or fast routes | See our Diamox guide. Try it at home first |
| Stand-by antibiotic for diarrhoea | Moderate to severe travellers' diarrhoea | Azithromycin is the usual choice for South Asia. Use only as instructed |
| Treatment for giardia | Prolonged diarrhoea with bloating and sulphurous burps | Some clinics prescribe a stand-by dose for longer treks |
| Anti-sickness tablets | Vomiting, when you cannot keep fluids down | Ask for one that dissolves in the mouth |
| Your own regular medicines | Whatever you take at home | Full supply plus a week extra, split between two bags |
| Reliever inhaler | Asthma, even if rarely used at home | Cold dry air is a trigger |
| Adrenaline auto-injector | Known severe allergy | Carry two; show your guide where they are |
Ask for written instructions with each prescription: what it is for, when to start it, the dose, and when to stop. A week into a trek, tired and at altitude, you will not remember what the doctor said. How to arrange all this is in the pre-trek medical check-up.
Feet, Skin, Sun and Lips
More treks are spoiled by feet than by altitude. This part of the kit will be used.
- Tape at the first hint of rubbing. A hot spot taped in the first five minutes never becomes a blister. Zinc oxide tape sticks through sweat and several days of walking.
- Hydrocolloid blister plasters for blisters that have already formed. Leave them on until they fall off.
- A needle for draining a large, tense blister — sterilised with an antiseptic wipe.
- Antifungal cream or powder. Feet spend ten hours a day in damp boots.
- Sunscreen. Ultraviolet exposure increases markedly with altitude, and snow reflects it back up under your chin and nose. Reapply every two hours.
- Lip balm with SPF. Cracked, sunburnt lips are painful for a week and trigger cold sores in people prone to them.
- Moisturiser or petroleum jelly. For split fingertips and heels in the dry cold, and for chafing.
The techniques are in knee pain, blisters and painkillers.
Adjusting the Kit by Route and Season
| Route or season | Add | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Low hill treks — Poon Hill, Mardi Himal | Nothing; you can drop altitude medication | Low altitude, close to roads |
| High teahouse treks — Everest, Annapurna Circuit, Manaslu | Altitude medication if prescribed; extra lozenges; more sunscreen | Dry air, strong sun, sustained altitude |
| Remote and camping treks — Dolpo, Kanchenjunga, Makalu | Larger quantities of everything; a second antibiotic course if your doctor advises; a spare of every prescription | Many days from any pharmacy or airstrip |
| Monsoon, June to September | Insect repellent; salt or repellent for leeches; extra antifungal; extra plasters | Leeches, wet feet, slow-healing skin |
| Winter, December to February | Chemical hand warmers; thick moisturiser; extra lip balm | Cold injury, split skin |
| Trekking peaks | As advised by your climbing leader | Higher, colder and longer above 5,000 m |
| Adding Chitwan, Bardia or Lumbini | Insect repellent; antimalarials if prescribed | Mosquito-borne disease in the lowlands |
For the rest of your gear by altitude band, see the Nepal trekking packing list. Seasonal specifics are in monsoon trekking and winter trekking.
Packing It Properly
- Keep tablets in their original blister strips, with the name and strength visible. Loose pills in a bag are unidentifiable in an emergency and questionable at customs.
- Use a waterproof zip bag or small dry bag.
- Write a dosing card — one line per medicine: what for, how much, how often — and keep it in the bag.
- Day pack, not porter bag. The kit is useless an hour up the trail.
- Split prescription medicines between your day pack and main bag, or between you and your trekking partner.
- Protect liquids and inhalers from freezing. Above 4,000 m, keep them inside your sleeping bag at night and in an inner pocket by day.
- Check expiry dates before you leave home.
- Show your guide where the kit is and what is in it on day one.
What Not to Bring
- Sleeping tablets and sedatives — they suppress breathing at night at altitude.
- Strong opioid painkillers and codeine-based cough medicine — the same problem.
- Several different antibiotics taken on a just-in-case basis without instructions.
- Emergency altitude drugs you have not been trained to use. Dexamethasone and nifedipine belong with guides and medics.
- Other people's prescriptions.
- Suture kits, scalpels and syringes unless you are medically trained.
- A kilogram of supplies you will carry for two weeks and never open.
If you forget something, most of the core kit can be bought in Kathmandu or Pokhara before the trek — see buying medicine in Kathmandu and Pokhara.
We Provide This Service: Pre- and Post-Trek Health Support
Green Compass Treks provides health support around every trek, and the medical kit is one of the most practical parts of it.
- A kit list for your route and season, sent when you book, so you pack what you need and no more.
- A kit check at the pre-trek briefing in Kathmandu or Pokhara. Your guide goes through what you have brought and what each item is for.
- Help filling gaps at a reputable pharmacy before you leave the city.
- A group medical kit carried by your guide, with a pulse oximeter and emergency medication on high-altitude routes and oxygen on high passes and climbing trips.
- Guides trained in first aid, who deal with blisters, sprains and stomach upsets every week of the season.
- After the trek: a check-in, wound and blister care if needed, and a clinic visit arranged for anything that has not settled.
Contact us for the kit list for your route. We do not supply prescription medicines — those come from your own doctor — but we make sure nothing obvious is missing before you start walking.
