The Trekking Peaks of Nepal

Bill O'Connor

Contains details of all Nepal's trekking peaks, as well as some information on trekking to them. However, routes are rather vague and out of date (especially Kwangde) and he walks at 'ultra-bionic guidebook man' speed, so allow twice the suggested times.

Lonely Planet's Trekking in the Nepal Himalaya

Stan Armington

Excellent all-round trekking guide. Gives lots of useful and fairly accurate information for trekkers, but does not include information on mountain routes, or a Rolwaling trek.

'Schneider' 1:50,000 maps of Nepal

Kartenwerk der Arbeitsgemeinschaft

The definitive maps of Nepal. Very well drawn and presented (and correspondingly expensive), the Schnider maps can look misleadingly accurate. Rather out of date, they fail to show many trails and bridges and often have major inconsistencies in the mountains. They're the best you'll find, though. 1:25,000 maps of popular areas are now available

H.M.G of Nepal / Government of Finland 1:50,000 maps

Cordee Outdoor Books & Maps, Leicester, UK

A rather bizarre map. Has no shading, so gives a poor impression of the terrain. Place names vary wildly from the Schneider maps. Claims to be the most up-to date map available. Do not like the letter 'g'.

Nelles Maps Nepal 1:500,000 & 1:1,500,000

Nelles Maps

A route map of the whole of Nepal. Has a useful close-up of Eastern Nepal on the back and a plan of Kathmandu. Our sherpas loved looking at this map.

Lonely Planet's Nepali Phrasebook

Mary-Jo O'Rourke & Bimal Shrestha

An invaluable little book. A huge amount of useful language in stuffed in, with understandable explanations of how to use it. Slightly unusual transliteration scheme (c = ch). Could really do with a cassette.

Nepali for Trekkers

Stephen Bezruchka

ISBN 0-89886-311-2

You can see by how worn out this book is how useful we found it. Accompanied by an excellent cassette, it teaches very practical, simple Nepali aimed specifically at trekkers, such as 'malaai dishaa cherchha' - I have diarrhoea.