It's your first Everest Base Camp Trek and you've packed your clothing, bedding, food, emergency supplies and sundries. But you've still got at least a litre of space left in your backpack. What do you really need? What indulgence do you deserve? What will baffle and irritate your trekking mates even as they burn with jealousy??



Five Gadgets You Probably Don't Need on an Everest Base Camp Trek

1. A Rotary Airer

What is it?:

A lightweight, four-armed, miniature, portable version of the heavy steel clothes-airer that graces your back garden.

Uselessness on an Everest Base Camp Trek?:

Pretty high. Though lightweight it's still yet another item to strap to your backback. And, though it may be amusing to stalk around as it sits outside your tent, perhaps imagining that you've woken up in the land of Lilliput, there's little you can do with it that you can't achieve with a line of string or nylon cord.

2. Tent Speakers

What are they?:

A flexible, compact speaker set that can fill your tent with the sweet sounds of your MP3 collection wherever you may be.

Uselessness on an Everest Base Camp Trek?:

Not overt. Music may be the perfect solitary escape from the intimacy of trekking life, but imagine rousing Everest base camp to the stirring chords of Beethoven's glorious Ninth? or heralding the onset of a storm with Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries. Who could object?

3. Pen Fishing Rod

What is it?:

A slick little tube about the size of a marker pen that thrillingly extends into a 4ft fishing rod at a moment's notice.

Uselessness on an Everest Base Camp Trek?:

It'd be a miracle if you found fish living at altitudes above Everest base camp? but wow! It's only the size of a pen! What if you did stumble upon a lake filled with trout at 5,600m? You'd look quite the plum if you were caught without your fishing rod! Thankfully, those fears are now a thing of the past.

4. Earmuff Headphones

What are they?:

Fluffy headphones that make you look like a Panda bear.

Uselessness on an Everest Base Camp Trek?:

Fair. If you're any kind of hiker you'll want to drink in the beauty of the Himalaya in silence, and if listening to your music by night your snug woollen nightcap will make their warmth-preserving properties redundant. Still, if you want to bring a bit of 80's kitsch back to Everest base camp, trekking with these wrapped around your grinning mug could be just the ticket.

5. Handpresso Kit

What is it?:

A quite astonishing bit of kit that looks like a mixture between a 24th century bicycle pump and a water filter. By pumping up the internal pressure to 16 bar, adding some water from your thermos and a dash of coffee, you and up to 3 friends can enjoy impeccable espresso whether you're 20,000 leagues under the sea or approaching the outer limits of the Earth's atmosphere.

Uselessness on an Everest Base Camp Trek?:

Legendary. Firstly this would involved eschewing the traditional refreshment of tea during your adventure in the Himalaya, secondly the kit comes with specially designed espresso mugs and a set of napkins, none of which will amuse your trekking partners who have had to carry the extra tins of tuna that you ?simply didn't have space for?. On the other hand, think of the publicity when you stand upon the roof of the world, not haggard and exhausted like your predecessors, but buzzing from the high of history's most high-altitude caffeine hit! We may have hit upon the new ?Extreme Ironing? here.