GPS routes

GPS routes for the entire route are available here:

• GPX ROUTES (recommended for most apps)

I would recommend using the GPX file above if you can, but some apps need KML format:

• KML (if gpx files don't work)
• KML (for the maps.me app - route descriptions aren't visible in maps.me, so I've included a waypoint with the description at the start of each leg)

The routes and waypoints in the GPS files have the text from my trail notes embedded in them, which is useful for quick reference.

I'd recommend using both the maps.me and Gaia GPS apps:

Maps.me

This doesn't have detailed topo maps but for 90% of the route it's all you need. Import my special KML file to get the route and waypoints. The offline maps are very quick to download, and you can download all the maps for the whole of Nepal.

Gaia GPS

For the 10% of the route where maps.me isn't useful, you'll need a topographic map. I would highly recommend Gaia GPS… I didn't actually discover Gaia until after our trek finished, but it is far easier to use than the alternatives. Import my standard GPX file to get the route and waypoints. There's two sets of offline maps I'd recommend:

• Gaia Topo offline maps is essential, and very quick to download for the entire route. Choose the highest zoom level in the download page.
• World Imagery offline satellite images. If you have time and space on your phone, I would highly recommend downloading satellite images for the entire route. I only downloaded these for about a quarter of the route, and it was very helpful when recently built roads were missing from the topo maps. It will take many hours to download the images for the entire route because each leg will have to be downloaded separately because of Gaia's limit on the number of tiles per download, but I'd highly recommend investing the time.