UKC

Hi, other than the National Geographic maps for the khumbu, can anyone recommend good quality trekking maps?

I wondered if any other European countries produced maps for this area?

Ideally 1:50 or similar

thanks in advance

There are reasonably good 1:50k maps produced by the Nepal government. These have good height data but everything else (road, paths and settlements etc.) is very sparse. Printed versions are available but with a little creative searching you can find PDF's of them all. To get you started.

2786 04: Mount Everest (Sagarmatha)

To be honest though the trekking maps you can pick up in Kathmandu are much better. They have more of the useful stuff like, interesting sights, side trails and what's at settlements etc. 

The Finnmap series (for all Nepal) is topographically the 'best' and most accurate map but as Tom mentioned above, some of the actual trekking maps you buy in KTM are more useful. They have more villages and structures marked, often with little notes etc.

Also different trekking maps have slightly different coverages, ie. some may include the upper Hongu area to the east (for the Amphu Lapcha approach etc) and not the Thame valley to the west, or vice versa. Whereas the coverage and boundaries of the Finnmaps is based on other factors. So it depends exactly where you're going and what you're doing in the area.

Before the Finnmap series, the best topo was the 1:50,000 'Schneider' map 'Khumbu Himal' - they also did Annapurna, Langtang etc - distinguishable by their colours (Khumbu light green, Annapurna pink etc) and they are still in shops in many places but I wouldn't bother. They were a collab between the German and Austrian alpine clubs. But while topographically excellent, that series is well out of date in terms of human developments - villages, bridges etc - and also expanding glacial lakes. There is an updated version though, which looks good, though I don't personally have:

https://www.themapcentre.com/2-khumbu-himal-nepal---schneider-nep-20-15250-...

Thanks, ideally I’m looking for maps that have good topographical detail as from experience I’ve found that the many maps hold good trekking info e.g. villages, peaks etc but lack topographical detail.

This also applies to electronic mapping