Do I need warm clothes for Mt. Rinjani?

Yes, you absolutely need warm clothes for Mount Rinjani, and this is the most common mistake we see from trekkers who come from tropical climates or who only checked the daytime weather forecast. Daytime hiking on the lower slopes can be hot and sunny. But nighttime at the crater rim camp drops to 5 to 10 degrees Celsius, and the summit push at 3,726 meters can hit below freezing with wind chill.

If you show up with just a light jacket, you’re going to be miserable at best and potentially at risk of hypothermia at worst. At minimum, you need a proper insulated jacket, either down or high-quality synthetic. A fleece or hoodie is not sufficient as your main warm layer.

You need warm layers for your legs too, not just shorts. Warm socks, a hat that covers your ears, and gloves are essential. The summit push in near-freezing temperatures without gloves is genuinely unpleasant and potentially dangerous.

Many trekkers also underestimate how cold it gets while sitting around camp in the evening and early morning, not just during the active climbing. Lombok-Indonesia.org offers jacket and footwear rentals through our partner shop if you don’t want to buy gear for a single trek. But don’t assume you can tough it out with inadequate clothing.

We’ve seen too many trekkers shivering through the night and struggling on the summit because they didn’t take the cold seriously. Rinjani is a tropical mountain, but it’s a high-altitude tropical mountain, and that makes all the difference.