Going Light(er)

Proper ultralight travel is part art (backcountry experience) and part science. It walks a fine line between “being prepared” and “light is right.” As gear technologies advance to create better designs, lighter materials and smaller/cheaper/more capable gadgets, what was once impossible suddenly becomes possible. After several years of constant gear testing, I recently sorted through all of my backcountry gear and scaled down to the “essentials.” The result of my efforts was a noticeably lighter pack and a huge gear sale that funded a few ultralight gear purchases. A few of the items that I picked up include the following:

CAMP Corsa Axe (Aluminum, 70cm, 205g)

CAMP XLC 390 Crampons (Aluminum, 390g)

GoLite Pursuit Pack (51L, 3lbs)

GoLite Shangri-La 2 4-Season Shelter (830g) + Floor (570g)

Black Diamond Whippet (400g)

Overall, I’m quite satisfied with the weight savings that I’ve achieved with a few strategic gear purchases. However, there are two material glitches in my setup that I’m working on solving:

1. Between my avy beacon, GPS, heImet cam, SPOT tracker, camera, headlamp, GMRS radio… I burn through lots of AA and AAA batteries (alkaline) on a regular basis and batteries are expensive and heavy for their size. Stay tuned for a solution that is cheaper, greener and lighter.

2. My DSLR camera and accompanying lenses (Canon 5D MkII full-frame body + 28-135 IS lens + occasional Canon 15mm fisheye lens) are obnoxiously heavy and hang like a loose millstone around my neck. If stashed in my pack, they are not accessible when I need them. If kept directly on my body, I run the risk of accidental damage from impact, dust and moisture (both precip and sweat). If kept in a chest holster, they are bulky, sweat inducing and obscure my vision. Given the excessively bulky and somewhat heavy “small SLR” chest holsters currently available on the market, it’s looking like I may have to build or mod my own solution. I have a few ideas up my sleeve that I think may work.

The seemingly obvious solution to my problem is to find the “ultimate” compact camera that has the portability of a point-and-shoot camera with the quality, RAW format and manual settings of a DSLR. Sadly, no such solution currently exists. The Canon PowerShot G10 (350g) comes close in terms of functionality and RAW format, but the ridiculous amount of noise (even at low ISO levels) produced by its overhyped “15MP” (lots of really small pixels on a small sensor) sub-DSLR quality sensor is a real deal killer for what I need. I have decided that my quasi-temporary solution for adventure photography will be the Olympus E-420 micoDSLR body (385g) + the high quality and moderately compact Olympus Zuiko Digital f/2.8-3.5 14-54mm lens (435g). With its 2x magnification factor, it will behave like a 28-108mm lens on a full-frame, which is similar to my Canon 28-135mm lens. It does not have image stabilization, but it does have f/2.8+ compared to the f/3.5+ of my Canon zoom lens. I’m also looking forward to the squarer 4:3 aspect ratio of the images.