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Lesson Info

The Art and Science of What To Pack

All right, so we're gonna get Rod fully outfitted here. He's never done, you've never done a back country adventure in the winter, right? No, not in the snow. Yeah. So Rod needs to be fully taken care of as far as teaching him how to layer. He knows the basics. He's definitely done a lot of outdoor stuff, but going into the back country in the winter is pretty specific in what you need so that you're comfortable and you're not cold and you don't have a miserable time. So first things first, I don't actually think about camera gear when I start out. Camera gear's like the last thing I think about, the last thing that goes in my bag. First thing that I want to get sorted out is either food or my layering system. And since Rod is right here and we both know what we're gonna bring for food at this point, we're just gonna jump right in and get him layered up. So, first things is your base layer. So this is what I have. So Rod, you can pull yours out at the same time. I usually do like s...

ome sort of breathable, not cotton underwear followed by some long underwear that are either Polypro or these ones are wool. Then I go with like a wool T-shirt. If it's really, really cold, I'll do like a long sleeve base layer. Like, and by really cold, I mean really cold, like in the negatives, like zero degrees Fahrenheit or less. What do you have for base layers? So I got the smart wool. Okay, smart wool. Yep. You said non-cotton underwear, right? Yeah. Okay, so, I do have that along with what material is this? Yeah, it's like Polypro or something like that. It's like breathable- Yeah, Capilene. So like a Patagonia Capilene is awesome. It's good for when I sweat. It just dries really quickly. Yeah. So, and really quickly, when I talk about why I have wool or Polypro or Capilene or any of these breathable fabrics, it's because when you go do an activity, even when it's freezing cold, you're gonna sweat and you want it to be able to wick that moisture away from your body and you also want it to dry as soon as you take it off or even if you delayer. So cotton, if you have a cotton base layer, is not going to dry just on your body very well. It will eventually, but it's mostly gonna be wet, and then when you put heavier layers back on, when you start to get cold, when you stop moving, it's gonna get really wet, maybe even icy, and you're gonna feel freezing cold. So you wanna stay away from cotton or any sort of non-breathable or non-wickable fabrics. Yeah. Jumping into socks, I guess. Yeah, I got my wool socks. Yeah, so I do- Like the ones I'm wearing right now. Yeah, so wool socks are great. Like my ski socks are really long. They come up like over my shin so that the pressure from my ski or snowboard boots- Okay. Is not, you know, it's evenly distributed along my legs. That's not super important for like, you know, if you're just starting out. Mm-hmm. Going to the mountains, you're not like doing high performance snowboarding. It's not super important, but it is something that if you have the option, you want ski socks. Okay. The mid layer. This is for, again, when it's really cold. These are like a fleece pant. They're not super necessary when we're in 15 degree or above weather. So it'll be fine? Yeah. Like you don't need this, but sometimes I'll swap out my long underwear for these. Uh huh. And if it's below zero Fahrenheit, I'll do both my long underwear and these as well as the shell pant that we'll talk about later. I have two different mid layers, depending on how active I'm gonna be. This is, again, a wool mid-layer from Icebreaker. And it's just a little bit thicker. It goes on top of my T-shirt. Mm-hmm. This one wicks like crazy, so you're almost never wet in this. It breathes really well. And then if I want something a little more comfortable and I'm not doing something where I'm super sweaty, I'll go with just like a Polar Tech fleece. So even if you have the shirts, you still want a mid-layer that's the same material? Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yep, everything needs to wick. Otherwise, if you just put like a cotton sweatshirt over top of your- Yeah, yeah. T-shirt. Okay. Then, yeah, that's gonna wick into that cotton T-shirt and that's gonna get wet and that's not gonna dry out. It is never gonna be dry. Yeah. So you don't actually have a mid layer that's breathable right now? No. Okay. So- So that that'll be like your insulative jacket layer. We'll hit that in a second. Okay. So we'll get you one of these. That's where we jump into the outer layer. And the first outer layer is not a waterproof outer layer. This will be your puffy. So like your Fjallraven. I just have this puffy. It's like, this is like a cheapie off of eBay. Okay. It doesn't really matter what this is, as long as it's comfortable, the zippers work and it's got some sort of insulative. This is down. A lot of people use like a Poly-fil insulation or other stuff. I prefer down. I think it's a little warmer for the weight. Mm-hmm. And this thing, what's really nice about it is when I'm not using it, it's just very tiny in the pack. Okay. So it's like the most amount of insulation you can get for the smallest size. I see. And I know you don't have this yet. We're gonna hook you up with a set of outerwear, but these are just a waterproof shell, like snow pant. Mm-hmm. What's important for what we're doing a back country trip is that they have some sort of zip on them to where, I mean, this just goes right through. It's breathable. Yeah. Okay. So that you get some, especially like in your upper thigh, you know, like waist for area, you can like open this up and get some sort of airflow in there. That's really gonna cool you off and keep you drier when you're going uphill. These are not the lightest pants. They're not the thinnest, but I'm super hard on stuff. Often halfway worn out now. Uh huh. But they're still waterproof. Uh huh. So that's important to me. I'd rather have toughness over lightness any day, but- Yeah. Some people go with like Arc'teryx or something like that. And those are a lot lighter, but not as tough, so they're not Isaac approved. I am lucky enough to have very expensive shell jackets. Not everybody has those, but like, this is what I normally go with. It's the same brand. It's the (indistinct). And again, it's heavier, it's tougher. This one has a lot of room, so I can layer underneath this. So I could put not just this puffy underneath it- Mm-hmm. But I could put a full 850 fill power down underneath this and still have room to move my arms. I almost never use the powder skirt, 'cause I find that as soon as I raise my arms, it pulls all my clothes up. Mm-hmm. So that's not important. I just like zippers that work one handed and pockets, and I like a good alpine hood that's gonna fit over top of my helmet. So like, this is huge. If you were to just put it on your hat, it's probably gonna be a little bit floppy, but it fits over top of your helmet. I see, mm-hmm. I find that for me, the upper body, so my jacket needs to be more breathable than my pants. Mm-hmm. So it's nicer to have a higher quality piece. And that's where like my newest jacket comes in. This weighs about half the weight. It's definitely thinner. This is a 66 North, but it's the Gore-Tex Pro fabric. Okay. So it breathes better, is more waterproof, is about twice the price. So really expensive. This jacket is something I would bring on a trip, probably not this trip. I'd bring on a trip where I'm skinning for miles and miles, like eight, 10 miles. I would save that because this is gonna be a more delicate, kind of once big trip kind of fabric, where it'll wear out a little bit faster. Really? Why is that? Well, feel the difference. That's a good question. Oh yeah. Yeah, so anytime you're making things lighter- Uh huh. You're making them thinner. You're making them basically not Isaac proof. So I'm gonna use this when I really need it, trips that I need it as much lightweight as possible or as much performance as possible 'cause I'm exerting a lot of energy. It is good for photos, though. It's good for photos, so I might bring it. A nice pop of red. Yeah. So, but the thing is, I haven't used this jacket before. It's brand new to me. So I might just bring it just to test it before I go on like a bigger trip. Adding in a couple of things here before we talk about how to test it, I have just some good gloves, usually waterproof. Mm-hmm. I want them to be able to be breathable 'cause your hands sweat, even though you don't know it. That's just Polar Tech fleece on the inside. This one has a waterproof liner underneath the outer fabric. But when it's really cold, I have like these giant mittens. I just use like a polyester type beanie. Regular beanie? Yeah, regular beanie. If it's really cold, I have this balaclava that I'll wear underneath the beanie. Okay. It goes over my face. This is wool. I have another thicker beanie, whatever. You have your helmet, regular goggles here. If you have not worn this stuff before, like if you're new to this, which might be our viewer and it obviously is you, if you haven't worn all this stuff together, I like to literally put it on and feel what it feels like. Move around and? Yeah. So for instance, if I put this over top of this fleece and these layers are not playing well together, it's just not enough room. Does it feel too stiff or? It's just like in here's really tight. Uh huh. And I don't know if you can see that, but like- It's kind of bulky. The sleeves didn't come down. I'm like a little kid. So you pull 'em like that and it's just not playing well together. This is the place, like right here when we're packing, to try all this. I know that you can see it's all wrinkled in here. This piece is too big to go underneath my typical layering system, so that's where I'll get like a mid-layer that is a little less insulated. So this is my wool mid-layer. This also has this thumb. Mm-hmm. Which is not for style points, although it's pretty cool. When I was a kid, I used to put a bunch of- Why not, yeah? I used to put a bunch of holes in my sleeves to be able to do that. That's actually so that when you put on your next layer, you don't get that sleeve issue. I see, that makes sense. So you can pull through like that, but it fits well underneath here and I have full mobility. And when I zip the jacket up, the layers don't pull weird or anything like that. They don't get stuck or anything. Yeah, right, 'cause almost- The other one was bulging a little bit and these weird spots. Yeah. So another big one for me is when I pull my arms up, like this jacket will pull it up a little bit, but when I pull it back down, like when I put my arms back down, everything slides together in one layer back down. Okay. Layers, from what I understand, are designed to be adjustable so that you can, like right now it's warm in here. Mm-hmm. I can be down to my T-shirt, be cool, but also it traps air in between the layers. So you'll get, you know, air between this layer and this layer, air between this layer and this layer and then, finally, air between this layer and this layer. And it's the air that warms up from your body heat that actually is insulating, so. Okay. The difference between the layers really helps versus just one thick layer. Mm-hmm. And when somebody says, "I thought layers made you cold," what their probably experience is that they got layers that didn't fit well together. Mm-hmm. And you don't have to have a lot of this gear. Like this stuff is expensive. I'll recognize that outdoor gear is just crazy expensive, but it generally lasts a long time. Like this wool piece I've had for four years. Mm-hmm. And I pretty much wear it every outdoor outing that I'm doing that's, you know, I'm exerting some energy. Not just like walking somewhere, but like actually going for a big trip. And I know that this plays well with certain T-shirts I have and whatever. So once you get the system, you can wear it, 'cause once you're outside, too, and you're like a multi day adventure, or even just overnight, nobody really cares if you're smelly. (man laughing) Yeah. It depends on how cold it is, but when I start hiking and I know that I'm gonna be doing a lot of verts, I'll be just in my T-shirt. If it's a little bit like I'm not doing as many verts, it's more flat, I know that my body's not gonna be working as hard or maybe it's a little colder, I'll put this wool layer over it. Mm-hmm. But I'm never starting in my down jacket. So if it's really windy, I'll do just a T-shirt. I'll put everything else in my backpack and I'll do T-shirt and the shell. Okay. And I'll have the shell fully opened up, but this will keep the wind off of me and I won't get wet from like blowing snow or something, but I'll be cold for sure. Everything will be cold. My hands, my toes. Yeah, yeah. But as soon as I start moving the first mile- Your body's gonna start warming. You start warming up. Okay. And then you're warm, but you're not sweaty. And even if you are sweating, you're only sweating into one of your layers. Mm-hmm. So that's wicking, and then when you get cold, you can throw on your other layers, and those are wicking, too, so it'll actually pull the moisture out of your first base layer. Mm-hmm. You only have the wetness in your base layer and then everything else is still dry and warm. That I don't ever wear the socks I'm gonna wear in like my shoes in the car on the way there. So I just wear like regular street socks. Mm-hmm. And then have my wool socks or, you know, my ski socks in the bag. And I put those on when I put my ski or snowboard boots on before we get on the hill. Why is that? Again, moisture management. I just don't want any wetness from the car heater, you know? Like I don't want, you know, you don't notice this stuff until you notice it, but. Yeah. If I put on, you know, my sock is even slightly damp and I put it my ski boots and then I'm starting cold. Mm-hmm. A wet foot is just so much colder than a dry foot. Next step we're gonna talk about is food, which I think is more important than almost anything because if you're out there and you're hungry, you don't care about your camera gear, you don't care about your snowboard gear, you don't care about anything. You wanna be warm and dry, which we just talked about, and then you want to be well fed. I try and go for lightness on food. And because of that, today, we're gonna be talking about what I usually bring and not like prepared foods or bringing, you know, meal plan of stuff that you're putting together like bread or pastas or all that. The reason is is because my preference, I see food as fuel. I'm not like an aficionado of a really good camp food, so don't take my word for that. I just see it as fuel so that I can go do more fun adventures. So with that said, we're gonna talk about a couple options for dinner here. There's good to-go foods like this PeakFuel option here, and you can get 'em all sorts of flavors. This stuff used to be really gross. There used to be one brand, which I won't name here, however, there's like 10 to 15 different options at your outdoor stores. The reason I go with these is because they have so much energy for the weight. You put hot water in here, usually 15, 20 minutes. Sometimes you wait and then you open 'em up and you have basically a hot, you know, meal that is super simple. Everywhere we go is pack it in, pack it out. So you don't want to leave your trash there. Mm-hmm. So you just Ziploc these back. You can press all the air out of 'em and then the trash weighs nothing. It doesn't take up any space in your bag. Mm-hmm. So these are kind of like the base. So I do these for dinner, sometimes lunch. Other times I'll bring snacky type stuff, bars and chips and maybe like a, you know, like a loaf for bread. Like I'll bring like a baguette or something for lunch. Yeah, of course. When you're skinning up, sometimes you don't wanna stop and like have an actual meal. You need like a little more energy. I do like these ProBites. They're like electrolyte bites. I don't really know much about 'em. They might not be good for you, but- Keep 'em in your pocket? Yeah. Pull 'em out. These give you like energy and kind of give you like fight that like food boredom that you can get. And then for breakfast, just these little oatmeal canisters are awesome. A lot of times I'll do like the oatmeal packs, too, 'cause they're even lighter. Mm-hmm. And less trash. You can actually throw them in these bags as like a trash bag. So that's pretty much what I do for a meal. I try and keep it really uber simple, light and make it so that I can compress the trash. You know, I may get a little more adventurous with my food and bring stuff that I'm like cooking or making or, you know, making, you know, bringing some sort of pasta sauce or having to like actually make a meal in the summer. But the reason I won't in the winter is 'cause washing dishes is the worst thing in the winter 'cause you have to heat up the water, you have to, you know, do it and then everything can freeze really easily. Water's hard to find. You have to melt snow for it. So it becomes kind of this big process, so I'm not looking to do any dishes. This is super simple. Like my cooking system is the cheapest you can get. I think I got this at Walmart for 13 bucks and it's just a Stanley steel. It's heavy, but it's really burly. I've had it for probably five years. It comes with two cups in it, so you always have a cup for your buddy, cup for you for coffee or just whatever you want. You can even make the oatmeal in there, which is what I do when I get the packs where I don't have a cup. Yeah. I just use this for heating at water. And that slides right in there. It's got the handle so you don't burn your hand. My stove system is like this. I don't even know what brand it is. It's a Chinese knockoff. I get the four season for the winter. That's important that you see it says four season. If you don't get that, you'll go out there and if it's like below freezing wherever you're camped in the cabin or a hut or just in your tent, this won't light. Like it just, it won't even come out. Uh huh. Hey-oh. (air blowing) There may be some downsides to the knockoff, but, yeah, like the MSR has a four season and a not four season. I see, okay. Now this one, I like these little swivels out. So that then this'll sit right on top of there and with the knockoff like that, (lighter clicking) let's see, hopefully it won't light on fire on my hand now. (lighter clicking) Huh? Maybe it won't go. Maybe it's (indistinct)? Yeah, maybe it's not indoor approved. (lighter clicking) Sometimes you gotta tilt it. (lighter clicking) I don't know, maybe give it the Rod touch. The Rod touch. (man laughing) Go for it. Oh, look at him. Oh, jeez Louise. Did I get it? No. No. Oh, it's like spewing. Here, hold up, turn it off for a second. (man laughing) Ah! Turn it off, Rod. What's wrong with it? Okay, maybe we're done with that. Typically that works, but hey, you know what? This is actually a good opportunity 'cause I haven't used the stove since the summer. Yeah. So it's a good opportunity. I'll take it outside after this- Try it out. Not in my office. Mm-hmm. And make sure that it's working before we go any further now that we know we have a little bit of a problem. Because it's cold out, like a lot of times you'll get to where you're hiking or let's say we skin up there and then we, you know, we skin up, we do a rundown and you come back, and as your body stops being active, you may not be hungry, but you'll cool down and your body'll just start to get cold. So a hot drink is really nice. I really like good coffee, but I'm not willing to bring in beans and a grinder and AeroPress and all that. I just don't, 'cause I'm, you know, oftentimes I'm just like tired when I'm done with the activity and I don't wanna go through that process. Yeah. So we have a pretty great local coffee company that started to make an instant coffee. Uh huh. But I used to, before they did that, I just would do like the Starbucks VIAs. Okay. 'Cause, dude, a Starbucks VIA tastes really good when you're out like in the back country. A lot of things do. Yeah. (man laughing) Other than the bars, all of this stuff requires water. And even though it's cold and even if you manage your sweat, you're still gonna be drinking about two of these a day when you're out there doing activities if you're doing it right, if you're not dehydrating yourself. So that, and I mean, I'm talking, you're doing two of these a day, just water. Mm-hmm. And you're probably drinking coffee and tea and then you have water in this meal. Mm-hmm. You have water in your breakfast. And so, you're gonna be melting a lot of snow. I think Alex and I, on our last trip, were consuming about two gallons of water a day. I'm filling this up with snow, compacting it as much as I can and then heating it up. And what I found, and this is probably not exact science, is that if you fill this all the way up and you really compress it, you'll get about one third of the water outta there. Huh? And then you keep adding snow until you're full. Yeah, yeah. It's a process, uses a lot of fuel, but that's the best way to get water. Mm-hmm. If you're going to a cabin or a hut or something like that with a wood stove- Mm-hmm. A lot of times, they'll have like a pot there or something like that that people will routinely melt snow with. Or you can just use this on top of that and you kind of get, you don't have to use your fuel. But that's pretty much it for the food system. Again, you can do a wider array of things. You can bring a baguette. You can bring, you know, cheese, prosciutto. We've done that. Adds more weight. You can also do meal prep in which you bring in fresh ingredients or even dried ingredients, and you make your meal. Mm-hmm. But I'm out there to take photos, I'm out there to go skiing or snowboarding, I'm out there to explore. And I try and make this, you know, good. Like this stuff is good, but I don't wanna spend any time or energy making food or specifically doing dishes or managing- Of course. My food intake. I just want it to be there, be ready to go, be nice and hot. All this, I'm familiar with, minus the melting of the snow. So that's gonna be interesting. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, but- Yeah, the rest of it, you've done a lot. Yep. So that's pretty much it for the food system. I have an array of sleeping bags, as you can see. Probably too many. This one's zero, this one's 15, this one's 15, but is like a synthetic, more comfortable sleeping bag. Then this one's an ultra light. Because we're going to a cabin, we're not gonna need anything super crazy. We just need like a 15. So I'll be bringing this one. It packs down to nothing. And then, Rod, you get the more comfortable one here. Nice. So you could pack that one up. When it's winter, it's nice to have room at the bottom of your sleeping bag to actually dry your clothes out. So there's like, Arctic explorers have, that's the only place they can dry things out 'cause there's nothing to burn in the Arctic. So they like put their wet stuff or damp stuff just in the bottom. So you can put your socks down there or your boot liners. I like to keep a spare pair of socks down there, keep 'em nice and warm, or any sort of layer that's damp or wet, you put down in the bottom of your sleeping bag. You can see the difference between mine and Rod's. These are the same temperature sleeping bag. This one's ultra light and compressible and has this bag and you just crank these up. So these are the same. Same weight and everything, huh? I think yours might be a little heavier, but not much. Same bag. Mm-hmm. So this compression bag is really nice. Everything that we've talked about will have to go in a bag. I don't use a camera bag when I do these type of adventures because there's just so much more to carry than just camera gear. So I use this. It's a 65 liter. It's probably too big for most things, but it's never run outta space on me, which I prefer. This is a tent, an ultralight tent. We're not gonna need that because, again, we're going to a cabin. I would normally carry this sleeping pad. This is a NEMO ultralight insulated pad. I think Klymit has a $55 ultralight pad that's the same size. These are nice 'cause they just don't take up a lot of space. Let's quickly talk about how I would pack this bag. So you're gonna put your soft goods, like your sleeping system, in the bottom near the bottom and near your back. Then as we come up here, you'll put kind of like your heaviest load just above that. So I usually put my camera gear in there. Then I put my soft gear, like, you know, my layers, my heavier, you know, my jackets that I'm not wearing on the way up, I put 'em above there. I usually have my water bottle usually accessible here, one of these pockets. Cooking system in one of these pockets. Anything can strap onto the side, so, you know, ski poles or just longer items. And then my bag has what's called a brain on top and it's this kind of foldable part that goes over the top when everything's all on there. And this is where I put like my headlamps, anything I wanna access quick. So like point and shoot camera, but I also put like my car keys. All of my backpacks, I have a lighter in there. This is like the one survival tool that will like keep you out of trouble. And then this one also underneath here, I'll put like my toothbrush and stuff in there, stuff that I only access like once a day. So that's a quick tutorial on how to pack these. You just work what's best for you. There's a bunch of tutorials online about how to pack, but I just don't believe in any of them. I just believe that you gotta figure out what works for you. And I'll sometimes adjust where stuff is placed in my pack, multiple times a trip. And I've done this hundreds of times. So I think the most important part of a pack is that you get one that actually fits your body. So like this Cotopaxi fits me really well, super adjustable in all the regions so I can make sure that the weight is sitting on my hips, that the shoulder straps are stabilizing the backpack, but I'm not carrying the load on my shoulders. That's an important part of whatever backpack you use. So I'll be using this one to carry the stuff on my back as we head to the cabin, that three and a half miles. For winter trips, I don't go anywhere without these. So these are just your regular hand warmers. I think even more important than those are these body warmers. It takes a little bit for them to warm up, but I usually stick one like right there on your base layer. You don't stick it on like the fleece, but like on your T-shirt. Sleeping with these things when it's cold out is you're so much more comfortable. Like your body is resting and not fighting for heat, but it's also just nice to have these when it's cold out. In the event of an emergency, let's say somebody gets hurt and they're going into shock, you can layer them up with this stuff as well as a blanket and it's gonna be pretty safe. They're gonna be comfortable while they're waiting for some help. So I just always have these in my pack, even if it's summer, but especially in the winter. If I'm doing a longer trip, I know I'm gonna be using my phone for maps or, you know, just any sort of scouting, which is, I often do. I have, I think seven or eight map apps on my phone. Especially in avalanche conditions, I'm always checking aspects and snow conditions. So I'm bringing this extra battery. It's very heavy. This is just like an Anker, I think. And it'll charge my phone I wanna say like three or four times, full over. Screw cap toothpaste. You don't want to have like the flip one because you're for sure gonna flip it open and it's gonna go all over. Also these little ones that you get at hotels or whatever are what I bring because they're lighter weight rather than bringing your whole- Yeah, big one, yeah. Toothpaste, a month's worth of toothpaste. I always have two headlamps in my backpack. Always. One, because the person you're with always forgets to bring one. Two, because I always forget to change the batteries. So at least one has batteries. And three, you can use these batteries for other things. So for instance, on the last trip I went on, I swear I checked the batteries in my transceiver, which is an avalanche transceiver, we'll talk about that. But I didn't, and it didn't have enough battery to even like do the beacon test. So I stole the batteries out of one of these head lamps. Hmm. This one, obviously like, see, just goes on and off, but you hold 'em down for six seconds and then they do this flash thingy. Then they don't turn on in your pack, theoretically. So like this one's already on lock and it just does this little flash. That's a problem with head lamps, is they turn on in your pack and then you get there and they've been on for 12 hours and now it's dark and you don't have any head lamp. So that's an important thing that I always try and leave mine on there. I think it's also important to bring 'em even if you're not doing overnight hikes. Yeah. Just in case you're coming back later than you expected. Yeah. You know, you always gotta be prepared. Yeah, exactly, 'cause you, also like, I just like the option. I have a first aid kit. I would say that's probably some area of my outdoor knowledge where I could use some improvement, is take another first aid course. But I have this. I've never had to use it, thank God, but I do have a first aid kit. This is just an example of, I always have some of these volley straps. I have other straps. I have all these in my backpack. These are lifesavers when it comes to just fixing anything, fixing your snowboard, fixing a snowmobile, fixing a car, just strapping stuff to stuff, having these. They weigh nothing and I always have those in there. That's good to know. Okay, moving into my camera stuff. It really depends on where we're going and what we're doing is what I'm bringing. But I am different, I think, than some people in that I'm a camera minimalist. So I want to carry the least amount of gear I need to tell the story. I just don't like having a lot of gear. So my go-to is this R5. I just upgraded from the R, and a 24 to 70. Like I'll always have that. 24 to 70 for me, I can tell the same story from multiple angles. A lot of people will just run like wide. I don't know, this is just what works for me. I think this is the PolarPro base plate. And so I have, on my backpack, I'll have like the, you know, the quick release system or I'll have this PolarPro set up. And this is a kind of a quick release one. It goes in there and then I can hang it here. And then I just press this button, twist it, and I got it off of it. In the snow is the only time I use the strap, because again, you can't set it down and you're always needing to do something. You have gloves, goggles, hat, you know, skis set up. So I do bring this strap system. This is an insert that I actually put my camera in like that. And this carries my batteries and my memory cards. And I use this inside of that big backpack that I've showed on a different episode because it keeps my camera a little bit safe, but also I can take this out, set it on the snow or just take it out of the bag and it's kind of self continuing and it's just a little bit padded and I don't need to have my cooking stuff rattling around next to my, you know, $2,000 lens. It keeps it kind of out of the way. So this is mainly what I use. I almost don't use a camera backpack in the back country at all. I just use this little insert. If I'm doing film on like a lightweight trip like this, I'll just have this point and shoot. I think I picked this up for 20 bucks. It's pretty much like a disposable camera. If I'm doing video, it depends on if it's client video, I'll use this big, heavy mic. If it's not, I'm not gonna be using this this time. I'll bring this tiny, the same brand, Rode, but this one's video micro, no battery. Audio quality's a little less, but it's tiny, fits inside of the same bag without anything. And yeah, so it's pretty cool. If I'm doing ski-snowboard stuff, I'm almost always carrying a GoPro, this little extending selfie handle from GoPro so that I can basically snowboard like this or I can follow Cam Rod when he's doing a sick back flip. I've been wanting to experiment with flash in falling snow, so I'll probably be bringing this. This is heavy. It's just like an Amazon Basics speed light, and just messing around with that. And that'll be pretty much my camera set up with the exception of my drone, which is just the Mavic 2 Pro. This is heavy. I might not. I always debate 'cause I have three batteries in here. I always debate whether to bring all three batteries, but in the cold, the batteries last only about 20 minutes. And a lot of times I'll use this to scout out my line in avalanche exposure or terrain in the winter when I'm looking where to go. So I don't just use it for photos. So that's kind of how I justified throwing this in my backpack, but it can get very heavy, really quick. I would say that all of my camera gear here probably weighs in the region of 10 to 15 pounds, which is a lot, 'cause you don't want to have 40 pounds on your back skinning. You want it to be less than that if you can. 40 pounds is gonna be just difficult to move around in the snow. This, in my mind, is what I'm gonna bring. But what I'm going to actually do is when I get to the trail head, I'm gonna put my backpack on and if I go, "Oh, hell no," I'm gonna take it off and maybe the flash disappears. You know, maybe I don't need the GoPro. I'm gonna make a snap judgment at the time where I decide how much effort I want to put in based on snow conditions or how far it is or how I'm feeling or you know, whatever. So that's pretty much the whole setup. That's everything we're gonna be bringing. A couple of important things here. We don't need to go into detail about exactly the snowboard, but this is a split board. Comes apart here. These bindings pivot, come off and it turns into skis so you can go uphill. That is combined with, you know, a good pair of snowboard boots. These are mine. They can go, you know, most snowboard boots can go in the back country. You don't need a special version. And these systems, they get so complicated and expensive, but they are worth it in the back country 'cause you can really travel a lot of places. These are called climbing skins. They'll stretch out and go on the board. They make it so you can go uphill and grip. And again, we can go in more detail about this when we're actually out on the slope. Another piece that's collapsible for snowboarding, collapsible ski poles. If you're skiing, you don't need 'em to be collapsed 'cause you are always using them on the way down, but a snowboard, you want them to collapse so they can go back in your backpack. All right, man. All right. What's your questions? So I mean, camera's always a must, but you know, based on the place that we're going to, what lenses do you think you're gonna bring? So again, I think I always bring this 24 to 70. Mm-hmm. But if I can add, I'm gonna want to bring like a big lens, like a 100 to 400. Mm-hmm. I feel like for skiing, snowboarding content, or even just winter content- It's always nice. Where it's difficult to get, you know, it's difficult to travel. Yeah, yeah. I like to be able to zoom in. Yeah, I think that that's what I'd do. I will say that this whole setup, so we talked about layering system to stay warm. Mm-hmm. We talked about food so that you can, you're hungry. And we talked about like sleeping so that you can get some sleep. All that stuff is like kind of survival based. So that's how you can go out there, come back, be comfortable, have a good time. This stuff is like how to capture your adventure. Mm-hmm. And it's very heavy. So this is the first thing that's gonna go. All the stuff on the table, or all the camera stuff I should say, like this flash just might not make it because all the other stuff is important to have a good time and to be safe and to be warm and, you know, be not hungry and be comfortable when I'm sleeping. This stuff here just doesn't have the same importance level, even though that's what I do. I'm a photographer. That's what you do. So this stuff is gonna, if anything, this is the first to go. But you know, I think as we talked about the sleeping system and the food and the layering system, all those things, once they kind of come together and you've got those kind of on lock, then the rest of it is just, you know, feeling, like you said, what lens do you want to take? So maybe I don't take the 24 to 70. Maybe I take a smaller prime and I take a big lens or something like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's kind of where you want options, but. Okay, well I think that's pretty much it. We're gonna head up to the field now and get into the action. Okay?