Track Pete

Tomorrow I am off to Park City, Utah for a few days of snowboarding before I head off to South America in three weeks. I thought it might be a cool opportunity to highlight the humorous fact that the gear load for a five day trip to a cushy place with a bunch of buddies is almost exactly the same as the load for a few months around South America on a motorcycle. Aside from my sleeping bag, liner, basic tools, and a couple pieces of camera gear not going with me to Utah, this will be the sum total of my worldly possessions for the next few months: For the picky or curious, there’s a detailed breakdown below.

[ Product Link ] Nothing gets abused like my shirts on an adventure – sure, my underwear gets worn as often and as hard but it’s (almost) always under something to protect it. Mostly I’ve given up on caring about t-shirts, instead I make it a point to buy cheap shirts locally when I’m on the move, wear them until they fall apart or start to stink (2-3 weeks usually), then give them away and buy new ones. In India I picked up a couple great Nike shirts that held up to the rigors of hand washing and generally didn’t stink too much, but even after a lot of care back home, well… let’s just say I can’t really wear them in polite company because they look pretty nasty. Worse, even in India they were damn expensive, they did well in heat but were useless in the cold, and generally had a constant low-grade funk that wasn’t obnoxious but could get annoying. Similarly I had a couple North Face shirts that I thought might make the grade until they started to come apart at the seams and hand w...

[ link to product page ] Imagine spending nearly 80+ straight days wearing a jacket, only taking it off for brief periods of time while grabbing food or sleeping. Each time it’s worn over dirty, unwashed clothes and at night it’s wadded up for a pillow, drooled on and smashed out of shape. Never washed or maintained in any form, the jacket slowly becomes disheveled and discolored until it has aged many years in a few short months. Then, when the trip is over, without any receipt or proof of purchase or nary even a bit of fuss, the company let’s you trade it for a brand new one. That alone is enough of a mind-blowing reason for me to recommend this down jacket (and by extension any other First Ascent gear), but that reason doesn’t have to stand alone. In spite of some very clear negatives, the 2009 Downlight Sweater I bought last year was a fantastic piece of kit, and if you can find one on clearance and need some down, pull the trigger without hesitation.

On September 24, 2009 I received an order from Amazon with my brand new ContourHD video camera. Five minutes later it was torn out of the box and the Hat Cam was born ; it’s that easy to get started with a Contour cam. In the time since then, I have recorded many hundreds of gigabytes and hours of video with my ContourHD on five different continents, from sea level to over 16,000 feet, in jungles, snowy mountains, deserts and other terrain. It’s been strapped to my head, peeked out from my jacket, smashed onto my backpack, held in my hand and mounted to all kinds of vehicles and devices. I’ve punted it off (small) cliffs, fumbled it onto the side of the road at 35MPH, driven over it, stepped on it, fallen on it and left it out in the rain and cold… all more than once.

It’s very rare for me to suffer buyer’s remorse, as I typically research any product I am going to use quite carefully. When it comes to photography, I have always been a Point & Shoot fan for a number of reasons: smaller and lighter cameras, less complexity, and most importantly, lower cost. In my adventures I could carry two P&S cameras and not worry about one being broken or stolen and I was generally quite happy with the quality of the photos. This changed in a very subtle way sometime in early 2010, as I began to understand that photographs of people and things were just as interesting as photos of places and landscapes… I realized I was leaving out part of the story of my adventures because I often left the people around me out of them. As I changed some of my style, I became absolutely amazed with the quality of photos being taken by a friend I met in Nepal with a Nikon D5000. Her photos of the people around her told a completely different story than those I took due to ...

A huge part of my traveling is sharing my experiences with friends and while I enjoy my writing, nothing beats photos and videos for simple, pure sharing. Over the last two years I have slowly tweaked the hardware, software, and technologies I use for this, always trying to find a balance between cost, usability, and quality. In July I took a couple major steps, adding a DSLR and a high definition audio recorder to address what I felt were major gaps in the video of my ContourHD (audio and low-light performance). As I prepare for my next adventure, I’m taking the knowledge gained over the last year and changing things up again. First of all, the Zoom H2 is out – the audio quality was amazing, but it is simply too big, too bulky and (most importantly) too much of a hassle to use. I am currently looking for a smaller, much simpler device that I can activate with the touch of a button/slider through a jacket pocket. I plan to equip this two small external microphones including a shotgun ...

For just over a year now, I’ve only worn five pairs of underwear – for much of that time, I’ve only had three pairs actually with me. At times, I’ve swapped as often as four times a day while at others I’ve gone as long as three weeks without changing or washing a pair. A few times I’ve even gone over a week straight without removing a pair at all (or taking a shower for that matter). It sounds absolutely disgusting, but I assure you that even in some of the most extreme circumstances I’ve been fresher feeling (and smelling!) than after a day at the office in a pair of Fruit of the Looms.

Sometimes when I’m hundreds of miles away from any cell or internet service and haven’t been able to communicate with the outside world, my mom likes to update friends with stories about my exact location:

In the last two and a half years I’ve only used one tent, a fantastic 3lb compact two-person tent from Big Agnes called the Seedhouse SL2 . It’s a little frightening to realize that during this time I’ve spent over 120 nights sleeping outdoors in it, and I’ve set it up and torn it down over a hundred times. I’m not a professional gear reviewer who spends a couple nights in different tents throughout the year, so I can’t compare it from personal experience to other tents – but I can say, from immense personal experience, that this tent will not let you down. Ever. The Seedhouse SL2 is a very simple design with a single aluminum hub pole held together by some sort of magical kevlar or nylon. Toss it on the ground and maybe kick it once or twice and it self assembles rapidly with strong mechanical clicks, reminiscent of a Transformer – I’m not sure exactly why, but this action is always a pleasure to experience and makes the first few moments of setting up camp enjoyable.

In nearly three months on the road, mostly spent camping and travelling, I’ve had a number of things break or die on me. In some ways it’s surprising, in others I suppose expected. Here’s a quick rundown as of today: Panasonic FS-10 Digital Camera: This little guy was amazing. For the last year, it’s been my main camera and has held up through some serious abuse in South America and Asia, not to mention all the times it came out at parties and whatnot back home. It’s been dropped, thrown out of mototaxis, bounced down hills, frozen in snow, covered in sand, and kept on ticking…  Until I took it out for some pictures on the AlCan and the lense mechanism finally jammed for good. RIP. Sony PRS300 E-Reader: I can’t travel without an e-reader anymore, they are so simple and small and easy to deal with compared to bringing books. This one came all over Asia with me and survived being recharged and partially blown out at a suspect plug at 15k feet in the Himalayas, but finally gave up t...

In the last year, I’ve filmed hundreds of hours of video all over the world with my ContourHD 720p bulletcam. I consider it one of the most important pieces of electronics that I carry around and never travel without it. Two other devices I usually carry with me are my Locosys BGT31 GPS datalogger (which allows me to track and log my GPS position every second) and my SPOT GPS messenger (which allows me to upload and share my position every ten minutes). I’ve usually done well on merging my GPS and photo data (though I abandoned that on this trip due to convenience), but one thing I’ve always struggled with is the ability to merge GPS data and video. Earlier in the year I wrote some tools to do GPS integration with Adobe Premiere but the resulting processing overhead of my hack was so high as to render it unusable. Instead I found myself referring to the GPS track outside the video to place positional comments within the video, rather than the map overlay I envisioned. As such, I was e...

In the past couple months on the road I think I’ve spent more time riding my scooter through rain than I have in the dry – this is clearly reflected in the fact that as time has gone by I’ve invested more and more money in things to keep my stuff dry, since wet gear sucks. One of my favorite purchases for this trip is the pair of Sea to Summit Big River Dry Sacks I picked up just before leaving, in 13L and 20L sizes. They cost me around $20 each and are one of the best pieces of gear I’ve purchased in years – extremely durable, effective, and simple to use.

After a lot of careful deliberation, I’ve settled on my audio/visual loadout for the Arctic Scooter Adventure.  The complete package weighs approximately 5.5lbs, the bulk of which consists of the new camera and the trusty old tripod.  My goal on this trip is to create increasingly immersive short videos with higher quality production.  As a result, there are a number of new items and upgrades in the loadout this time around…  Read on for a full review of all the equipment I’ll be taking with! Canon Rebel T2i Digital SLR I finally upgraded to a “real” camera – while I’ve been quite happy with the quality of the photos I take with my compact cameras, they didn’t always have the raw visceral impact that can be delivered with superior control over depth of field. Add the ability to take some of the highest quality video out there and ultimately I expect the T2i to have a massive impact on the quality of the experience I share with you guys.  The only downside ...

One of the major advantages to “tea house trekking” in Nepal is that you are rarely more than a few hours away from food, water, and shelter – which means you don’t need to bring nearly as much with you.  Depending on the time of year the gear load you need is different, but part of the hardship for me has been the lack of information about trekking at this time of year…  is it freezing cold up in the mountains in the spring?  Will there still be snow and ice?  Or is it warm and cozy? I talked to a stunningly beautiful Canadian blonde who had just finished the Annapurna Circuit yesterday and she said they had been very unhappy with the gear they took and were very cold for a couple days – down jackets only didn’t cut it.  With that advice I went ahead and grabbed a down jacket to add to my layering  - multiple shirts, heavy fleece, and my hyvent shell have kept me warm to nearly freezing before but now I should be set to below zero and then some.  I’...

This time next week, I will be on my second leg of a four leg flight to Siem Reap in Cambodia.  Over the next three months I will be flying all over the place, logging over 20,000 airline miles and making at least fifteen transfers. I simply can't afford to deal with misplaced baggage on this trip, and I need to be mobile enough to easily pack and move without worrying about carrying around multiple bags.  So, how do you travel for three months with a carry-on?  It's actually easier than you might think... Clothes: Clothes take up the most space in any traveler's bag, so if you want to travel light you need to eliminate them.  There are a few easy tricks to this, but the best is simple - use synthetics, wear bulky gear, buy local, and donate on the way out.  For this trip, I'll only be bringing the following with me: Wearing when traveling: New pair of jeans (they will wear out most likely) North Face Hyvent waterproof/windproof shell (if I go somewher...

I'm always fascinated by the process of selecting gear for various expeditions - the trade-offs of proven technology vs new technology, weight vs usability, battery life vs bulk, etc.  I enjoy reading people's gear lists and their justifications for various bits, so here is my electronics gear list for my upcoming road trip and ski trip (I may post a followup with my non-electronic gear later in the week): The Premise: Ten days driving across the northern states of the US avoiding motels and massive highways (after initial stop to hang with the family).  Then five days in Salt Lake City skiing with friends, followed by a quick blitz back to DC in hopefully less than four days. Support Electronics: #1, Motorola Droid - Of course I need a phone for emergencies, but the Droid will also act as my tether to the technology of civilization.  E-mail, facebook updates, blog posts, etc. all at the touch of a finger, as well as navigation and research (the most importan...

As of right now all of my to-go gear is fully stowed and set. My carry-on needs some final tweaking and packing but overall I'm ready to rock. After this blog update I'm going to catch a movie and try to keep unwinding. Here's a picture of the final gear layout, this is almost everything I'm wearing/taking with me for the trip, it's actually a pretty light load ( full size on my flickr ): I made a timelapse of the packing process just for the fun of it, you can really see how light and simple I'm packing in it ! Total weight is only around 34lbs which is incredibly manageable, I'm really excited about this. I almost didn't pack my tent, but I had plenty of room and at 2lbs it's good to have "just in case." Tomorrow I head into the office for a bit in the morning to say goodbye to everyone then I'm off!