Susan and I have been spending the day in Leadville which at 10,152 feet is Americas highest city. They get over 300 inches of snow each year and 300 days of sunshine, although aft on thunderstorms are typical. Weather is perfect at the moment, with some light cloud cover.
I’ll hit the Mount Elbert trailhead early in the morning, and try to get up and down to beat any potential weather.
Sorted out my gear last night and decided what clothing and tech I’ll be carrying up the mountain based on the current conditions. If you visit the blog, you can see the gear photo.
Tech includes the Delorme InReach satellite uplink, a Goal Zero Guide 10 Plus USB battery pack, (sans solar panel), a Surefire St. Minimus Headlamp and 4 cameras including an iPhone 5s in a Lifeproof Fre Waterproof case. The iPhone will mostly be used to interface with the satellite uplink to send and receive messages. Also taking the awesome Olympus TG-2 outdoor waterproof camera and it’s waterproof wide angle lens. This camera is soon to be replaced with the new Olympus 16MP Tg-3. Also carrying a pair of the latest Black Edition 3+ GoPro cameras which are new to my kit. One mounted on a pack strap, and the other with the new sports mount on one of my Leki Carbon TI trekking poles. The pole mounted camera, dubbed “DangerCam1” is controlled via the GoPro iPhone app which allows full control and viewfinder functions via WiFi. I used this during my Oklahoma climb and found it very useful. With the camera mounted on the pole, I’ll be able to stab it in the ground or use the pole as a boom and take some cool selfies without a lot of fuss. The pack strap camera, “DangerCam2” is fired with a CamDo Intervalometer board which automatically snaps a photo every 2 minutes for 22 hours straight on a single battery. I won’t be taking a solar panel, so I’ll also carry extra batteries for much of the gear.
I’ll check in tomorrow morning at the trailhead.
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