Now we know the basics of what equipment to bring and how to carry it. Part three covers cleaning the camera in the wilderness and some accessories to make life a bit easier.
If you haven’t read the earlier parts of this series you may want to start with part one or part two.
Cleaning
Mountains are dusty places. Your lenses will get dirty and you need to anticipate that you will need to clean them at some point. So, we’ll need some way to remove the dust in the wilderness.
The first way to clean your gear is to keep it from getting dirty in the first place. While climbing on a glacier, dust generally isn’t a huge problem since the rock is covered by quite a bit of ice. Base camp is a different story. Moraines are giant areas filled with lots of dust. To prevent all this dust from getting in your camera, keep lens caps on your equipment when it’s not in use. Try to change lenses as few times as possible and in areas that are as free from dust as possible. This can significantly reduce the amount of dust that ends up in your camera and showing up in your photos.
Once your camera is dusty, you don’t have a lot of options when you’re in the middle of nowhere. While a bit of a luxury, I find a small rocket blower gets rid of most dust from inside a camera or on a lens. The blower is a bit bulky, but it’s light and stays at base camp for the actual summit push.
Also helpful are pre-moistened single use lens cloths. Zeiss makes ones that I use, but there are many other brands out there. Much like a wet nap, these cloths come in single size pouches that are already moistened with the proper amount of lens cleaner. You have to work somewhat quickly when using it as it dries rather fast, but they are a much preferred solution compared to the alternative bottles of cleaner and packs of lens tissue.
Accessories
At altitude, lens flares tend to be a rather frequent problem for me. The easiest solution to this problem is to use the lens hood that come with your lens. They store inside the same pouch as your lens and protect the lens from some damage. Get in the routine of using a lens hood and you will see an improvement in image quality.
The lens caps that come with most lenses are alright, but I have a preference for the caps that Tamron uses on their lenses. Tamron’s lens caps are of the center pinch variety that makes it quite a bit easier to use the lens cap with a lens hood. There are also Chinese knockoffs available on eBay for a rather cheap price that fit any budget.
A comfortable shoulder strap is a required accessory for my camera. I have a recurring fear of accidentally dropping my camera off a 3000ft cliff. A shoulder strap is cheap insurance that this won’t happen. I’d highly suggest getting a padded strap with quick disconnects that is long enough that you can put it in your holster bag around your waist while the strap stays around your neck.
Another piece of cheap insurance is a UV filter for every lens you own. UV light is quite a bit stronger at altitude and a UV filter will reduce its appearance somewhat in your photos, but that’s not the reason to use a filter. A UV filter will protect the front element of your lens from scratches or scrapes due to a stray rock or you cleaning dust off the lens. Be sure to get a decent filter as it can reduce picture quality, but $50 for a filter is cheap insurance for an expensive lens.
