I’m all packed for Antarctica! Packing for Antarctica follows a very similar packing regime to that of my Arctic expeditions except that I cater for a slightly colder climate.
This time its been a little different as I’ve packed for two expeditions to Antarctica with a hiking expedition to Patagonia in between. Being two distinctly different styles of expeditions has meant I’ve had to pack some different equipment.
Hiking in Patagonia has really mixed up my packing regime. Lightweight and minimal bulk have become a priority given our trails will see us hiking 17 kilometres some days with ascents of over 1,000 metres some days. My lightweight Gitzo carbon fibre tripod and a very small ball head are packed in my Arc’teryx Altra 65 hiking pack…. “A hiking pack?” I hear you say. Yes I’m leaving my Gura Gear Bataflae bag in secure storage whilst hiking, along with all my video rigs and other gear. The Gura Gear is a great bag, but its not the bag for multiple day hikes requiring me to carry hiking gear, clothing, water as well as camera gear.
For the Patagonia Expedition I’ll be going with minimal gear. A Canon 5D Mark III, 17-40 f/4 L, 70-200 f/2.8 IS L, a selection of filters, cable release , my super light Gitzo tripod and a super light ball head. Along with the requisite hiking gear of Scarpa boots, merino thermals, North Face hiking pants, pack light Goretex jacket and pants, sleeping bag, tent, hydration pack and other equipment I’m good to go!
My gear for Antarctica I’ve got my Kathmandu down jacket, my North Face insulated Goretex pants, Free hands gloves, merino/thinsulate beanie and my trusty Sorrel Caribbous.
Sticks and heads wise, I’ve not brought along my usual gear. Given that I needed an ultra light weight tripod for Patagonia I’ve decided to make that work for Antarctica as well.
My trusty Really Right Stuff BH-55 normally comes everywhere. I love it. Its perfect for landscapes and combined with my RRS L-Brackets and even my 4th Generation designs replacement lens feet. It just works and it works well. But with luggage limits flying in from Australia and the extra gear I need for Patagonia, its just too heavy and I’ve left it behind in favour for a small lightweight ball head from Sirui. Its definitely no scratch on the Really Right Stuff but weight wise its about 20% of the weight.
My Jobu Design Jr. 3 Deluxe Gimbal head is also absent from my bag. And to round out my list of absent heads I have left the Manfrotto 502HD Pro video fluid head at home too. At 1.75 kilograms its too heavy to be accommodated in my luggage allowance and has thus been replaced by an inferior, but immensely lighter at 0.4kg, Benro S2. This fluid head is OK for video work. Its a balance of features vs. price but predominately its in the bag due to its super light weight. I’d prefer to bring to my Manfrotto but airlines won’t allow me carte blanche on luggage.
Along with my tripod, ball head and fluid head, I’ve packed a DSLR Video cage, my trusty slider and a glidecam. The sheer bulk of camera equipment support gear I’ve packed in my bags must cause some amusement with the luggage scanners operators at airports. Its becoming harder and harder to pack in my roller duffel as well. I’m now using my clothing as protective wrapping and padding to keep all these wonderful pieces of steel and aluminium from rubbing against each other in transit.
Adding to my above camera gear listed for Patagonia, I’m adding my Canon 1D Mark IV, Sigma 50mm 1.4 and the Canon 500mm f/4 IS Mk II to round out my 35mm kit. A recent addition to my kit for video is the Panasonic Lumix GH4 with the beautiful Panasonic Lumix 12-35 f/2.8 and a variety of speed boosters to facilitate the use of EF lenses on the GH4. Its 4k Video quality absolutely surpasses anything I’ve produced with my Canon 5D Mark III by a significant margin. And of course my GoPro Hero 3 Black rounds out my kit.
Once again shooting video as well as stills on these expeditions has meant a plethora of portable HDDs in my bag. I’d love to find a better solution to packing 6 x 2TB hard drives. I’m kind of hoping for the development of 3TB and 4TB 2.5″ drives but I’d be loathe to put such a large amount on data on any one drive given their propensity to fail during transport. I’ve considered going to SSD external drives but at the present capacities available its not financially practical to carry 12TB of SSD.
Packing for Antarctica and Patagonia at the same time has really forced me to compromise my gear packing list and go with a more minimalist approach to packing. Sitting down and looking at my gear, its fair to say I have more bulk in cameras, lenses, tripod, heads, rails, sliders and glidecams than I do in clothing.