Pretty amazing, don’t you think?  Nichola scaling 1,600m on an acclimation day trip, and Meredith in the snow at 17,000ft. Both shots are from the Annpurna Circuit in Nepal.  The first snow of the year showed up on January 1, dumping close to a foot of presh powder on the Thorong La, closing it to hikers for three days after we made it through.  Due to the snow and limited time we had to choose between Annapurna Base Camp or the Annapurna Circuit and we went with the Circuit.  Making it through the pass at 17,770 ft actually brought us to a higher altitude than Base Camp!

More photos and details to come!

Photo trekking through SE Asia for six months might sound like the simple life, but not so much for a professional photographer.  A few people have asked me about what I’ve packed and what I’ve learned, so here it all is!  Well, most of it.  Is my bag heavy? Heck yes it is! Which is not fun, but the weight is mostly in camera equipment, batteries, laptop, and hard drives. Take away all those extras and my pack would be pretty darn light and comfy!  After four months of living out of my turtle shell I have also filtered through what works best and what doesn’t, so this list, in my opinion, is the equipment used in real life and approved by me!  Here’s what is worth carrying, and a few notes on each…

1. North Face Lobo 75L.  NOT filled to 75 liters! Very comfy. Pockets on waist support are VERY convenient.

2. Eagle Creek Pack-It Sac. Two of these for clean and dirty clothes. Amazing for dividing up your pack.

3. Macbook Air (Lightest Mac I could bring, but never light enough for hiking! For backing up and blogging.)

4. Salomon Quest 4D GTX Hiking Boots & 3 pair of SmartWool socks. Lighter than leather, good support.

5. North Face SS Blue Ridge Paclite Jacket (Folded in hood). Actually waterproof! I still wish for armpit vents.

6. North Face SS Thunder Down Jacket (Stuffed into it’s own pocket).  Worth it for cold weather hiking.

7. LED KeyChain light and Sun Co. Biner Compass.  Like carrying a knife to cut off your arm. Just in case!

8. 3 Nikon lenses. 50mm f1.4, 16-35 f2.8, 80-200mm f2.8. NOT light weight! The downside to photography.

9. Canon S90 Point and Shoot. Good for undercover shots, and quick video.

10. V.I.O. Point Of View camera system.  Helmet cam shots, for those “you had to be there” moments.

11. iPod.  Romantic full moon summit slow dance playlist? Of course! Gotta be prepared.

12. Gorilla Tripod. I tried not to buy one for a long time, but I caved. Best feature: It weighs nothing.

13. Buffalo 500GB MiniStation Metro Hardrive. Two of these. Back up back up back up!

14. Nokia 1800 Phone (buy a new SIM card in each country and call yer mum!) Cheap.

15. Gepe Waterproof Memory Card case. Two of these. 96GB worth of cards I don’t want underwater.

16. D700 Camera body. D300 body backup. Fell in love the 700 last year. Still amazing. All about the lack of noise.

17. Casio’s classic digital watch. (Alarm clock and light). And stylish. It’s ORANGE.

18. Steripen Water Purifier ad Filter.  Smart for long treks. Not light weight but who wants to get sick from water?

19. Guyot Soft Rubber bowl and cup.

20. Copy of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel DeFoe.

21. Ben’s 100% Deet bug spray. In SE Asia, gottta put up the hardcore defenses. Sorry!

22. RayBan prescription sunglasses. Because I can’t see without them.

23. Sea To Summit rain cover for my pack. Size XL, to fit over the skateboard too!

24. Sea To Summit Toiletry bag, and toilet paper!  No one uses toilet paper in SE Asia. But I do.

25. North Face Surgent Hoody. Ain’t no cotton covered son of a gun here!

Not pictured here…

26. Sea To Summit Tek Towel XL.  Packs super small, big enough for the beach too!

27. Nalgene Widemouth SOFT Canteen. Fits in the pack no matter if there’s room for it or not. Water is betta!

28. Skateboard. Bodega 8″ deck. For weight’s sake- bad idea, but for fun’s sake- Awesome idea!

29. Sea To Summit Lite Line Clothesline. A MUST have for after you get caught hiking in a downpour.

SO that’s about it!   I think I also have some cables and locks for security, hats and gloves, long underwear, etc. but the above list answers the questions I know I had before I left.  Hopefully it can answer some questions others might have about photo trekking and backpack office/living. In case you’re even more curious, most of the hiking equipment was bought at Eastern Mountain Sports and North Face, and most photo equipment was from B&H Photo Video (No sponsorships, just an honest happy customer!). Knowledgable staff at all of them, good prices, great return policy. The copy of Robinson Crusoe was from a used book store in Mui Ne, Viet Nam. (Great secluded beaches. Go there and read!)  Good luck! Hope my little list can help you on future late nights when you just can’t figure out whether carrying that box of Little Debbie cupcakes up Mount Katahdin is the right choice…

Cranberry sauce or eggnog? I don’t know which one wins as my favorite holiday treat, but either way I can’t have them over in South East Asia!  This was the closest thing we’ve seen to holiday magic; the starry sky above Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia last week. Happy holidays and Merry Christmas to all the people getting a three day weekend back home. Enjoy the family, food, and fireplace warmth! Wish I was hanging stockings over a fireplace instead of my smelly socks in a Nepalese Tea house (where we’ll be when this gets posted)!

Oh, and here’s a holiday photo for you.  Straight from Singapore, a pile of Reindeer antlers. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Even after going to bed immediately after the sun goes down, getting up at 2am is not at the top of my fun list!  Camping on the second rim of Rinjani might have meant spectacular views of the sun setting over the crater lake below, but it also meant we were right in the path of crater weather leaving it’s crater home.  All through the night the wind howled and shook our tent furiously.    2am rolled around and my hiking cohort decided that the center of her sleeping bag was much more appealing than hiking 4 kilometers in the cold, dark, and high winds.  I don’t blame her. Even our pretty-damn-tough guide decided he was feeling a bit sick right around the moment I ask him to head out and he would have to stay behind as well.  Did he think it was a good idea? Not with these winds, but I was paying him to be my guide so he would be happy to send one of his younger assistants to guide me to the top! That poor assistant.  I didn’t see him smile once during the next 5 hours.  We had brought our mildly cold weather gear, but with this windchill, it was close to 0 degrees celcius!  By 2:30am I was on the trail to the summit, to conquer the final 4 kilometers before a 5:39am day break. I’d been looking up at that picturesque triangle shaped summit for 3 days now and there was no way I would be deterred. As far as I was concerned the summit could have been the moon, and I was determined to leave my footprints!

Headlamps lighting the way, several groups, which seemed to be divided by country of origin, had begun to tackle the summit.  The two French men in sneakers took the lead, an Italian couple followed, then my non-English speaking guide and I, and finally the Russian and Chinese groups outfitted in gear that looked like it would keep them sweating in the Arctic!  Luckily for the lonesome me, the Italian lady turned back and so the Italian dude and I joined forces to form Indonesia’s first Italian American Club.  Hiking the summit in the dark, at 2am, is a strange feeling.  Things quickly become automatic.  You just stare at the feet in front of you, and follow. That’s it!  After about an hour you begin to gain consciousness and realize that there are looming drops in many  of the shadows along side the trail. The fear of tumbling to your death does a good job of keeping you awake.  The views that followed are by far some of the best I have ever seen while hiking.  Picture this… hiking to over 11,000 ft, in the middle of the night, above a volcano’s crater lake, in the light of a full moon, on a small island! Imagine looking out and seeing the full moon reflecting in the ocean below, with more islands floating in it’s watery luminescence. Pretty amazing.

The final 3,000 feet to the peak was a mad dash of swimming in quicksand, trying to beat the sun to the top!  It was a 40 degree slope made up of lava rock golfballs. Every foot step was a waste of 66% of the energy you’d put into it. We followed the ridge line as it neared the top and the wind was hitting us with everything it had. My eyes were squinting, my teeth were dry, and my calves were trying to lock up and quit right there, but like every good Disney movie, the heroes won in the end! My Italian friend and I made it to the peak with 6 minutes to spare before the sun showed itself.  The two French men in sneakers had gotten there first, then us, and then one Russian who had broken free from his group.  The rest of the hikers had seen the sun reach the peak before them and used that as a good enough reason to head back to camp for breakfast. My legs were pretty damn tired that morning but I think my face hurt more from smiling so much!  At 2am, nothing seems like a great idea, but after summiting Rinjani under a full moon and sitting on a volcanic pinnacle watching the sun rise, there’s nothing better!

The full moon shining on the west face of the summit, rising steeply out of the crater lake below.

Still early on in our summit hike you could watch the marching headlamps on the trail below. Just past the far rim you can see the full moon reflecting off the ocean, illuminating the Gili Islands.  It was incredible!

Giacomo, my Italian summiting partner, takes shelter from the wind and cold behind one of the few rock walls along the final four kilometers to the top.

We made it to the summit in just under ten minutes before the sun rose over the far ocean! A bit windy.

Proof I made it! Dirty, tired, and smiling from ear to ear! Photo Credit: Giacomo Mencari

Time to find shelter from the relentless wind! The hardest part is over.

The insanely sandy and dusty ridge hike back down to camp. My cameras will never forgive me for this one.

A huge thanks to our guide for showing us an amazing four day trek. And, Yes, his pink hat was on for the whole trip!

After setting up tents alongside the crater lake, it was time to get to the good stuff!  Rumored hot springs were a quick walk into a nearby valley where the water from the lake goes underground, got a little bit hotter, and then surfaced again in river of waterfalls and natural infinity pools!  This was the stuff dreams were made of!  We spent the rest of our daylight swimming in neck deep hot springs, jumping off rocks, and exploring caves under warm waterfalls.  As the sun went down, the almost full moon was on the rise, shimmering like a flashlight in our private pool at the base of a 15foot waterfall.  Never thought I’d find myself in a hot spring at the center of a volcano that was active in 2009!

The next morning we started our hike back up to reach the second rim.  The first half of the hike was a stroll in the park with well marked trails an a beautiful sun peaking out form behind the summit.  However, this only lasted a few hours until the 9am cloud cover rolled up the hill and engulfed us whole.  The landscape quickly changed from golden grass in the sun to grey rocks, burnt black terrain and dark clouds overhead. It felt like we were getting closer to David Bowie’s goblin castle! Trails started to become sheer rock faces that you could reach out and touch while standing up straight.   Things got steep fast!  Steepness might be one thing while hiking but add that to the blinding fog and you feel like any step to the left might have you free falling for minutes.  It doesn’t help that a short hike I took that morning had me looking down a 150ft cliff above the hot springs from the night before.  Sometimes you don’t want to know the possibilities of what lies in the white abyss below you.  Okay, just keep looking up and have a good grip at all times! Of course, rock climbing doesn’t get any easier with a 25 lb. pack on your back to shake your balance up. By the time we reached the rim we had traded our sleeveless shirts for goose down jackets and winter hats.   We would definitely rest good tonight!  Dinner and hot tea in hand, we sat on the edge of the cliff outside our tent, watching the sun set slowly over the far rim.  We were definitely on a farmer’s watch these days and with darkness comes a very welcome bed time!

Stay tuned for Part 3: Reaching the Summit by 5:39am!

Finally back on level ground! That’s the inner crater that still smokes on the right side, across the lake.

Hot springs! Caves! Cliffs!

11km to the second crater rim, almost 15 km to the summit. It’s gonna be a long day!

Indiana Jones’s got nothing. Bamboo bridges are the new trend.

The charred landscape from man made forest fires.

Don’t look down!

Beer for sale at the bush and tree corner store.  Well, it was a three trail intersection, so I guess that counts as a corner store? Worst job ever.

Our campsite during one of the rare breaks in clouds rolling over the crest.  It felt a little surreal camping on the edge, surrounded by nothing but white.

The view from our tent. The valley converged 11 km below us in the hot spring river. I could use some hot springs about now…

Watching the sun setting over the crater lake. Clouds finally broke but the cold night was now upon us.

The first two days of hiking Mount Rinjani were like a dream, going from sweating in the rainforest to shivering on the first rim of a volcano!  Not everyone’s dream, but I had found a paradise in Lombok, an island six hours off the coast of Bali, Indonesia.  After hiking and sweating our way through the rainforest, we set up camp on the first night near the top of the tree line, just where it started to get a bit colder. Devious monkeys surveyed our camp, constantly watching us as we prepared dinner and working on their intimidation tactics.  In the morning, one very large monkey even had the guts to steal a pancake right off my plate!  He may have won that round but I didn’t pass the syrup when he asked, so I feel like I evened the score.  We left early after the pancake incident and began the second day tackling the first crater rim.  Hiking above the tree line was slow and frustrating as my feet moved like molasses in the sand and ash trail.  It felt like I was hiking a sand dune, making forward progress a little slower than usual. Not ideal terrain as you’re both shivering in the wind and burning in the sun.  The clouds, now below us, looked like you cold walk right out onto them!  Eventually reaching the first rim, I was able to look into my first volcano!  To my dismay there was no lava. There was, however, one hell of a view down to a turquoise crater lake below, and then another crater rising from the lake which, at least, had smoke rising from it! If I can’t have lava in my volcano, I guess I’ll take smoke.  The view down to the lake, after a day in the rainforest and a day of sand hiking, was one to rival any I have seen before! Picturesque.

For all of the sand we had on the way up to the rim, we had equal amounts of jagged rocks ad cliffs on the trail down to the lake.  The trail was incredibly steep, with skeletons of what used to be railings, now hanging inverted as their concrete footings had crumbled away.  I took my sweet time on the next 6km down, holding roots and branches whenever possible!  Some of the sheer drops along side the trail would have me tumbling a couple of hundred feet before tree trunks would start to intervene.  Just a little intimidating!  But the fear is what feeds the reward, and seeing how scary this trail downward was, the reward would be definitely sweet.  All around the trail was a mess of rocks, dry bushes, dirt, and black ash from previous forest fires.  There wasn’t much grass left to control the dust from our feet so sand in the eyes was not uncommon, which also didn’t help our ‘watch your every step’ situation!  It was a trail that definitely favored mountain goats and monkeys over humans but our thoughts of a reward-worthy lake side dinner kept us trekking downward and onward!  To be continued in Mount Rinjani Part 2…

Hot and sweat trekking through the rainforest on the lower half of Rinjani.

Glow through the trees.  Pretty magical.

The first night’s campsite included this platform, which is probably the most uncomfortable way to camp.  But for some reason you felt safe(r) from the monkeys on it. I know it doesn’t make sense.

Wu-Tang forever!

Don’t forget he has fangs that he will not hesitate to bring out in order to get some scraps! Not as cute when you see those.

Finally breaking through the clouds into the clear part of the hike to the first rim.

The view from the trees on our way into the crater. Like looking at a National Geographic centerfold in person!

A set of metal stairs on this impossible U-turn in the trail. How safe are rusty old stairs that no one checks on? No one would answer the question.

The trail had some skinny parts and some scary parts. Put them together and you get this sketchy part.

Getting past the steep rock faces and drops, back onto a safer part of the trail.

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Fried tempe, sort of like tofu but with a better texture, was a staple protein on our four day hike.  You have no idea how good this meal tasted!

Bangkok is drowning. While the tourists ran for the hills, local business owners in streets markets continued on selling coconuts and vintage amulets as the waters slowly rose around their ankles.  As long as their tables were dry, they would keep on selling! Hardcore merchants don’t scare easily.  Every other storefront downtown had sandbags stacked knee high while other business that had built concrete walls, continued to erect stairs and ladders for customers to scale the fresh perimeter defenses. Even 7-11′s were running out of water!  Nobody was ‘Thankin Heaven’ for that!  Highways were shutting down, cars stalled and abandoned, and furniture was being stored on tin roofs to save the couches. Seriously.  Hardware stores were selling out of large circular plastic tubs which half the customers were using to mix concrete in, while those people under 1oo lbs were using as paddle boats. I kept thinking to myself of how when I used to sing Rub-A-Dub-Dub, I never thought I’d actually see a grown man paddling in a tub. Things were pretty grim in November and just as the streets started to fill with river water, we were lucky enough to escape on a train headed east. Mother nature decided to slap Bangkok in the face that night, as the waters eventually reached downtown streets, the skies also opened up and started to downpour.   When it rains, it pours!  Er, when it floods in Bangkok, it pours too.  We were glad to get out of there just before things went from bad to horrible!

We returned again to Bangkok a month later to see the water receding from the inner city, but the outskirts of town were still deep in it.  Highways were still closed, forcing dirt backroads to become permanent detours with backed up traffic for miles.  Streets are lined with dusty, discolored abandoned cars, assumably with engines that no longer work from the high waters that completely submerged even the car roof tops.  Garbage stacked up on street corners and in grass lots, with limited trash collection leaving thousands of residents with no way to discard of anything.  We got to witness all of this at the same time as downtown Bangkok had millions of lights lining streets, hanging from trees, covering walls, and decorating the Grand Palace in celebration of the King’s birthday.  Entire main streets were closed for vendors to sell little King bobble heads and King flavored cotton candy causing nearby traffic to be gridlocked for days.  Celebrations are great, of course, but when half the city is still soaked and can barely find enough sub pumps to help empty living rooms of polluted swamp water, maybe some celebration efforts might be more useful in helping the community keep it’s head above water.  I’m an outsider with only a small scope of the big picture but it’s a roller coaster of emotions to have driven from the outside of Bangkok to the center and seen the differences in who’s made it through this horrible ordeal and who is still in the middle of it.

Volunteers stack sandbags, attempting to lead waters in street drains and away from store fronts in the local market.

That’s a fence  at the top of stairs normally leading down to the river. Now the fence rail marks the water level.

Forget showers! Wash your feet in the streets.

Some sandbag company’s fourth quarter net is looking pretty good this year.

I couldn’t find a single 7-11 with bottled water available. Bangkok is very thirsty.

A local market knee deep in water.

A lone bicycle stand in a field after some of the waters have receded, leaving white trash like spring flowers.

Sometimes things go according to plan when you’re traveling, and sometimes you fall asleep on the bus and they miss your stop.  Well the latter happened on the way to Vang Vieng, Laos, and I ended up three hours past my bus stop.  The only thing the bus could do for me was to drop me on the side of the road and it happened I was far enough into the middle of nowhere that NO ONE spoke English.   They were all very smiley and luckily the bus driver left them with instructions to help me flag down a taxi/truck headed in the other direction.  I was a spectacle in town, bringing people far and wide from their houses just to catch a glimpse of the lost American.  We had some great silent smile conversations and lots of awkward laughter.  Half an hour later I caught a truck heading towards Vang Vieng and the driver was more than accommodating;  they let VIP passengers ride on the roof instead of the cramped up benches in the truck bed!  It may sound uncomfortable but it was as close to hanging off a garbage truck as I’ve ever gotten so comfort was the last thing on my mind; I was psyched to be on top of the world for the next three hours!  Great views, children waving, dump trucks honking, and there was no way I was falling asleep since railing were about 4 inches tall.  Next time you have the option to ride on the top of the bus, take it! Trust me.

The back or the top? Hmmmmm…

He didn’t want to ride inside the back either!  Cool kids hang off the sides of the truck.

Getting back to the beautiful looming karsts of Vang Vieng.

Sometimes while traveling you have those fulfilling days where you feel you’ve achieved a perfect balance of touristy must-dos and local life experiences. Definitely had one of those in Bali with our new friends Touk, Clemens, and Ronni.  After morning of $5 body massages, Touk picked us up and we headed out to grab some lunch on the beach.  We stopped on the side of the road to get some Padang foot, which is both the ugliest and tastiest food I’ve had so far on this trip!  We got it to go so they wrapped it up in a banana leaf and told us to eat with our hands!  When is Rome, eat with your hands.  Once we had our banana leaf goody bags we headed down to Touk’s favorite beach Sanctuary and ate while sitting at the base of the cliffs, 300 stairs from the parking lot.  I had a photo shoot with Touk as she gave us a little tour of the beach and local caves before heading back up the 300 stairs.  At the top what did we find but an army of hungry monkeys!  In the zoo; very cute, cuddly even! but walking in a threatening formation showing their 1″ fangs at you; not so cute! Well, we avoided a confrontation but found one last monkey sitting on the mirror of the car.  Seconds later, we saw that same monkey break the mirror and take it up the top of a tree to enjoy the rewards of staring at one’s self a mirror.  Little narcissist!  Eventually he came down and we were able to trade him a bottle for the mirror (yes, monkeys really will trade objects!) and we were able to leave.   Sunset time!  Touk brought us to a local favorite cliff side restaurant with an infinity pool and bean bags on the cliff overlooking the sunset and multiple surf breaks below. A perfect way to say adios to the hot hot heat.

We had been bugging Touk all day as to how the over crowded traffic system and local society deals with the very loose rules of the road and anarchist attitude towards lane lines and yielding, especially in the event of inevitable traffic accidents.  No later had we been asking her question after question about liability when she goes to make a U turn and a 15 yr old on a motorbike passes her at full speed on the right, clipping her front fender!  After watching it all unfold, a sleeveless witness making demands, a silent 15 yr old, a local mechanic and medical clinic, we learned some valuable lessons.  First off, cops aren’t ever called because they just demand more money to do anything.  The whole situation took care of itself quite well actually: A local mechanic opened up to give a damage quote, a local medical clinic gave the green light that the underage boy was A-Ok, and and soon enough we were all back in the car letting our adrenaline levels settle back down.  NEXT, off to meet up with Clemens and Ronni at the brand new Hurley office and art gallery where they were throwing an opening party!  Free beer and boisterous music and some pretty rad local art made for an awesome wrap up to a pretty amazing and very fulfilling day of learning about Bali!

As with much of Indonesia, trash is everywhere, almost as if it’s part of the dirt.

Padang food requires a local tour guide to learn what all the dishes are, but once you know, it’s SO good!

Touk on the beach at low tide.  A Sanctuary from the high energy wild streets of Bali.

Eat with your hands. Go on. The scoop method works very well with rice and tempe.

Watching surf breaks from an abandoned fishing shack at the base of the cliffs.

The monkeys run this town.

A scene straight out of The Wizard of Oz.  Luckily these ones didn’t have wings!

Oh so innocent looking monkey…

The monkey broke off the mirror and kept staring at himself in it!

Perfect sunsets in perfect bean bag chairs.  That infinity pool to the left would have been a lot nicer if it had no water in it.  Perfectly skatable.

Sleeveless Man playing alpha male and yelling at everyone for no reason.  Touk showed him who was boss. I ran and hid.

Clemens pretty happy about the “Take one free beer- get two more free” deal at the Hurley art gallery and office opening party.

Hurley party was well attended by the Plaids crew, the Dudes crew, and the Shirtless Boys.

Clemens finally found a proper beer glass. He was very content afterwards.

And finally unveiled, the March puppy from my “Puppies of Bali” calendar!

Thanks to our lovely hosts in Bali, I was given a lift to skate the new concrete park at the Globe shoes warehouse.  Clemens, a local regular brought me in and we had a blast being the oldest guys at the park, save the 45 yr surfer who pumped faster than any young ripper at the park.  Not much English was spoken at the park but we were able to communicate our favorite skate movies and top skaters.  Most Bali kids that night were obsessed with the Cheese and Crackers movie with Haslam and Daewon.  I might have to agree.  The park was smooth, fast, and cheap. Not to mention the amazing art on the walls of the bowl. Bali has no other parks that I could find and Globe is doing an awesome job at providing the youth with a great place to skate, even at night!

Clemens doing his best not to look like Tony Hawk. Keep trying.

Amazing art on the walls surrounding the bowl.

Local Padang food after the session. Doesn’t look like much but it’s been my favorite meal of the trip so far!  Seriously.