Dan Mitchell on Mt. Whitney. Sequoia National Park, California. August 11, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

I have written elsewhere on this site about the gear I use, including the setup I use for backpacking, so I thought it might be interesting to show a photo of the gear in action, so to speak. This photo shows me on Mt. Whitney in August 2008 with the whole basic kit: Lowepro Toploader AW containing Canon EOS 5D with Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS and Canon EF 17-40mm f/4 L and a few other small items such as CP filter, remote release, extra batteries. The tripod is a Velbon 540 carbon-fiber unit with 4-section legs to which I’ve attached the Acratech Ultimate Ballhead. In more typical situations the tripod rides on my backpack, but here we had left backpacks a couple miles back so that we could go light to the summit. (Yes, the tripod makes a serviceable walking stick if necessary… ;-)

We reached Mt. Whitney not from the usual east side Whitney Portal route but rather via a nine-day trip from the west across the Sierra from Crescent Meadow in Sequoia National Park. This followed my route from the first time I ascended Whitney 30 years earlier. I have been up in a few more times in the interim. Ironically, a year earlier this 2008 trip I had finally decided that there are so many other fine things to see and do in the Sierra that continuing to repeat Whitney climbs no longer appealed to me – and then my buddies contacted me and said, “Want to do Whitney from the west?” Sucker than I am, I said “yes.”

And how about that stylin’ hat, no? ;-)

(Thanks to my buddy, Owen Lee, for using my camera to make this photo.)