Favorite Hiking Gear

it's been over a year of using my hyperlite southwest 2400 backpack i got the black version because every time i'd see someone using the white one it really showed dirt and wear and tear this pack is really helping me hike more and be efficient with what i bring it's a very light pack but still has a frame very comfortable has a bunch of pockets around the fanny hips the side pouches the back pouch and then the large pouch with the roll out top this pack is mostly waterproof so if it starts raining i don't have to do anything special to protect what's inside this 40 liter pack is large enough for me to fill up for five days about but then also small enough to smush down for a day hike or just an overnight my nemo hornet one person tents which is down really easy it's the smallest lightest tent that i could find with a small footprint so i can camp in really small thin areas but then also protect myself 100 from the bugs with the netting and then also the rain fly on top keeps me dry if it rains overnight so i like to keep the bugs away the rain away the wind away i like this type of tent compared to like a hammock or cowboy camping or anything else it's green it's slender i fit in it pretty well if i hike with another person like a girlfriend or something i'd probably upgrade to the two-person version but this is a very small awesome tent for me right now my ugq quilt is definitely an upgrade from the last one i had it's made out of down feathers has a very high fill warmth rating so i've used it all the way up on kilimanjaro in the snow different areas and it's a quilt so it can be folded zipped and cinched up to keep me warm like a mummy bag but then also unfold into more of a blanket for when it's warmer i smoosh it down into a hyper light stuff pack with my other sleeping things one being my liner it's a very thin kind of like a mini sleeping bag and this is what i actually sleep in inside my quilt just to keep things cleaner it's much easier just to wash this liner and to not get my quilt and the down uh fluffy quilt uh dirty therm-a-rest blow-up mat this thing is such luxury when you're tired and you're trying to fall asleep after a long day of hiking i blow it up and then let out a little bit of air just so that i can get some kind of arch support and man i don't know if i could sleep out in the wild without this blow up mat it's so much better than foam it's bright yellow it's very lightweight and then also smooshes down to fit in a small area in my pack and lastly for sleeping i have a blow-up pillow but it has four pockets of air and they kind of rest your head right in the middle and i like this design more so than any other pillow that i've found i've had this really simple basic headlamp for over a year now and it's never let me down it's very easy bright but then also rechargeable with usb so if i'm on the trail and it runs out of battery i can just plug it in to an external battery pack to recharge it up ever since my alaska hike i've started to take the threat of bears more seriously and i got some bear spray it's basically pepper spray but in a much larger can for much larger threats it's important to keep safe with it and you don't want to accidentally shoot yourself or anyone else out on the trail you don't want it to go off when it's checked in a bag in an airport so you make sure the cap is correctly stopping the trigger from being pulled my inreach emergency beacon is a brand new piece of gear that i should probably should have had this entire time while hiking it uses satellites and can get a cell reception basically anywhere i can call for emergency support or connect my phone and send text messages i can use it to find where i am to track how far and how long i've been hiking so it's very small but does a lot and you do have to pay a subscription service for it so it can get expensive but the peace of mind that it brings is very valuable i was recommended to grab this katadyn b free bottle it's a bladder bottle it's kind of weird design but i really like it because it filters water i'll take this right out of a stream or lake or whatever and then it's safe to drink i'll usually pack all the food for my hike in the grocery bag that i get when i buy this stuff or i'll just put it in one of these hyperlite stuff bags my jetboil mini is a smaller version of the default jetboil but still does everything i need it to all of the pieces collapse in on itself like a russian doll so it saves space and it boils water so much quicker than anything else i've seen so it's really good for speeding things up and then just being efficient this jet boil has a built-in fire ignitor but i always bring a small little lighter as a backup just in case i've had this work for a while the long handle is good it's very easy to clean wilderness wipes are a brand new addition to my kit and so amazing just one of them does the job if you have to go to the bathroom helps you keep clean and a bunch of them in the pack last you know multiple hikes chapstick for protecting my lips from sunburn and dryness i have warby parker shades that i'll use especially when there's snow out reflecting more light than usual gotta protect your skin so i'm usually wearing shorts and i'll put sunscreen on my legs and then if i'm hiking in snow or ice i will put sunscreen on my face because the light is reflecting up at you more than normal i wear contacts so i've got a contact case contact solution my glasses a folding toothbrush toothpaste if i have a lot of muscle pain or i'm starting to get a headache at night i will use ibuprofen a small roll of teepee that i'll steal at the trail head before i start any hike i wear a light gray sun hoodie with thumb holes so with the hood up and the sleeves out i'm pretty protected from the sun and i don't really have to wear sunscreen on my neck or arms it helps to keep me warm when i need it but then i can also roll the sleeves up and put the head down to get a little cooled off my sun hoodie and these black shorts are the base layer for every hike that i do i really like them a lot i wear them without underwear because minimalism they have two pockets and i feel free in them still in love with my white hat reflex light is ultra lightweight and then worn backwards protects my neck from getting sunburned my north face gore-tex shell is really effective against wind or rain i'll put it over on the outside if i have extra layers underneath for warm just to keep it in but the material also lets you know sweat or water on the inside evaporate out i have a green sweatshirt that i'll wear as a very comfy warm layer if i'm doing colder hikes but i'll also bring this bright orange patagonia puff because it's so lightweight for the amount of warmth that it offers my patagonia pants are a new addition but i've been really happy with them they're ultra lightweight very minimal and i slip them on over my shorts if i want to protect myself from mosquitoes the sun or wind or just to warm up when i'm at camp i've decided on tall people socks because they protect my ankles every so often i'll like brush my ankle bone up against the side of the shoe while i'm hiking and it hurts a lot and these socks actually protect me from doing that to myself these socks also dry off really quickly so they're great i've been really happy wearing the brooks cascadia 13 they're trail running shoes they dry off really quickly and you know i like sneakers and trail running shoes compared to boots but i'm excited to try their newer version the 15s so we'll see how those go testing them out i'm already optimistic that these are my new shoes i got this winter hat from a muji store in an airport and just love how simple it is this neck gator adds so much warmth and protects my neck ears and head from the wind sometimes i'll sleep in this just because it's so warm and soft these winter gloves are thin so i can still do things with them while keeping my hands warm and they also have a nice grip on the front my micro spikes are ice cleats for my shoe they're rubber band and metal pieces that just go around my shoe if i'm walking or hiking in ice and need extra grip my camera is a sony alpha a6600 i think it's very high quality for the size it is it has very large z batteries a flip up screen internal sensor stabilization and i've been using sony for years now so i'm just so used to their menu their ecosystem and really like the images i'm getting from this camera the only lens that i own and use is a sony 10 to 18 f4 and because i'm shooting on a crop frame sensor the focal length is actually a little tighter than that if you're comparing it to a 35 millimeter sensor having a wide angle lens is super important for how i want to document nature and i think static shots outside with such depth of field it just increases the sharpness and makes the shot work i shoot with a 512 gigabyte sd card and i've adopted a new system of never formatting any cards so when i fill up one of these sd cards i archive it into a little wallet that i have to keep that raw footage safe and stored and then just start shooting on a brand new card i record high quality audio into my camera with the rode videomic ntg shotgun microphone it's the mic that i'm actually using right now and that's partly why i love it it has a usbc port and i can plug that directly into my macbook pro and record audio into my computer i've switched the microphone holder to this very simple plastic one that i found online and almost always have this fuzzy dead cat windscreen on the microphone especially when hiking just to combat the wind sounds that are almost always happening when you're up on a mountain to hold my camera for lockdown shots i have a very simple three section carbon fiber set of sticks and i took the head off and replaced it with a joby 3k ball head which is just the simplest setup very quick and easy and there isn't too much weight to hold so it totally works i'm never doing any kind of panning tilting or tripod moves so i just need it to be locked down and level right now i have four sony z batteries and i charge them in this third-party dual battery charger that i can recharge with micro usb plugged into a wall or into the external battery that i carry while hiking between shots i normally just carry my camera with the tripod legs extended or put the tripod legs away and sling my camera over my backpack strap with a peak design cuff strap that i just tie around it for some of my hikes i bring a dji mavic 2 air drone which has a controller a 128 gigabyte micro sd card and i have six drone batteries but depending on the length of the hike i may or may not bring all of them one cool thing that i've started doing is using this drone battery adapter which allows me to plug in any charging cables to use up what's left of drone batteries after i can't fly with them anymore but i normally just charge my phone or batteries with the large external battery that i have i'll always have my iphone 11 pro because i'm using all trails on airplane mode with downloaded maps to keep myself on the trail and knowing where i'm going and i'll also use it to write notes listen to music podcasts audio books and take photos airpods are my favorite way to listen to audio while i'm hiking i do all of my editing and work on a 2016 macbook pro i got it fully specced out back then so it's still going strong and really effective today but i will probably update to the new arm based max when they come out pretty soon and that's all the hiking and filmmaking gear that i'm currently using right now in the summer of 2020 i hope to make one of these videos every year but of course you can check back in the old hiking videos each one has the specific gear list for that video in the description and the total cost of everything i talked about today is i'm gonna add it up after the fact and yes of course there are different and cheaper options for everything that i talked about here today over the last year i've changed and upgraded and swapped out so many different things and i'm sure that'll continue into the future so hopefully you can use this video and then do your own comparison shopping online to find a kit that works for you not everyone's gonna have a robust filmmaking kit like i do and i assume most people would want a bit more comfort with their hike as well so to each their own today's video was brought to you by awesome channel members super fans who have pledged their support with my youtube channel memberships it's a growing community of amazing people who are helping me to make more videos go on more trips and to just have more confidence as a full-time youtuber direct support from my subscribers helps me to have more command over how many and what ads i do on my channel if any also please feel free to follow me on instagram it's the only other place other than youtube that i'm posting content sadly the podcast is gone the website is gone twitter has been gone for a while got rid of my tick tock very minimal with the amount of social media platforms that i'm posting on right now just youtube and instagram so make sure to follow me on both if you don't mind i'd like to wrap up this video doing a rapid fire q a i asked on instagram what questions do you have about hiking gear filmmaking gear for this video and a lot of you showed up so let's get into that this is something that i've been thinking about trying and my brother recommended that i buy more drone batteries so that's why i have six and those things are super expensive so it's definitely an investment towards this type of idea i think shooting a drone only hiking film would be an interesting test so you can look forward to that in the future i do plan on making a full tutorial on how i shoot and edit and upload hiking videos but i don't do any color correction grading barely any modifications if anything i just try to shoot it as i saw it out there and then show that to you once the a7s mark 3 came out everyone's like are you going to get it i'm considering it but i did move from the a7 3 to this a 6610 to 18 lens setup because it's just smaller and lighter but still gives a great image but the low light capabilities are interesting to me i do miss shooting at night with like zero loss of quality that would be nice so a lot of people ask me what type of gear they should get to shoot their first couple of youtube videos and whatever you have should work the hardest part is coming up with the idea executing it and then uploading the filmmaking aspect it just isn't as important you just need to keep practicing and then get constant uploads and just work on that and then improve your quality so if you have an iphone shoot on an iphone an example of me shooting one of my films with a more consumer type camera was the chile trip that entire film was shot on the rx100 which is a point-and-shoot camera it's just a standard fits-in-a-pocket one lens built-in flip screen built-in audio type camera and i think that video turned out beautifully so you can do a lot with a little just doing it in the first place is more important i think it's helpful to share the tools that i use to do the things that i do but i do not want to focus on gear because in the filmmaking space when i was shooting weddings just anything related to creating people focus on the tools way too much paying attention and buying gear to try to do your next thing and just focusing on that is such a cop-out from the creative aspect and the collaboration and just everything else around the creation so don't just focus on tools i was using my carbon fiber peak design travel tripod until my brother ran it over in the parking lot because i left it out behind the car and he backed up and just ko'd the entire tripod and then i got a new tripod and to be honest i like this new setup better so a lot of people ask how i check luggage and do airports with hiking gear and i do check a bag because i have a duffel with a lot of extra clothes and stuff but tent poles are just never an issue i put them in my carry-on and i've never had any kind of problem with them at all i think i would be stopped if i was trying to carry trekking poles but i just don't use them and then of course the bear spray i have to check but other than that i don't have any issues at the airport at all it's just straightforward you check a bag or not you just get your stuff and go so you can kind of see in the kilimanjaro video and the alaska video if it's raining a lot i'll put my camera in the bag and then try to find some kind of dry canopy area to shoot like rain shots or just keep walking and hiking until it stops raining there's not much you can do about that the camera isn't waterproof it's water resistant but that's you know dangerous so right now obviously things are different with kovid so i'm doing a lot of domestic hiking but in general i'm trying to balance shooting and uploading diverse videos i want to go to completely different areas with each video yet i don't want to just frivolously spend my money on airfare and waste fuel and just over travel so it's definitely a balance of trying to string trips together and that's why i'm really excited about like legit living out of a backpack living the nomad life so i can just combo and chain trip trip trip trip without going back to new york back and forth to an apartment every time so that's my logic i think it's going to be great and better for video and just more sustainable in general i'm pretty happy with the mavic air 2 right now it's definitely a drop in quality from the hasselblad pro 2 that i had before this but the size and weight and portability of it is just perfect for what i'm doing right now and as far as settings i'm definitely trying to keep very battery conscious i'm not trying to frivolously just fly around i have the shot that i want in mind before i put the drone up and for a lot of these like following behind me with a wide shot drone clips that i shoot it's very quick i just need that one shot i send it up walk bring it back and then i'm done within like 30 to 60 seconds and for settings i match my camera so it's set at 30 frames per second 4k locked at 5600 kelvin and then that's it i don't really have to change anything else i will switch it to tripod mode once the shot is locked in so that it moves slower and smoother and yeah that's it yeah this is a good question i actually do check every so often especially when it's very bright outside and i can't see the screen that flips up because the microphone is in the way so i will go back and double check uh every so often and for sure check all of my clips when it's dark when i'm inside my tent before i go to bed every night just to refresh what i shot double check my exposures and just you know it's kind of fun to like see my entire day on video before i go to bed so even though i have one lens it is a zoom lens with a couple options 10 to 18 is kind of like 16 to 30 millimeter full frame equivalent and i do shoot most of my walking away hiking shots at the tightest on the lens so around 30 millimeter it looks better than just ultra wide because i start to get some kind of distortion and it's just it looks better at 30 millimeter compared to ultra wide so how i approach water and just general bad weather on a hike has changed i think most people start out thinking that they need waterproof stuff and to like stay dry and clean and have multiple sets of clothes i have completely shifted into the just wear barely anything put up with the elements sweat get dirty it's fine if you stink if you smell whatever if you get wet when it's raining it's just water as long as you don't get hypothermia like it's not gonna kill you i walk through rivers with my shoes and socks on because if i keep moving and it's dry out they dry really quickly and it's not the end of the world so waterproof boots are kind of silly to me like waterproof just anything just doesn't make sense i don't think anything is like 100 waterproof unless you're like wearing a poncho and then if you wear that when it's raining and still hike you sweat underneath so everything gets wet anyway just embrace it so gimbals for smartphones is an interesting idea but i think you might just want to use your phone with all trails to like keep on the trail and then take photos if i was doing like a phone gimbal setup i would definitely bring two phones so that i don't have to constantly take it in and out if i'm going to be using it as a phone and then the new gopros and insta3 just all of the new cameras have such great stabilization that you can almost just hand held like for sure the new gopro what is it eight you can absolutely just hold that in your hand and it's very stable so i guess that's what i would recommend beginners who are shooting videos uh to get some kind of stabilized gopro so that all of your footage is like that gimballed stabilized walking footage would be a great idea it's going to be tough with the audio but if you are close to the subject or talking right into the camera microphone it's okay quality plus it's waterproof easy to charge gopros are pretty good it's a good start it's very simple my bud you start hiking go for a walk in a city or a town anywhere that's safe and you feel comfortable see how many miles you can do in a day and then go out into nature and just do a day hike put on some miles do 10 miles see if you can do it and then do it overnight and then just grow slowly from there starting with a five day hike is the dumbest thing you can do just start slow and then build up i don't use an nd filter because i don't need to and it would just be one extra thing that i have to worry about so i have never gotten sick from filtered water and i've also drank just straight from streams or glacier water and i've never had any kind of water sickness that i know of maybe i don't know so it's a mix of just doing random internet research but i also look for trails directly on all trails from uh the community but then also their dedicated contributors a lot of youtube videos to be honest that's kind of why i make the guides and the videos that i do because i think it's a good way for people to see a taste of the trail get some advice and then go do it themselves but i do plan on making a full like tutorial video for youtube about how i pick how i navigate maps with all trails on the hike and also just a breakdown of like my past hikes and why i picked them and where i plan on going next so i have a very long list of future hikes to get to do and a lot of them are international and i'm just waiting for flights to open back up but i'm being patient i've got plenty to do here in the us for the time being i love getting out into nature climbing mountains and following trails seeing animals and plants and just being alone and having time to think i definitely grew up playing adventure games and like more recently breath of the wild hiking to me is like the same feeling the same experience that i get from playing that game but like in real life and so much better it's it's real i love overcoming obstacles and having like a mission and just overcoming that and getting through and completing it as a minimalist there's an aspect of just stripping down to the bare essentials like what do i really need to survive and be happy and content with how much can i go through and survive as weird as it sounds i kind of want to suffer a little bit just to overcome that and grow and be better on the other side hiking is great i recommend everyone to try it so i used trekking poles in the nepal hike but i actually broke them on my way down off the mountain and i get it trekking poles are useful especially going down or in muddy areas i'm making a video and i'm always setting up my tripod and looking for shots so it's an extra step to like set my tripod down and then grab my poles and then it's just either or i think it's hard to do filmmaking the way that i'm doing it and to have trekking poles if i was just trail running or just hiking in general i would for sure have trekking poles i've actually never had any problem with my drone at airports going through china they did take it out and just like rescan it by itself but they just let me go through once they put it through as far as precautions with expensive gear you know i just i'm street smart about it i just don't leave it out i don't draw too much attention to myself when i don't need to but i've never really had any issues i've you know i don't have that much stuff so i keep it pretty close to me and to be honest if someone like went way out of their way to steal something i'm kind of in the mindset that you know i would just replace it and try to be smarter next time but if someone steals something they kind of need it more than you do in a weird sense if that makes i don't know if that makes sense but that's that's my mindset like i wouldn't be hung up on it i would try to be safer and smarter next time but it's not the end of the world yeah i've gotten blisters before on the chokakira hike i had brand new shoes and like bad socks and i destroyed my heels and it hurt so badly at the end of that hike but blisters go away eventually and then your feet callous and if you keep moving keep hiking your feet kind of become indestructible on the tour de mont blanc i'll never forget i got trail running shoes and then i had like the blisters all healed up and calloused over and i was just doing 20 mile days like nobody's business i feel so good so yeah hiking every week non-stop will help you to not get blisters you do need to break in the shoes the first couple of times you use them it's gonna hurt and then just getting the right socks and tying your shoes tightly your feet swell up if you walk for long enough so they help to fill in the shoe but you should try to not have your foot moving around too much uh in the shoe in general but i'm working out every day uh in new york where i am right now i'm in brooklyn uh we walk everywhere quickly it's a new york thing to walk fast and i'll go for walks long walks in the park i'll listen to audiobooks walk to the subway walk to meet up with friends so i'm just always practicing always training i guess to go on a hike a lot of people are perplexed at how i can fit all of that in my pack and you saw me do that but you should also know that i am 6'2 i'm a bit bigger than what people expect whenever i meet people in person they're always like you're way taller than what i expected from watching your videos so i think that also plays into it like the bag is big it's heavy and if you are here in with me in person you know it would seem much bigger than what it shows in video i think so maybe a little harry potter video magic but yeah it's a heavy pack a lot of people ask me if i charge my drone batteries while hiking and then just so many questions about charging drone batteries no i don't do any of that i just pack enough and then really ration my drone battery power this is my full-time job right now so i treat buying hiking and filmmaking gears like a business expense in a sense so i've got everything that i want i don't think i would i can't think of any big upgrades i would do everything works and i'm just trying to buy less stuff in general it's a minimalist mindset i just want to try to move away from consuming and materialism as much as possible uh because if you're a little creative and a little more patient and driven you can usually get a lot done with a small or just less stuff than you thought was possible i like a efficiency and resourcefulness yes so i've been editing on a mac all my life and i've been using final cut 10 x yeah 10. um it's made by apple it's optimized for the computer that i own it's quick efficient i've checked out adobe premiere which i think is like the other option but i'm happy and i've got a good workflow so i feel like i'm pretty quick at editing especially when i know if i'm editing a hiking film it's in and out boom boom boom so i'll try to mix it up and find music on different websites free music archive music beds soundstripe art list there's a bunch there's a lot out there epidemic is a good one but musicbed is just very high quality i've done some work with them i've been an ambassador on and off and i used to use them a lot during the wedding days they just have really high quality stuff and that's where most of my music is licensed in general i've never really felt unsafe i felt pretty confident you know i'm street smart i don't poke my nose in places i shouldn't be especially at night in foreign countries so i don't really have any deterrents or any stories to tell you about sketchy situations obviously it's different for people and i can understand how i'm privileged and being able to feel that way especially when traveling but bear spray is like pepper spray on steroids man it's for the bears but it's also in case any crazy stuff happens with like another hiker or just in a city um i don't want to but i would definitely use bear spray against a person if they were attacking me for sure not a question ali but i feel it yes hike with a dog i'm on it so after a few hikes under my belt i've uploaded a couple now for over a year i'm starting to think about the viewer experience from your perspective like is it best to start each hiking film at the crack of dawn before sunrise at the trailhead does every hike have to be completely chronological is it worth it to have like a short intro with the best footage and then get into the chronological hike or should i do a slow burn up to like the climax right after the midpoint of the video with the best footage so i'm testing it out good good question okay so a lot of the other questions were good but they were like repeats of previous ones that people asked so that about wraps up this q a thank you so much for submitting questions and uh take care [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] you

Channel: Kraig Adams

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Keywords: Favorite Hiking Gear, Kraig Adams, Kraig Adams hiking gear, Kraig Adams hike, favorite hiking gear 2020, favorite hiking gear Kraig Adams, minimalist hiking gear, ultralight weight hiking gear

Id: BrGIPqM8s_M

Length: 36min 53sec (2213 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 25 2020