Svalbard preparation: adapting and testing gear
Carrying a lot of camera gear around requires one to think about how to pack and how to keep gear accessible while hiking and skiing. For an upcoming trip I am planning I will be skiing on Svalbard for 10 days. We need to bring with us everything we need for the duration of the trip and pack in a expedition sled. In addition to all the must have gear I am bringing a lot of my camera equipment. Several I have talked with that has experience with expeditions in remote areas has brought small cameras that fit in the chest pocket and many has experienced that those cameras are more frequently used than larger cameras. Given that one of my biggest reason for going on a 10 day skiing expedition is photography, I want to bring my professional gear and find a good solution to keep my camera and lens of choice accessible at all times.
When hauling around on a sled I do not want to have a backpack on my back, where I usually have all my photo gear safely stored. On the other hand if the camera is packed away in the sled I will spend a lot of time getting the gear out and might miss good opportunities. Hence the need of some thinking and figuring out how to have the camera accessible quickly but at the same time make sure I am comfortable skiing for full days over a longer time period.
I looked at a number of lightweight backpacks, slingshot bags, hip packs and even packs with mounts for the sled ropes which are all probably great but they still require me to remove the backpack to get hold of the gear or will add a lot of clutter around my waist. The sled harness I will use is very lightweight and does not have any loops to attach additional gear of straps to it. So I stared to investigate if it would be possible to modify the harness and sewing on a webbing and create some gear loops and a system that will allow for the flexibility I am aiming for. I am aiming to achieve a high degree of flexibility and be able to get gear easily on and off as well as get my equipment quickly out and add protection when not in use. To the drawing board.
Sketch 1: Webbing sewn onto the harness with loops for attaching slide buckles. Each shoulder strap will have loops added.
I would like to be able to adjust the height of the camera bag I will have on my chest to be able to position it high on the chest and lower towards the waist. That way I can test what feels best when hiking for a long time and also move the camera bag if I start to feel tension.
In the harness I will be sewing on a webbing to add loops where I can fit slide buckles as displayed in sketch 1. I want the loops to be angled inwards to the center of the body. That way I hope to reduce strain in the harness and make the harness is more comfortable to wear. I also want the buckles to be movable / removable so that I do not need many fixed buckles cluttering up the harness. Sea to summit produces replacement buckles that are attached with screws and those come in a variety of different widths including 25mm which is the width I have decided to go for. 25mm webbing will provide more than enough strength and still be pretty flexible.
For the straps that will go between the harness and the camera bag I will use the same 25mm webbing and will have an aluminum slotted d-ring attached to the end. The clasps of the camera bag will clip into those. Under the webbing of the straps I will attach elastic band cut slightly shorter than the webbing in order to make the strap a bit flexible and hopefully reduce strain (see figure 2). I will have two straps on each end (two at the top and two at the bottom) to distribute the weight evenly on each shoulder and makes sure that the bag keeps close to my body when I lean forward and is moving around.
Sketch 2: Gear strap for the camera bag. I will make 4 of those.