13077881:Walter.1337 said:
First of all, props to everyone involved in making these Digital Features - I can't get over how awesome they are. As a photographer, I found this to be one of the best features yet; the images were all outstanding, from the lifestyle snaps to the action and landscapes captured perfectly in a single frame. Brody, Adam, job well done boys.
I'm fairly certain you would both recommend going on a trip like this. However, how much effort actually went into planning it? How much money usually goes into pulling something of this scale off?
With your experience, is there anything you'd want to emphasize doing/not doing in the preparation or execution stages? Any critical mistakes to avoid or underrated advice to make sure you listen to?
I'd like to +1 this question as I'm insanely interested to hear the answer. How did you guys keep stuff charged (if you didn't just bring a royal shit ton of batteries)? What was normally in your pack during big climbs and did it weigh you down at all?
Wow, the kind words do not fall upon deaf ears. Thanks so much. It's cool doing a trip like this without knowing if/how/which publication would be interested in it. We were very much doing it for the story, not for ____ or ____ or ____. Our motivation was genuine.
Zero effort went into planning it. The written story didn't lie: I bought the plane ticket 2 weeks in advance, I landed, I met AC the next day, and we sat down to figure out what we were going to do. The only thing we'd discussed is driving all the way south. From past experience, we knew that mountains stretched the length of the country, but we didn't know how far from the main road, IF roads went all the way south, etc.
As for finances, it's easy. It's cheap. I live cheaper when I'm traveling than when I'm home, and that's saying a lot. I save my money to have incredible experiences that I'll never regret, like this one. AC is really good at doing the same. We travel year-round. I think a big part of it is experience. You have to learn how to live inexpensively. How to choose where to sleep, what to forego, want to indulge in, etc. We were willing to do whatever it took to make this happen, but that didn't require a ton of effort or motivation. We just bought the ticket, rented a van, and went. We'd been to South America a lot, and knew that it couldn't get too expensive. Really. This doesn't cost like $15,000 or something ridiculous like that. But it easily could, if you were careless.
We just did, and always do, what feels right. I wouldn't discourage anything at all. But I would definitely encourage setting oneself out with no limitations. I didn't think that we could seriously ski Cerro Creston, in El Chalten, from the road, on my birthday. We didn't know anything about it. But we gave it a shot, and we made it.
Function within your skillset, but give yourself opportunities to expand it.
Don't let money hinder you more than it should.
And, as any traveler will tell you, go with the flow.
