Defying Gravity

Photos from the recent Kinabalu trip below, taken using my Olympus.

The Olympus is really convenient and handy because it's "tough"--I could leave it outside despite the rain--and the battery life is pretty decent. I didn't get to test it at close to zero or sub-zero temperatures this time around, but it lasted 3 days of moderate usage on a full charge. The trade-off is picture quality. The camera is 14.1mp so you don't forgo the size and "quality", but that's not really what pictures are about.

The preset modes are lousy and the software is very slow and drains battery whenever you switch. There are few customisable options--as far as it goes, you can just about easily change the macro mode and flash settings, but that's about it. I gave up trying to set ISO/shutter and ended up using auto-mode for most of the pictures, only changing modes if I had the luxury of time and if I knew that I would be using the same setting subsequently e.g. landscape pictures during the climbs, macro photos during dinner (I didn't bother with the food mode).

As you can see, colours and contrast are far from ideal so I really needed to tweak them. This is where Canon is clearly superior--nicer presets and numerous easily customised settings. Well, win some lose some. A DSLR with waterproofing is certainly out of the question. I guess I would rather have a tough camera than one with nicer colours because at least I can edit/salvage, versus not having any photos at all if the cam and the storage device spoil.

One of us got hit by what we highly suspect is altitude sickness. She felt really miserable and didn't even contemplate attempting the summit the next day. Safety first yo! Anyway, the killer for my friends was the descent. I was ok, the extra load climbing up killed me more than going back down. Their joints clearly suffered--and this is true of any climb, for I have heard the same from other friends who climbed other mountains--much harder on the return journey. Generally, I gathered that most mountains are the same--Huang Shan, Fuji Yama, Kinabalu--wind-chill/bad weather (inevitable at such altitudes) and the descent proved the biggest obstacles.

My tips are:
-Waterproof clothing is terribly important.
-So are proper trekking/hiking shoes.
-If they're waterproof, even better.
-A walking stick is very helpful, especially on the way down.
-Lighten your load as far as possible.
-Pace yourself.
-Mind over matter.

So now you know (;