Hazard of the Job: High Altitude, Extreme Low Humidity + Cold
Static electricity is really bad at high altitude with extremely low humidity—I killed one of my Cineo Matchbox lights on my last trip in spite of grounding wires dangling/protruding from it.
And from what I can tell, it causes sensor dust to be a serious problem.
Ultra low humidity is also a low-grade job hazard: bleeding from lips and nose. When humidity is below 10% and it’s sub-freezing and it’s thin air at high elevation, even a well-adapted physiology (takes a few weeks) doesn’t keep lips from bleeding. Sometimes I wake up and taste blood (at my age, I mouth-breath at night unwittingly, which dries out lips badly). My nose (external) bled for an hour one day from a ruptured micro artery. But luckily I get nose bleeds (internal) infrequently.
I’m wearing two down jackets here, including the trusty world’s-best Western Mountaineering Flash XR down jacket, cycling tights and wool pants over them, a wool hat under a wool hoody with a cap too, and a cycling jersey under the hoody and down. This is about right to keep me warm at 11.5K feet when photographing in November when it is seasonally warmer than usual!
iPhone 7 Plus + iPhone 7 Plus 4.0 mm f/1.8 @ 28mm equiv (4mm)
ENV: Dana Glacier moraine, altitude 11338 ft / 3456 m, 28°F / -2°C
[low-res image for bot]
