Most of my daypack consisted of heavy camera equipment. This was my first digital-only photo trip -- it's rather ironic that for my first digital photo trip, I climbed a mountain so high that hard disks (for backup) don't spin up properly. I just had to pray that I had enough memory to last me until I descended.
 
All of this equipment was packed into a Lowepro Street & Field Rover AW, except for the monopod, 100-400mm lens, and the equipment I brought for Margo and Wally (which they packed themselves). The monopod and the 100-400mm lens were packed in my big duffel bag, so I didn't actually get them until after I descended the mountain. The Rover AW worked well for me, although I found that the straps that hold the top of the backpack to the chest harness (it's a completely modular system) tended to slip over time, so I always had to adjust strap lengths a few hours into the hike to keep the bulk of the bag above my waist. The daypack area of the bag (the bottom of it is designed for camera equipment, while the top is deisgned for other miscellaneous gear) was small, but it did fit my small toothbrush/toiletries bag, my journal, a book, my bandana, a pack lunch, and random other stuff I crammed into there.
 
I want to explicitly thank Wally for carrying my extra water for me. I could only fit a single 1.5 liter water bottle in my bag (it sat precariously in an external lens holder attached to my waistbelt), so he carried about 1.5 liters of extra water for me every day.
 
Here's what I brought:
 
Shooting exclusively digital was fantastic, especially on the safari part of our trip. With a 256MB card, I could shoot roughly 180 shots before switching cards. It was a bit nerve-wracking to know that I couldn't back up the shots on to the Digital Wallet until I descended below 10,000 feet, but everything worked out pretty well. However, I did have condensation problems and had to be very careful taking the camera out of my pack when I was in the tent. A few times, I had to put the camera in a large zip-lock bag outside in the cold before bringing it in the warmer tent. The one time I failed to do this, the camera immediately became covered in little droplets of water, which rendered it (well, the lens) useless for a day and a half. Luckily, this happened immediately upon returning to Barafu hut from the summit, so I was able to use it at the summit. The camcorder had similar condensation problems. It's smart enough to disable itself if you try to power it on while wet.
 
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