Ultralight Hiking (Tri)Pod

I really like how over time I lug less gear with me. Be it on a business trip or a multi-day hike-through. Take less, do more say Gossamer Gear, one of my favorite ultralight brands. Could not agree more. Especially when the terrain is demanding and rough.

But then there is the question of taking photos, and, in particular what I love, taking night photos. For that you need a good camera and a tripod. The camera part has been - to some extent - solved by the latest smartphone advancements - see what iPhones offer in the photography department. The results are not DSLR-class yet, but they are getting close. And some trips - like the New Zealand West Coast - really require the lightest gear possible. For the weight of a DSLR you can take 2 days of food (food is the challenge on remote hikes lasting 10 days).

So an iPhone. Bt then you still need a tripod. In the past the FLM CP-10 carbon was my option, but that (while super steady and light) was very low, requiring to crawl and not always offering the needed perspective. Anything with a proper height brings the weight to around 1 kg.

I've been always mulling how to combine trekking poles with a tripod, to use the poles as legs, thus reducing the weight. There was a product - TrailPix - doing exactly that, but somehow I found it quite awkward to use. There is a much sturdier concept offered by the German company NovoFlex - but while very solid, it is not in the ultralight class. The Komperdell poles / legs are twice as heavy as the Gossamer LT5. On top of that is the tripod base weighing 500g (a day's worth of food!) AND the third leg weighing 350g. That is together (1220g) as much as the Gitzo Traveler carbon tripod (940g) and a pair of ultralight carbon poles (300g), netting effectively zero gain (!). So much for German engineering. 

I needed something much lighter. And I ended up combining an AliExpress smartphone holder (52g) with a cold shoe screwed to the top a the hiking pole. That gave me a monopod / selfie stick, which then could be secured with three pegs (9g each) and a dyneema string. Voila! An 80g tripod, which allowed me to capture Magellan Clouds from the Frew Saddle Biv. DIY wins again.