Behind the Lens · Mount Fuji Stories
Two cameras, two lenses, one very heavy backpack — and a list of personal trade-offs I would make differently next time.
The brief
A sunrise proposal on the summit of Mt. Fuji is a working shoot at altitude, in the dark, in the wind, with a fixed light window. You cannot go back to the car for a forgotten lens. You cannot re-shoot the proposal because the conditions were wrong. So the kit you carry up is, in a real sense, the kit you have. The full story of the morning is in My First Mount Fuji Climb, and the way I planned the proposal moment itself is in Photographing a Surprise Proposal on Mount Fuji.
This post is just the kit, and the trade-offs I would make differently next time. These are my personal reflections from one climb — not universal advice for every photographer.
Cameras
I carried two cameras. The first was a Canon R5 C, which is my main hybrid body for both stills and video. The second was a Canon EOS R6 Mark I, which I use as a backup and as a wider-grab body. On a shoot like this, the second body is not a luxury — it is a safety net. Cards can fail, batteries can be unpredictable in the cold, and the last thing you want is a single point of failure at the moment itself.
Mounting them both on straps and rotating between them as the moment moved also saved time. I did not need to change a lens in the dark, on a windy summit, with cold fingers. That alone is worth the weight of the second body.
Lenses
I carried a Canon RF 15–35mm L and a Canon RF 24–70mm. That pair covers everything I needed for a proposal of this kind: the wide end for the landscape context and the reenactment, the mid-range for portraits and ring details, and the flexibility to work in low light without swapping glass. Primes would have been sharper, but they would have meant more changes in the dark, and that was a trade I was not willing to make on a summit at 5 AM.
The 24–70mm stayed on one body for most of the morning. The 15–35mm moved to the second body for the wider landscape and the reenactment in a cleaner spot. The whole kit could have been lighter, but for a one-off job like this, I prioritised not having to change lenses at the moment of the proposal.
Video and support
For video I also carried an Insta360. Mounted for short clips, it gave me a second, hands-free angle on the proposal moment without needing a second person to operate a camera, and it doubled as a compact behind-the-scenes camera. The full video and add-on options are described on the Mt. Fuji Summit Proposal experience page.
Everything lived in one proper camera backpack with a real harness. On a climb this long, a small messenger bag or a soft sling is not the right tool. I needed something that would distribute weight across my hips, hold steady on the upper switchbacks, and survive being put down on wet ground at the hut. That is what the backpack did, all day, in the dark and in the rain.
Everything else in the bag
The non-camera part of the load mattered as much as the camera part. Hiking boots with proper ankle support, rain clothing for the bus station and the 5th Station, and layered cold-weather clothing for the summit took up a real amount of space. The temperature at the top in the early hours was somewhere between 1 and 5°C in my estimate, and the wind made it feel colder than that.
I also carried food, water, a sports drink, and energy jelly. The food was not a luxury. I ate small amounts at the hut, on the climb up, and on the climb down, and I do not think I would have made it through the final ascent without those calories. The sports drink was for the same reason — replacing what I was losing in sweat and in the cold air.
Adding it all up — two cameras, two zoom lenses, an action camera, a backpack with a real harness, hiking boots, rain and cold clothing, food, water, sports drink and energy jelly — my total pack weight was somewhere in the rough range of 10–20kg. That is my estimate, not a precise number. On a Fuji summit climb, every kilogram is felt in the knees on the way down, and the lighter you can reasonably go, the better.
Trade-offs
I would not go as light as to compromise the job. A summit proposal at sunrise only happens once, and I would rather carry slightly more and come home with a clean set of images than leave a lens behind and hope. But within that constraint, there are a few things I would do differently.
The broader lesson — and the one I keep coming back to — is that on a Fuji climb the kit and the body are part of the same problem. The camera is no good to you if the person carrying it cannot get to the top. I expand on this in What I Learned From My First Mount Fuji Climb.
If you are weighing a summit proposal, a 6th Station experience, or a calmer shoot around the Fuji Five Lakes, I am happy to talk through the realistic plan, the kit I would bring, and whether your dates and comfort level match the experience you have in mind.
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