Some of them are pretty harrowing! On all or most of them he seems to have the camera attached to his body or to a helmet, since his hands are obviously free for scrambling. I am thinking of rigging something like that myself and was wondering what kinds of experiences Travis as well as other climbers have had with attaching the camera to your body. I mentioned it to my brother, who has attempted something like this while snowboarding, and he said the vibrations were simply awful. But on the other hand I believe his camera is older and doesn't have any anti-vibration technology.
If this is practical, I am thinking of having a few vests made that would accept a sort of aluminum bracket at the front for mounting a small camcorder you could use while walking and keeping your hands free.
Until now, I have been using a monopod with my camcorder:
Despite appearances, I don't use it as a walking stick. I never liked walking sticks. I just shorten it up and carry it around until I want to make a shot. Then I extend it and set it in the ground and it keeps the camera pretty steady. The camera is very light weight. I can also use the monopod to hold the camera while walking, gripping it in front of me with one hand like a baton. I think it makes the movement a lot smoother than if I was just gripping the camera by itself.
I have made two short videos so far:
On San Jacinto, it got so cold near the top I had to give the monopod to a friend to carry (it wouldn't fit in my pack) and stow the camera away, so when I wanted to tape something I had pull the camera out and use it without the monopod. That's one reason it's a lot more shakey in the San Jacinto vid. Now I carry gloves with me everywhere and I'm going to sew loops into my packs so I can just hang up the camera whenever I can't carry it anymore.
But I would also like to work out some kind of hands-free way to do this as well.
