Talk Urbex

Talk Urbex – Recommendations on Urban Exploration Equipment

Imagine, you have travelled 3 hours to get to ‘that’ urbex site, you get geared up and head in – only to realise you left a key bit of kit at home. The outlined equipment described is for a generic kit bag, for things like caving, your kit bag will need some additions.

Photography

So you would like to accommodate each and every situation however this could start to get cumbersome, below are some of the necessities

1. Camera body
2. Spare SD of CF cards – shame to run out half way through a mission
3. Spare battery – see above
4. Waterproof bag – useful if you have to get wet trying to get to a remote place
5. Camera remote
6. Lenses – I usually do derelict missions so I take two lenses, a Sigma 17-70mm and a Tokina 11-16mm. Ultra wide and low light lenses are always very useful
7. Tripod
8. Dust cleaner/mirror cleaner – dust is usually rife in these places, try to take care when changing lenses

Clothing

Needless to say, dress accordingly and each mission drives its own needs. Things that are important to me are usually based around security and hygiene, here are some of the basics

1. Solar dry trousers – quick drying and thick but light at the same time. Scratches lead to infections so its good to cover up
2. Gore-TEX jacket – who knows, if something went wrong this could be pretty important
3. Gore-TEX hiking boots – good solid hiking boots
4. Warm t-shirt/hoody
5. Medical gloves – who knows what you are touching right
6. Respirator – currently do not have an asbestos rated one

Kit

So this is where things can diversify – I usually think about the common small stuff I can carry that may get me out of a few potential situations.

1. Small first aid kit/antiseptic stuff – important for those small cuts/grazes and mild infection
2. A Leatherman multitool – these things are built for this, can get you out of a lot of situations
3. Waterproof matches – you never know
4. GPS locator – this tracks my current position and reports via email, critical if the worst event happens
5. Spare food/water – again in the case of survival
6. LED Lensor P7 Torch – awesome thing!
7. Petzl head torch LED

Apart from the obvious – you can argue the point on taking all this equipment, I do it because sometimes things go wrong and when they do, I want to be prepared. You may also need some other stuff like rope, harness etc however these are quite specific to certain activities

Whatever you do, ensure you are prepared for it!

Hope you enjoy

sophos9