I have photographed in the Sierra Nevada front country and back country for decades. (You can find three threads of mine in the Landscape Photography forum right now.)
I’ve usually carted relatively heavy gear into the backcountry, including on trips of up to two weeks. But I’ve also gone light a few times. A few years ago I started occasionally carrying only an XT body and the 16-55mm f/2.8 on some pack trips. That’s not a small lens, though it is smaller than comparable lenses on full frame gear. It covers a pretty decent range from quite wide to slightly long. (I’m sort of a living example of what Jack recommends above. These days I would carry the XT5. That being said, a couple of weeks ago I carted a big full frame Canon body and a couple of L zooms and a tripod into the backcountry just east of the Sierra Crest and the Yosemite boundary.)
To cut down weight and bulk a bit more you could also consider one of the Fujiflm kit lenses. On a weeklong photo expedition into the southern Sierra some yeas back, on which we had pack train support and I was able to bring th big gear, I also brought a small Fujifilm body with the old 18-55mm kit lenses as my “happy snap” camera for in-camp shots. I was surprised and impressed by the quality that it can produce.
Although I started doing this long enough ago that I originally carried primes (yeah, decades ago), today I would generally not go that route in the backcountry. Some would probably disagree, but I like the flexibility and cropping in camera that zooms offer.
Dan
Aug 05, 2025 at 09:48 AM
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