TLDR Version: I got sunburned because I'm a moron.For the rest of you:
Yesterday I went for a hike up to the peak of one of the local mountains. We started hiking at just under 6,000 ft elevation and the peak was just over 10,000 ft elevation. I've been doing lots of hiking the past few weeks, and was out for 4-5+ in the sun each time, and haven't been sunburned at all. Well it seemed to slip my mind that snow is a very reflective color, and that hiking in the snow is a much slower process than when hiking on a dry trail. My roommate and I did a slightly shorter version of this hike in a relatively short time (we couldn't remember exactly how long, but probably only about 4-5 hours) last summer, so we figured yesterday's hike would take us 6 hours, maybe a little more.
So anyway, after our 10 hour hike, all of which were in the snow, 9 of which we were in direct sunlight, we were quite sunburned. (Picture below)
I considered not even taking a camera other than my brother's little compact point and shoot to cut down on weight in my day pack, but I forced myself to pack the camera and a few lenses. I probably could have gotten some decent shots, but because it was such a bother to unpack and repack the camera and lenses each time to take a shot, I simply didn't take any photos until we reached the peak. A huge mistake, as the lighting wasn't nearly as interesting on the way back.
For the future I will try to:
- remember and use a little common sense when deciding what to bring (sunscreen would have been great)
- not hesitate to take a shot if the lighting looks interesting (thinking I can capture the same image later was foolish)
- do some research about a proper camera backpack also suitable for hiking (if anyone has recommendations that would be cool)
Here are two pictures I took from the hike. I liked them better in B&W:
Anyway, here is the picture of my sunburned self. Note that I'm pretty swollen here, and understand that that's after several hours of using cold compresses on my face and the swelling had gone down significantly. Another picture below for reference to understand how swollen I was
