How to start a career in adventure photography? What kind of equipment would I need?

I like climbing mountains, hiking, and trekking. I'm thinking that I'd like to take a year or two to travel and take pictures and try to start a career in adventure photography. I met a famous climber/photographer and it looked really great.

What kind of equipment would I need? The photographer that I talked to used the older versions of the Nikon D800 and Canon 5D Mark III. I was also looking at the Sony a99. What are some good lenses to have? For example, if I went on a climb or trek and only wanted to bring what I needed? I would bring maybe a couple prime, a zoom and a wide angle? I was also looking at Sony NEX cameras.

Would this be an interesting thing to try? I don't really have a career. I have anxiety issues. I'd like to find something that will make me happy.

You'll probably end up with more anxiety trying to start this type of career. You need to become knowledgable about photography first and then you need to understand the industry to succeed. If you have the means to travel for a year or two I think it would be wise for you to offer to travel with a photographer as an assistant. Do it for free and pay your own way and it will be a great learning experience. I seriously doubt you will make any money if you go out and buy a camera, shoot pictures for a year and then try to do something with them.

Equipment wise, the Nikon D800 is one of the best cameras out there right now. You can get a 24mm or 28mm lens, 50mm f1.4 and 70-200 f2.8 and you'll be set. If you like super wide you can get an even wider lens. I'm not a fan of zooms at the short end of the lens so I use primes in anything below 70mm. Get extra batteries, a polarizing filter, LIghtroom, Photoshop, a few portable hard drives and a good laptop computer.

Rick gave you some good advice. I have three things to add: (1) all the major manufacturers make excellent cameras. While Canon and Nikon have the widest available lenses, cameras by Pentax, Sony, Olympus and others are very good. To the human eye, you could not discern differences between them in the quality of the images. (2) The famous climber/photographer probably did not share with you the steps he or she took to get there. It's a lot of work and not everybody makes it. It will take longer than a year or two of travel. Your own inexperience will be your major controlling factor in getting images that people will admire. So work on getting that experience. You don't have to go on a white-water rafting expedition in the Amazon to start. (3) Subscribe to Outside Magazine. Immerse yourself in that culture.http://www.outsideonline.com/

Enjoy the ride.