I carry my Cell Phone, (iPhone because it serves more than one purpose.
1. Its a camera... and a dang good one.
2. It works as an communication device in a pinch. some times when you can't make a call connect you can get a text out.
3. Houses some good reference books for us beginner back packers. things like First aid, Edible plants...
4. Can function as a back up GPS but holy cow does the battery die in a hurry when using the GPS to hike.
5. Makes up <1% of my total pack weight and in airplane mode can last all weekend on one charge.
A good multipurpose phone is a lightweight conscious item and I see many people carry them.
I carry a rather large Garmin Montana GPS. I have plans of getting a smaller one but I love to make tracks and post them on my groups site so others can see where I went, How far, and how high. it also house Topo, and Satellite map plus Waypoints. It has already proved invaluable on previous trips.
A Goal Zero Guide 10 Plus & Nomad 7M Solar Panel For recharging batteries for my head lamp, cell phone, spot tracker and GPS. To me having the ability to recharge batteries is far more important that packing in a boat load of batteries.
Why is the ability to recharge far more important? How many batteries would you need to to pack? My understanding with these chargers is that they have so little capacity when they are not continuously in direct sunlight that you can't charge anything while hiking around.
Would it really be that horrible if any of your electronics (except the SPOT) ran out of batteries? I put fresh batteries in my stuff before I leave. If those run out I do without.
The Iphone is probably a battery hog, so you may need some way to recharge it, but how many batteries could you pack to equal the weight of the solar charger?
It total my "electronics" package weights in at 57 oz
and includes
8xAA Batteries - 8oz
iPhone 3S - 4.9oz
iPhone Tripod - 2oz
SPOT Tracker - 4.8oz
Goal Zero Panel Kit -26oz
Garmin GPS -10.5oz
Thoughts?
That seems like an awful lot of extra weight to me. Are you packing extra batteries and a solar panel?
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