Originally Posted By PaHiker
Tried that once, never again. Unless you pack a recharger it's not going to last 7 days. Cellphone batteries aren't robust, and you can't just pop in a new one when the old one dies. Plus, if you get into trouble you've killed your method of calling out. I work SAR, and have had to search for more than one person whose cellphone died before we could get a fix on them, usually because they were using the damn things to play games, or as a flashlight.


True, I should have added YMMV. For me it works well, as my phone lasts 2 days tracking GPS ~12 hours a day in airplane mode (plus taking a few photos), but I know battery life can vary a lot between phones. It probably would last 4 days if I only used it to check GPS occasionally instead of tracking distance. I also don't tend to play games on my phone when backpacking, although I think if you get lost because you ran out your phone's battery playing games while hiking, a dedicated GPS unit may not be whats lacking...