Smartphones are Smart Tools for Climbing

photo credit: jetsettimes.com

You can climb smarter these days by using your smartphone out in the field and on the rock. Lots of useful applications or apps are available to help you drive to a climbing area with turn-by-turn directions; find the right access trail to a cliff; locate the base of a route using GPS coordinates; check the route description; look at the weather forecast and check local weather radar for incoming storms; identify local trees, birds, and flowers; take climbing photographs and videos of your vertical adventure; and later share your tracks, route beta, and photos on social media sites like Facebook and Instagram or create a cool photo album.

Should You Carry a Smartphone Climbing?

All that technology though comes with a price. First you have to decide if you are actually going to carry your smart phone out in the rocky wilderness and up some remote mountain. Ask yourself: "Will I have cell service?" If you are in the back of beyond and no signal gets through the canyons and mountains then it's just a worthless bunch of circuits. Another big question is: How are you going to keep the device charged? Many apps use a lot of power and quickly drain the battery.

Do You Really Need to Take Your Phone?

Ask yourself too if carrying and using a mobile device will impinge on your climbing experience. You do not want to be using the phone out in the world unless it is absolutely necessary and an emergency. Answering calls from mom while you're anchored onto a belay ledge trivializes your experience. It might seem cool to call a buddy and say, "Hey, you'll never guess where I am right now!" but really now, do you need to do that? If you answer the phone and chatter on while belaying your partner you might also indulge in distracted belaying and drop him to the ground as well as annoy the heck out of the party climbing next to you. If you're really a pest with your phone, your neighbor might just heave it off the nearest cliff!

Sturdy Cases Protect Your Phone

The first thing to do before taking your mobile device out rock climbing is to invest in a sturdy case to protect the phone from breakage and small falls. A case also keeps dirt and rain from damaging the phone.

2 Ways to Keep Your Device Powered

When you are out climbing in the mountains with your mobile device in your pocket or pack, you are going to need battery power to keep it running. There are two basic ways to power your phone-conserve power and boost power.

How to Conserve Battery Power

You can conserve essential battery power by shutting off all unnecessary signals so your phone isn't trying to constantly connect to cellular signals when you are out of range. Do not, however, just blindly put it on airplane mode. Some Android phone models shut off the GPS signal it receives if you do that. You can get an app for that though. The best is GPS Airtime. Consider not using your smart phone as your GPS device by taking waypoints and creating tracks, especially if you are on an all-day or multi-day climbing trek. Disable the tracklog in the GPS settings and mark only important waypoints. Also increase the spacing between breadcrumb waypoints; once every 1,000 feet will save power. If you use a GPS app on your device, it might be better to invest in a standalone GPS unit which uses replaceable batteries, works better than a phone, can saves power on lengthy climbing days. Lastly, turn the device off at night or if you aren't using it and save lots of power.

Boost Power with Solar Battery Chargers

Besides using conservation measures to save your phone's battery power, you can also boost power by recharging the internal battery. This is more easily done now than ever before. There are lots of affordable solar chargers available that quickly and efficiently recharge your phone and electronic gadgets while you are outside climbing and hiking. Read Portable Solar Chargers for Mobile Devices for lots of information on keeping your phone charged and guide-recommended solar chargers. You can then transfer the pent-up power to your phone at the end of the day. Supposedly a day of hiking gives you about 20% of a complete battery charge; the amount, of course, varies by how much you're moving.


What are your thoughts on smartphone and summit selfies? Do you agree on bringing your phone when you go climbing? Let your thoughts be heard in the comment section below and don't forget to share this post with family and friends on Facebook and Twitter. Thanks!


-XoXo
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