If you’re looking for a GPS for hiking in North America, this add-on will soon be available for about $180.
The GPS Navigation & Battery Cradle provides a complete navigation solution for the iPod touch, including the NavAtlas® turn-by-turn navigation app with TTS technology, and the latest U.S. and Canada maps.
The Cradle features a built-in GPS Receiver, Rechargeable Battery, Amplified Speaker, Audio Out connection and Mini USB port. An Adjustable Windshield Mount is included for in-car use.
The Cradle, which resembles a thin battery case, is super portable and can be used for in-car navigation (with the provided fully adjustable windshield mount) as well as for handheld use. The built-in GPS receiver provides GPS data to most location-based apps. The NavAtlas app, which works exclusively with the Cradle, will be available on the iTunes App Store for free.
It stuffs down to a size smaller than a baseball. Its manufacturer, Sea to Summit Inc. of Perth, Australia, suggests using it as a keychain. But unpack the Ultra-Sil Day Pack and its crinkly “siliconized” Cordura nylon quickly takes shape, a backpack materializing from a tiny ball right in front of your eyes.
As outdoors products go, the Ultra-Sil Day Pack is certainly strange. It is far from technical gear. The backpack, a basic sack equipped with shoulder straps, carries its stowed items with scant support. Lumps protrude from the thin fabric where a shoe or a water bottle might be stuffed inside. Objects dig into your back.
But what this $28 backpack lacks in performance it gains in improbable convenience. The Ultra-Sil Day Pack weighs just 2.4 ounces. It fits in any pocket. Unzipped and open, there’s about 20 liters of space inside–enough area to stow a day’s worth of supplies while traveling. …
Here’s a system I would use. Posting my geolocation along with text trip report updates.
Details on Gadling:
… allow adventurers to more effectively communicate from locations that are not covered by cell service.
The new device pairs one of DeLorme’s GPS units with SPOT’s next generation Satellite Communicator, to send custom message from the backcountry. The Earthmate wil have all the regular features you’d expect from a GPS, including base maps, in this case covering the entire world, navigation, electronic compass, and so on. But it will also wirelessly pair with the Communicator, allowing the user to type text messages and send them to friends and family back home via satellite. …
It’s designed so you can call for help from anywhere, should an emergency develop.
… it also lets the user to share tracking information and custom messages that can easily be interfaced with Twitter, Facebook, Geocaching.com, and SPOT’s own SPOTadventures.com. …
Pricing not available until the Earthmate PN-60w is made available later this Spring.
It might have been a mistake to tent at 4800m (15,750ft). I was 12hrs huddling, full clothed, in the sleeping bag with my electronics. (Freezing the batteries would kill them.)
Next morning neither of my lighters wanted to function. My boots and stove were frozen solid.
After much fussing, I finally managed to light the stove … to unthaw my boots enough to get my feet into them. Yeesh!
Fact is, I’m one of the only independent hikers carrying a tent. (People thought I was crazy to carry the weight when rooms cost less than $3 and restaurants are available every hour along the main trails.)
But I enjoy sleeping in a tent. You feel much more connected with the mountains.
Happily the morning dawned sunny, cold and clear.
Everyone had the same idea … RUSH to Everest to see the summit in good weather. The world’s highest mountain’s notoriously hostile microclimate oft has the peak in cloud. It had been shrouded for at least the past week.
But for me that would mean over 800m elevation gain in one day. Risky.
hmmm … I decided to go for it.
Gorak Shep 5164m (translation Dead Ravens) is the last village before Mt Everest.
I’d heard some bad things about these remote guest houses. But I loved the outpost. One of my favourite stops on the entire trek.
After lunch I psyched up for the 2hr climb up this deceptively easy looking “hill”, Kala Patthar. 5643m (18,513ft). It has a couple of false summits.
Kala Patthar as seen from Gorek Shep
The intimidating mountain in the background is Pumori 7161m (23,494 ft).
Most agree that the best viewpoint of Mt Everest from the south is from the brown top of that lump. That said, there truly are no great hiking trail vistas of Everest from the south. All it’s neighbours look higher and more impressive.
As usual, it was very windy at the top of Kala Patthar.
But I was thrilled to have made it here with such good visibility.
Rick and Mt. Everest
Everyone was thankful we had been so “lucky” with the weather.
At this point I felt my trek had already been a “success”. The rest would be bonus.
Many people I know don’t sleep well in tents. Hikers included.
Myself, I often sleep poorly the first night … and quite well subsequent nights.
Critical for me is the pillow.
Here’s my current system:
I wrap the pillow with a fleece top.
The waterproof orange bag is sold by MEC as a “Pack Liner”. It weighs only 86gms and fits up to a 40litre pack.
Most of the bag is filled with a folded, partly inflated 3/4in, 3/4 length therm-a-rest air mattress, no longer available. (I can use any air mattress.)
Some loose clothing, down jacket and stuff sacks are added to the bottom.
I use this therm-a-rest as the frame of my pack, as well.
This pillow is almost as good as the one I use at home.
The Bibbulmun Track is a long distance walk trail in Western Australia, … almost 1000 km long. The name comes from the Bibbulmun, or Noongar people, Indigenous Australians from the Perth area.
Dave Tomlinson gives some tips on best sections, water, fuel and tenting vs shelters:
Before I traveled in Europe, I vaguely thought of their gear as … nice. Way overpriced. Gaudy. And sometimes completely goofy. (Especially the tents.)
Then I toured the huge Sportler store in Bolzano, Italy.
Later I was overwhelmed with the even bigger Schuster store in Munich.
Brands like Salewa, Kaikkaalla, Meru, La Sportiva, Mammut, Vaude, Deuter, Hilleberg, Vango, And more appealed. Quality is generally very high.
Also more familiar brands: The North Face, Salomon, Mountain Hardware, MSR, Primus, Therm-a-rest, Marmot, Arc’teryx.
Arc’teryx? How has that Canadian company become so HUGE worldwide? What a success story. They fit right in with the expensive European brands.
Actually, Arc’teryx was bought by Adidas in 2001. Then sold to Amer Sports of Finland in 2005. It’s a multi-national now.
My advice to every European hiker coming to North America: Buy your gear in Canada from Mountain Equipment Co-op. Or check prices on Amazon.com and comparison shop in the USA.
Europeans will get sometimes twices the value for their Euro currency in North America as compared with European prices. Especially on American brands.
My CAD Mountain Hardware Scrambler daypack is always CAD$50 back home. In Europe it’s normally €55. That’s CAD$86.40.
An MSR Hubba tent on Amazon.com is US$250 . At Schuster in Munich it’s €329.95 (US$468.14)
Yet there’s some gear available in Europe that I can’t get at home.
Want to take a Cheeseburger in a can hiking? They are available widely in Germany.
besthike.com 