Trekking technology
Many caravanners love taking to the hills on foot – but what if you get lost? We dropped hiking newbie Michelle Mclaren in remote countryside to test some outdoor gadgets
Can gadgets help in the great outdoors?
IT’S EARLY ON a Friday morning and I’ve left the comfort of my caravan to be bundled gently into a car, handed a blindfold and driven – somewhere. After hours on the road, during which time nobody gave away any useful information, we arrive – somewhere. The sun is coming up and the first details of my challenge are revealed: can I survive and navigate alone in the wilderness, and return to my starting point safely, with only technology to help me? Well, I won’t actually be alone. I’ve got a friend photographing this expedition, documenting everything using the new Fujifilm X-E3, at whom I can yell for help if I end up in a 127 Hours-type situation. But he’s been strictly instructed not to help me with this task. The team hands me a pair of Salomon X Ultra Trek GTX hiking boots (in my size!), an Arc’teryx Beta AR Jacket and an Icebreaker Cool-lite Mira Pullover Hoody. I assume I’m at risk of getting wet, because they also give me a Patagonia Stormfront backpack. And there’s more tech goodies inside the bag. I’m starting to feel apprehensive, so the team tell me the final part of the challenge: I need to find my way to the top of the huge mountain in front of me, and back again, on a different route.
Rabbit out of a hat
Going through my backpack full of tech, I first pull out a Black Diamond Revolt headlamp. It’s now light outside, but only just, so I pop it on. The Revolt has multiple LEDS for different levels of illumination. I don’t need the ones designed for better navigation at night (I hope that I’ll be back down the mountain by then!) but it’s helping to make things clearer now. Next out of the bag is a Handpresso Auto Capsule portable coffeemaker. Whether you consider this to be true survival gear probably depends on your daily need for coffee. Personally, I’m pleased to see it, and could do with a coffee right now. The Handpresso Auto Capsule is very easy to use – you just plug it into a 12V socket, add water and a capsule, then watch it brew a tasty espresso. Like some kind of tech magician, next, I pull a DJI Mavic Air out of the backpack. A drone? Really? When I ask how a selfie drone is supposed to help me climb a mountain, the team explains that it has some features that might be useful to me.
Climb every mountain
At this point in proceedings, I still have no real idea of where I am, but next out of the bag comes a big, heavy-duty phone. Now we’re cooking! It turns out that this phone is actually the Land Rover Explore Outdoor, purposebuilt for adventuring and exploration. I turn on the phone (mercifully, the team has charged it fully) and the GPS tells me
I’m in Snowdonia. So all I need to do is find a route that will take me up Snowdon and another to come down again. Simple. Surely the easiest way for me to do this is by following some other people up – but the team says that’s against the rules. Anyway, nobody else is foolish enough to be around at such an ungodly hour, so it’s really pretty quiet here at the moment. This is okay, though, because the phone comes loaded with Viewranger, which gives me access to some premium Ordnance Survey mapping. I search for Snowdonia on the phone and, quick enough, a range of routes appears on screen. I decide on the PGY track going up, and guess I’ll figure out which track I’ll use to come back down once I get to that point. I’ve also been given some Binatone walkie-talkies, but these are more of a safety gadget for staying in touch with the team in case anything goes wrong during the challenge.
Drone scout
After a quick look at a few tutorials about how to get the DJI Mavic Air up and running, its usefulness dawns on me. I’m some way off from the trail I want to join, and can’t see how I’m going to get over to it, so I send the Mavic up for a reccy. Being able to see (via the drone’s 4K UHD camera) that the path over one rise is too rocky saves me some time. And, using the Mavic again, I’m able to scout out a gentler path further along. With the drone’s job done for now, I fold down its propellers and stuff it into the Patagonia backpack. The sun is trying to come out and it’s warmer, so off I go. I soon realise that I don’t have a full water bottle with me. Luckily, there’s one more gadget in my backpack of tricks: a Lifestraw Go water filter bottle. The Lifestraw Go uses a two-stage filtration system to remove bacteria and protozoa, so I can fill it up from natural water sources (rivers, lakes and such) and
‘The easiest way for me to do this is by following other people up the mountain – but apparently that’s against the rules’
drink without worry. I top the bottle up from a nearby waterfall, down half of it, then refill it again to take me all the way through to the summit.
Rocky mountain way
A few hours in and I’m nearing the top, as evidenced by the increasing cold. The Welsh rain appears around this point, too, so I pull on the Arc’teryx jacket and all of my gadgets, apart from the waterproof phone, go into my pack to stay dry. Reaching the summit, I decide to check in with the team back at the start. The Binatone Terrain 850 has a range of 8km; which is just as well beause I’m currently around 7km away from the nearest team member. The weather is turning ever-colder and windy, so after taking a short rest break, I’m eager to get down again. Out comes the Land Rover phone to help me work out which will be the fastest trail for my return journey. I find something promising, but have trouble working out where I should join it, so I wander around with the phone held out in front of me, like an orienteerer with a compass. I’m soon on the trail. Halfway down, I also have the chance to refill my Lifestraw Go bottle from a stream. I radio in again to tell the team which trail I’m on, so they can see me coming (and give me a guard of honour!). The terrain becomes really rocky and slippery around here, so I’m glad to be wearing Salomon’s firm-grip boots. The Arc’teryx jacket is also holding up well, and the Patagonia backpack is keeping all of my gadgets dry and protected. So this isn’t hardcore survivalism, but I’m no outdoors expert and without the tech, I’d have struggled to find the fastest, safest routes up and down. Later, as I sit relaxing in the car, before returning to the warmth of our van, I remember the Handpresso Auto Capsule. Now I really deserve one more cup of coffee for the road.