Every once in a while at a book signing or during an interview, someone asks me: What鈥檚 your favorite piece of outdoor gear? I try for a few seconds to stall and think of something original and interesting, and then I give up and say, You know what, I think the smartphone is probably one of the best pieces of adventure gear we have now. And I pretty much never go on a trip without it.
Before you write me off as some millennial who can鈥檛 live a day without staring at a glowing pocket computer, let me refute that right now and say: I am a Gen-Xer who can鈥檛 live a day without staring at a glowing pocket computer. I am too old to be a millennial by four years. Let鈥檚 just cut the shit and admit that we鈥檙e all using our phones to do everything nowadays. And 鈥渆verything鈥 probably includes our outdoor adventures.
When I say the phone is a great piece of adventure gear, I don鈥檛 mean that we can use it to communicate every moment of our day hike or MTB ride or use it to call for a rescue when we get in over our heads because of bad planning or incompetence. I mean that it makes a great off-the-grid tool when it鈥檚 offline, in Airplane Mode, not communicating with anyone. I am not an accomplished alpinist or a writer for National Geographic鈥擨鈥檓 speaking from the perspective of a weekend warrior, sometimes adventure writer and sometimes filmmaker. These are a few of the 聽ways I utilize my phone in the outdoors.
Navigation
I鈥檓 half crusty old guy who loves paper maps in my hands and/or spread out on my kitchen table, and half next-generation GPS embracer. I can鈥檛 operate a handheld GPS unit for shit, but every trip I go on where getting lost might be a possibility, I take two types of maps: a paper one (okay, plasticized paper) and a digital one downloaded and viewable offline in an app like or . I hate looking at two-inch by two-inch maps on a phone screen, but I love the ability of a GPS app to pinpoint my location on a . Oh, and of course the iPhone also has a compass and altimeter.
Notes
On longer trips, or when something strikes me, I rely heavily on the Notes app in my iPhone. I鈥檝e written parts of magazine stories and entire blogs on my phone while lying on my back in my sleeping bag, and typed countless half-hatched and fully-hatched ideas in the Notes app. I also keep a running note of sketch ideas for , often just a few words or a description of something I think might be funny (half of them never make it past the idea stage). The Notes sync automatically with the Notes on my laptop, so I don鈥檛 even have to email or text the note to myself once I get back to civilization鈥擨 just cut and paste the notes into a document and start editing. Also good for when you鈥檙e halfway through a trail run and remember you need to stop by the grocery store on your way home and buy eggs (or toilet paper).
Voice Memos
Same as the Notes app on the iPhone, but very useful when you have a great idea you don鈥檛 want to forget but you don鈥檛 want to type and walk or run. A couple taps of the screen and you鈥檙e recording a brain dump that may be something awesome, as well as some huffing and puffing.
Flashlight
I always take a headlamp (or two), but I鈥檝e definitely done my share of nighttime routefinding (and rifling through my car for a piece of gear before sunrise or after sunset) with my phone鈥檚 flashlight. The flashlight app sucks huge amounts of your battery, but in a pinch it can save your ass.
Kindle
I鈥檝e never been on one of those expeditions where the team brings a few paperbacks and rips them into lighter-weight sections to share throughout the trip, but I do love reading books in my tent. I use the for e-books, so I always have three or four books I can choose from for some nighttime reading in my sleeping bag (particularly handy during the long fall nights in the desert, when I鈥檓 in my sleeping bag before 8 p.m.).
Camera/Video Camera
国产吃瓜黑料 filmmaking isn鈥檛 always about $10,000 cameras and expensive lenses (although people other than myself have created amazing pieces with those things). Your phone, if it was made in the past two years, is probably a pretty rad video camera. I鈥檝e used an iPhone for film festival films and sponsored films, mounting it on a small or handheld gimbal stabilizer. It鈥檚 not going to get you the Best Cinematography Award at a festival, but you can take a phone camera to so many places you can鈥檛 take a RED Dragon, and capture those authentic moments that make a great adventure story. I鈥檓 sure I鈥檓 about the thousandth person to encourage aspiring filmmakers to not worry so much about not being able to afford fancy gear鈥攖he iPhone shoots 4K, and it鈥檚 in your pocket right now. It鈥檚 also not too shabby of a still camera. (Note: I only have experience with iPhones, and I know other smartphones have fantastic/better cameras)
Beta
I love guidebooks. Always have, always will. That said, it鈥檚 pretty rad to be going rock climbing for the day and have all the route beta you need downloaded on the . I鈥檝e used my phone to take photos of pages from my guidebooks at home, store photos other people have shared online of the routefinding cruxes of mountaineering and climbing routes, and notes on the location of water sources on desert bikepacking and backpacking routes.