Use “Airplane mode” for backcountry cell phones

Many backcountry users will carry a cell phone for emergency use, as an alarm clock, or for playing Tetris during a stormy night in camp.  However, as noted on a previous tip of the week, leaving your phone powered on while you are outside of a cell phone service area usually causes your battery to be rapidly depleted, perhaps leaving you with a dead phone just when you need it the most.

A possible solution is to put your phone into airplane mode. Also called flight mode or off-line mode, flight mode is a setting available on many cell phones that suspends the phones transmitting and receiving functions while still permitting use of the other functions that do not require signal transmission, such as games, camera, and alarm clock.

Having your phone in airplane mode while you are in an area with no cell coverage will hopefully give you the best of both worlds: complete use of the non-transmitting features of your phone, and battery conservation because your phone is not constantly trying to find a nonexistent cell phone tower.

Suggestion: test this out while you are on a fairly easy hike or drive in remote areas, as opposed to a climb. 

And, as a backup, carrying a spare fully charged cell phone battery can be an excellent idea. Spare cell phone batteries are available at stores such as Batteries Plus.