Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Spot messenger...good idea?

I'm thinking of renting a Spot messenger for our 3 day trip on the mountain to let family know our progress. I figure that cell phones are of little use. Does anyone know if coverage is good or will I be wasting my money?

The SPOT should work fine. Be sure to read and understand the manual before you go. Give everyone the link to your shared page so they can actually follow you. Have an understanding when you will send which messages.

I have a SPOT 2, which works better than SPOT 1. My profile has a link to my shared page. Sometimes it has something interesting, and sometimes it doesn't. I send "custom" from summits, "OK" when I get to camp or a trailhead, and "track" when I'm moving. I turn it off when I'm driving or at a camp.

BTW, cell phones coverage is hit or miss on Whitney. It'll probably work from the summit, but won’t work reliably anywhere else.

The SPOT II should work with no problem as along as it is used properly. To be reliable, make sure that you have it facing up into the sky.

As far as cell phone coverage, I put this together for a friend a couple of weeks ago. This is all based on my personal experience. My carrier is Verizon, who seems to have the best coverage in the area.

Tom,
Awesome map. Was the yellow line representing the trail created using the "Track" feature on the spot or with a GPS? I just bought a SPOT II Friday and am excited to use it more. I only bought the $100 annual service and did not purchase the $50 annually tracking service. If you did create the yellow line with SPOT, do you have to have the tracking service to do it.? Thanks!

France

Hey AF,
Noooooooo, that wasn't generated by the spot track. It was more of a freehand using powerpoint.

This is my spot track from last year.

http://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=1eb14c7e72bbf06a4
Tom

Awesome map, thanks for the info.