Making calls, anywhere...

To get the jump on my trip in July, I activated a new satellite calling plan with Iridium. Iridium is the only truly global satellite network and is far and away the best choice for anyone heading way out there. North Pole? Sahara Desert? Atlantic Ocean? Yep, and more.

Talk time with the Iridium network is quite expensive at around a $1.39 per minute, but if you want the confidence of keeping in touch with the outside world it is worth it. You can also connect your laptop or PDA to the handset to make data calls and transmit, and receive, email. Keep in mind, it is extremely slow and, from personal experience, transmitting a small, very compressed photo can take several minutes.

The plans from Iridium vary and you choose based on the number of minutes you'll need and how long you'll be needing those minutes - I chose the 1 year plan with 500 minutes. For me, this made sense as I wanted to insure that none of my minutes expired while I am away and I have sufficient minutes to make voice and data calls throughout the trip. This set me back $600, but with no other real choices it was an investment I needed to make.

The phone I have is the Iridium 9505a. The 9505 series by Iridium has been a solid handset for years. Rugged, easy to read display, straightforward functionality and decent amount of talk time per charge.

Thanks to Tom over at ExplorersWeb / Human Edge Tech for their speedy processing of my order - from Colorado to Minnesota in a matter of hours. I've worked with Tom on other projects and they are the go-to-people for expedition tech.

Testing out the MSR XGK EX stove...

I replaced my always faithful MSR XGX II with an MSR XGK EX for the Baffin trip and spent a couple hours this evening testing fuel consumption and boil times. I'll be carrying all the fuel for the expedition and I do not want to carry a single ounce more than I need - or come up short with a pack full of dehydrated food.

For this test I used 16 oz of white gas, naphtha if you're north of the US/Canadian border, and did 4 tests using 1 liter of water per test. This equates to more or less a daily amount of water for hot meals and tea.

Boil times averaged around 4m30s which is longer than I'd hoped, but I may be able to improve that with some more tinkering with the settings and fuel pressure on this new stove.

Fuel consumption for 4 separate tests of 1 liter each, from room temperature water to boil, was approximately 4 oz total. If my math is right that equates to approximately 176 oz, or 8x22 oz fuel bottles, for the entire expedition - not far off from what I'd originally estimated.

I'll conduct this test several times more over the spring and summer to work out the kinks and get some hard numbers.

Fun stuff and invaluable information.    

Note: My decision to replace my older stove came out of the improvements made on this new model. A flexible fuel tube, better flame control and the very slick foot and pot rest were impossible to ignore. Really digg'n these changes.

Expedition Power...

In the quest for a power storage solution, I've looked at a multitude of options. Those looking to store power on extended trips have few really solid options that aren't either heavy or disposable - ie, use them up and dump them in the trash. In 2007 I setup the Will Steger Foundation expedition to Baffin Island with a solution that provided the power they needed using six, heavy (the kit was referred to as "El Diablo") solid lead acid batteries. On this expedition, weight was less of an issue and it proved itself a good solution after 3 months of dogsledding on Canada's Baffin Island. For trips where weight reduction is critical, this simply won't cut it.

In 2008, Will Steger returned to the Arctic and this time took along some relatively new, rechargeable batteries by Brunton that were much lighter in weight and included some interesting features such as a 5 volt output for devices like the iPods. The team could go straight from an array of portable solar panels to the batteries with relative ease. It was a good solution on the surface, but proved problematic on the long haul over the southern shores of Ellesmere Island and more than one call needed to be made to Brunton tech support to sort out power issues. I used the same batteries on a short car camping trip out west and had mechanical failure issues and overheating.

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