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cell phone

Find Phone Signal With Cell Phone Coverage Maps

by Julien Friedland May 2, 2022

written by Julien Friedland

Track where you can find cell service anywhere in the United States including Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico with the Cell Phone Coverage maps. Now you no longer need to worry about unexpectedly losing signal. These seven new overlays define where major cell phone carriers reach across the country.

Whether you’re headed to the national parks, planning a thru-hike, or going into the backcountry for a few nights, use these maps to find out if you’ll be able to send texts, make calls, or access the internet anywhere you plan to go in the US.

Two iPhones displaying Gaia Topo with cell phone coverage layers for two different routes.

Overlay the Cell Phone Coverage maps on your routes to find out where you will have cell phone service during your trip. AT&T displays in blue (left) and Verizon displays in red (right).

The new Cell Phone Coverage maps include unique maps for AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular, Southern Linc, and all carriers combined in the Continental US, Hawaii, Alaska, and Puerto Rico. Each map delineates voice and broadband coverage for 3G, 4G, and LTE as indicated by the color opacity. The lightest colors represent 3G and the darkest representing LTE.

To view coverage for Alaska carriers including ASTAC, Bristol Bay Telephone Coop Inc., Copper Valley Telecom, Cordova, Telecom Coop, GCI, OTZ Telecom, TelAlaska, and Windy City Cellular, view the “All Carriers” map.

Take Cell Phone Coverage maps with you by downloading them before you go with a Premium subscription. To view the maps, select the layers icon on the Gaia GPS iOS and Android apps or on gaiagps.com, then select “add map layers.” Next, visit “Feature/Weather Overlays” and look for “Cell coverage” and then select from AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular, Southern Linc, or Cell Coverage – All Carriers maps.

May 2, 2022

Gaia GPS How-To

How to Keep Your Phone Alive in Cold Weather

by Abby Levene January 25, 2022

written by Abby Levene

From following snow-swept trails to keeping an eye on ever-changing avalanche conditions, navigating with Gaia GPS proves even more useful during winter. But there’s a catch: keeping your phone alive in frigid air can be tricky. If you’ve ever pulled out your phone in freezing temperatures only to discover that the phone’s battery has suddenly and unexpectedly died, you know how frustrating and even dangerous this predicament can be.

Phones and cold weather generally don’t get along too well. Low temperatures can rapidly drain your phone’s battery life, and — as you’ve probably experienced — cause your phone to shut down altogether. Thankfully, you can take tried and true measures to prevent this from happening. Here’s what you need to know to keep your phone alive when the temperature drops.

Why Cold Weather Zaps Phone Battery

Three backcountry skiers skin up a track on a cloudy winter day. A snowy peak looms in the distance.

As irritating as cold weather battery drain may be, it can easily be explained by science. Most smartphones use lithium-ion batteries. A chemical reaction within the battery sends charged particles through the phone’s circuitry, and this charge powers the phone. Cold temperatures slow this reaction down; charged particles encounter more resistance as they move throughout the battery to charge the phone. As these charged particles get stuck, the battery life plummets.

Unfortunately, scientists don’t entirely understand the delicate balance of chemicals required to keep your phone alive. This is why sometimes it may seem like your phone’s battery indicator lies to you. If exposed to the frosty air, your phone may say it has 50% battery one minute and it’s completely dead the next.

Cold weather affects other parts of your phone, too. LCD screens can grow glitchy and blurry. Onboard sensors can lose accuracy because they’re calibrated to work within a specific temperature range.

How to Prevent Battery Drain

Person holds a phone with Cold Case Gear case attached to pack.

In the backcountry, your phone can serve as an invaluable tool for everything from checking the slope angle to staying on course. Plus, those snowy sunrise photos are not going to take themselves. Keeping your phone alive in cold weather boils down to two tasks, minimize battery use and keeping your phone toasty warm. Here’s how to do both:

Know Before You Go

Look up your device’s operating temperature range. Most smartphones are designed to operate between 32 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit. This temperature range also applies to the Apple Watch. Many GPS watches can withstand temperates far lower — generally to -4 degrees Fahrenheit. If ambient temperatures or wild chill temperatures drop below your device’s operating range, take steps to insulate it from the cold.

Charge Your Phone Beforehand

Sounds obvious, but don’t forget to charge your phone before you head out the door. That extra cushion will help prevent the battery from draining immediately.

Change Your Phone Settings to Save Battery

Now that your phone is fully charged, you want to use up as little charge as possible while out in the backcountry. A few simple tricks can help preserve battery life:

Turn off location services in apps other than your navigation tool, such as Gaia GPS.
Make sure you have closed as many apps as possible.
Download maps ahead of time so your can operate your phone in airplane mode.
Keep your phone in low power mode.

You may want to consider not recording a track on these cold outings, since doing so uses battery life as well. Check out even more tips and tricks to save phone battery life in the backcountry.

Turn Your Phone Off

If you’re worried about battery, turn your phone off and keep it in a warm place near your body so that it is ready to power on and use when you need it to.

Consider Investing in a Smart Watch

If you plan on regularly checking your place on the map or reading and sending texts, you can also consider investing in a smart watch. A smart watch lets you navigate and communicate from your wrist, and you will still have your phone as a backup if needed.

Keep Your Phone Close and Covered

The real key to keeping your phone alive in cold weather comes with keeping it warm. Carry your phone in an interior jacket pocket close to your body, and try covering your smartwatch with a glove or jacket sleeve. That way, your body heat will keep the device warm and the garment’s insulation will block out the cold.

Note that a phone can interfere with an avalanche beacon’s ability to find a buried partner, and you should follow these so these precautions to minimize this interference:

Keep your phone at least eight inches away from your beacon.
Keep your phone in airplane mode if possible.
While conducting a search, extend your arm to bring your beacon about one and a half feet away from your electronic devices.

This interference mostly happens when beacons are in search mode. If you are the person your partner is trying to find, you should be fine. But you can keep your phone at least eight inches away from your beacon just to be safe.

Use an Insulating Case

You can go a step further and purchase a thermal case for your phone. The West Slope Case from Cold Case Gear uses aerogel insulation, the same material used to insulate space suits and space shuttles, to provide thermal, physical, and weather protection. An airtight magnetic closure also helps keep the cold weather out and makes the case 100% waterproof down to six feet.

Don’t want to shell out the extra bucks for a new case? A beer coozy works as a do-it-yourself alternative. Some people have success with tucking a hand warmer inside the coozy along with their phone.

Use your Phone Wisely and Sparingly

No matter how many measures you take to keep your phone warm while it’s not in use, they won’t do you much good if your phone gets cold while you’re using it. If you need to use your phone, turn your back to the wind and keep your phone tucked close to your body when viewing it in cold weather. Stop moving, and take your phone out for as little time as possible. Looking at your phone while skiing downhill, for example, exposes your phone to wind chill and cools it off much faster than still air.

How to Warm Up Your Phone if it Dies

A backcountry skier smiles while looking at her phone. She stands in front of a row of snow-covered coniferous trees.

Once your phone shuts off due to the cold, it will take a little extra time to work again. But there’s no need to worry. Your phone shutting off is simply its defense mechanism against extreme temps. Let your device warm up slowly. A slow thaw will help prevent condensation from building up in the battery, which could cause water damage.

If you really need to use your phone, you can ever so slightly expedite the warming process by placing your phone near (not directly on) a warm surface, such as the dash of your car once you turn the heat on. Do not place your phone in the oven, microwave, or on a hot plate. If you need to send a text or check your location while still in the field, try placing your phone next to your body. Your body heat will help warm your up device.

Finally, do not charge your phone until it has returned to a normal temperature. Charging your phone while it’s ice cold could permanently damage the battery. Warmer temps will usually restore normal battery life anyway.

A good rule of thumb to follow this winter: treat your phone like a part of your body. Make sure it’s protected from snow and moisture, and make sure it stays warm. That way, it’ll be there when you need it.

Michael Charboneau contributed to reporting.

January 25, 2022

Gaia GPS How-To

Best Uses for Your Cell Phone in the Backcountry

by Joe Pasteris July 6, 2021

written by Joe Pasteris

These days, nearly everyone heading into the backcountry carries a smartphone in their pocket. These powerful gadgets can, of course, make calls, send texts, and check email when in range, but they also offer many useful features far away from cell towers.

In the backcountry, cell phones have become a go-to navigation tool, an alarm clock for an alpine start up the peak, and the place to conveniently store guide books and favorite maps. Check out these ways you can use your phone in the backcountry even when cell service is nonexistent.

Know Your Location with Gaia GPS Navigation

Paired with a navigation app like Gaia GPS, your smartphone transforms into a powerful, compact navigation tool for backcountry travel — even when you’re out of range for cell service. You don’t need cell connection to pinpoint your exact location on a map, record your track, or find important map features, like water sources and campsites, for the backcountry area you are visiting.

To access maps offline in Gaia GPS, simply download the map by following these steps:

Select the map source and any layer you want to download, Premium members can access and download multiple maps and layers at one time.
Navigate to the area that you would like to download.
Tap the (+) icon at the top of your screen.
Tap the “Download Maps” button from the menu.
Tap and drag the dots at the corners of the highlighted rectangle area, and adjust it to cover the area you want to download.
Tap “Save”

You’ll be able to access the downloaded maps from the Gaia GPS app even when your phone is completely offline and in airplane mode to save your phone’s battery. When you’re out in the field, you can use the app to pinpoint your location on the map, drop waypoints to mark important spots like campsites and trail junctions, record your track and follow it back to retrace your footprints back to the car.

Get Your Bearings with a Compass App

A compass is an essential navigation tool that you use to take a bearing or orient your map so you can identify prominent land features and find your way if you get turned around. iPhones come with a compass app loaded on them, and can be launched from your iPhone’s home screen. Not all Android phones come with a compass, but there are many popular compass apps available for free. You can also pull up the Gaia GPS app to display the bearing for the direction you’re traveling. That said, you should always carry a handheld compass, too, in case your phone battery dies.

Download Guidebooks and Data Sets

Many popular trails and routes have guidebooks or data sets that show mileage and map coordinates for points of interest along the trail. But books are heavy and take up room in your pack. Gone are the days of tearing out the pertinent pages of a guidebook and taking them with you on the trail. Many guidebooks are available electronically and can be downloaded to your phone. If your favorite guidebook isn’t available electronically, you could take photos of the pages that apply to your trip and pull them up on your phone when needed.

Use Your Phone as a Watch for Simple Navigation and Alpine Starts

Many people have ditched the wrist watch in favor of using the clock on their phone to tell time. Knowing the time is important in the backcountry, because it helps you make important decisions such as whether to push on or stop and make camp. Time is also one of the three components of dead reckoning navigation, one of the most basic and useful backcountry travel skills. Dead reckoning involves learning your general position in the filed by using the mathematical formula of distance equals rate of travel multiplied by time. Using your phone clock or a watch on your wrist, you can find out how far you traveled by multiplying the time you were walking by the speed you were walking.

The phone’s clock also has an alarm to wake you from your deep sleep in the woods. Now you might be thinking you won’t need an alarm on your vacation to the backcountry. But an alarm comes in handy for alpine starts, when you need to wake up before the sun rises so that you can get an early start on the trail to tackle big climbs and beat afternoon lightning storms on exposed peaks and alpine passes.

Measure Slope Angles with an Inclinometer App

Backcountry skiers and snowboarders use inclinometers to measure the angles of slopes when assessing avalanche risk. If you don’t already have a dedicated inclinometer, or you’d prefer to use your phone for that task, download an inclinometer app. The Avalanche Inclinometer app (iPhone and Android) is simple to use and features a large display, making it easy to read the slope angle in any weather. The app also displays your elevation and includes a compass.

In addition to inclinometers, Gaia GPS premium members can view the Slope Angle-Shading Overlay to see the subtle changes in slope angle on a topo map. This can be a helpful tool for planning your backcountry trips, but is not a substitute for carrying an inclinometer when backcountry skiing or snowboarding in avalanche terrain.

Use Your Phone as an Extra Flashlight

Almost all smartphones come with a flashlight app that’s handy for quick tasks, like looking for something inside your tent or getting out of your tent in the middle of the night to answer the call of nature. The light on your phone is probably not powerful enough to illuminate the trail while hiking, but they are helpful for use around camp and inside your tent at night. Look for third-party apps for fun in-camp features like strobes and different colors.

two hikers taking a picture of each other, one using a cell phone camera

Document Your Trip With Pictures and Video, Save Photos to your Track

With a smartphone in your pocket, you have access to a high-quality, lightweight camera that you can use to capture photographs and videos on all your backcountry trips. For many people, the default camera app that comes on a phone has everything they need: It should allow you to make exposure adjustments to get the lighting right, choose a focal point to ensure your subject is in focus, select high dynamic range (HDR) mode to capture a range of color and brightness, turn the flash on and off, and add gridlines to help you compose the perfect photo. If you want even greater control, look for a third-party camera app that lets you make shutter speed adjustments, change the ISO, and turn on image stabilization.

You can also use your trip to record points of interest in the Gaia GPS app. When tracking your route with the Gaia GPS app, snap a photo and save it to your saved route in exactly the place you took the photo. To do so, you simply tap the + icon in the top Gaia GPS menu in the iOS or Android app and select “Take Picture” when you want to attach an image. Learn more about how to take and add pictures in iOS and Android.

Create a Journal of your Trip

Many people enjoy bringing a small notebook and pencils into the wilderness to collect their thoughts in the quiet space of nature. But paper and pencils can get trashed when jammed into a pocket of your backpack. Try turning your phone into a travel diary with one of the many travel journal apps offered both free and for subscription. These apps bring a more in-depth solution to documenting your trip, including options to use text, photos, location tracking, and voice recordings to store all your memories and thoughts from a venture into the woods. When you come back to civilization, many travel journals sync your electronic journal to all your devices, so you can edit more freely on a bigger screen. Some journals even let you collaborate with other users to create a complete picture of your trip.

Stay Entertained with Games, Music, and Podcasts

For many people, the backcountry provides a space to “unplug” and get away from seemingly ever-present screens. But if you’re on a long journey and find yourself needing a distraction, try downloading crossword puzzles, games, audiobooks, inspiring outdoor podcasts like the Out and Back podcast by Gaia GPS, and playlists from your favorite music apps. Make sure you download files and/or apps to your phone before leaving home because there’s no guarantee you’ll have cell service out in the boonies. Also, nearby campers and resident wildlife would appreciate you bringing headphones to cut down on noise in the wilderness.

the Wind River Range in Wyoming, mountain in background and yellow flowers in foreground.

Identify Birds, Stars, and Plants

How many times have you looked at a pretty flower on the side of the trail or a bird chirping in a tree and wished you knew the name of it? Check out these apps, that will help you identify constellations, birds and plants.

To identify stars, try the free SkyView Lite app (iPhone or Android). It uses your phone’s camera to identify objects in the sky, including planets, constellations, distant galaxies, and satellites.

The Audubon Bird Guide app (iPhone or Android) helps you identify birds. Enter what you observe, such as color, size, and length of tail, and it will narrow down the choices for your location. The app offers data packets for offline use, which is essential when you don’t have cell service.

To identify plants and animals on your trek, try the free iNaturalist app (iPhone and Android). Using your phone’s camera, it can recognize many species of plants, animals, and insects. The PlantSnap Plant Identification app (iPhone and Android) is another popular option. Its free version helps you identify flowers, trees, mushrooms, cacti, and more.

Save Your Phone Battery

Relying on your phone for many tasks will wear down its battery. But there are many ways to conserve your phone’s battery while in the backcountry. Try running your phone in airplane mode, dimming the screen, and turning off location services for all the apps except maps and navigational aids, like Gaia GPS. Also, consider toting along a back-up battery or solar charger to juice up your phone on a long trip.

Mary Cochenour contributed to this story.

July 6, 2021

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