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winter safety

Gaia GPSHow-To

How to Keep Your Phone Alive in Cold Weather

by Abby Levene
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.

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Two members of search and rescue wait on a mountain summit. A helicopter is flying behind them.
Backcountry SkiingEmergency ResponseGaia GPSOut and Back Podcast

The Best Winter Backcountry Tips from Search and Rescue

by Mary Cochenour
written by Mary Cochenour

How to listen: iTunes | Google Play | Spotify | Stitcher | Pocket Casts | RadioPublic | Breaker | Castbox

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Winter looms with promises of bluebird skies, powder stashes, and possibly record crowds in the backcountry this season. We’re excited to kick off the first episode of our winter backcountry series on the Out and Back podcast with Colorado’s Summit County Rescue Group Mission Coordinator Charles Pitman. In this episode, Pitman runs through some of his best winter safety tips. He also gives us the temperature of what the upcoming backcountry ski season looks like from a search-and-rescue perspective. Pitman says it might not be pretty.

“The backcountry retailers are selling out of gear already. There are some who said they have sold out for the year, both retailers and manufacturers. So that tells me this could be a rather interesting year for people going into the backcountry who really are probably not too prepared to do it.” Pitman says. “We want to try to get the message out on what they need to consider.”

Two rescue crew members rappel down a steep snow filled couloir in Colorado.

Pitman recaps the strain his organization felt when the ski areas shut down last spring due to the pandemic. He recalls jammed trailheads and skiers and snowboarders leaving the parking lots without crucial avalanche safety equipment. The backcountry continued to draw massive crowds through the summer and into fall, bringing with it an unprecedented number of rescues this year.

During one week in October alone, the Summit County Rescue Group assisted a lost mountain biker, an injured hiker, and a technical body recovery mission from one of the area’s 14,000-foot peaks. Pitman says the number of rescues are at an all-time high and far surpassing the 150 calls for service the team received last year.

“Certainly my antennas are going up about how we need to prepare. We’re starting to do our preparations as a team earlier. Of course, that’s more difficult now. We don’t have the same types of meetings we had before because we have to cope with the Covid restrictions and considerations that we take very, very seriously here,” Pitman says. “I’m a bit concerned about what’s going to happen this winter.”

Tune in to Learn Winter Safety Tips

Pitman enlightens us on what backcountry enthusiasts can do to stay safer this winter. He delivers practical advice, including how to recognize and avoid avalanche danger in backcountry travel, what to do if you need help, and what you should put in your backpack to be prepared in case something goes wrong. Backcountry skiers, winter hikers, climbers, and snowmobilers will not want to miss this behind-the-scenes look at the upcoming snow season and what rescue professionals are doing to prepare for the busy season ahead. Plus, hear a few of Pitman’s most harrowing rescue stories.

Make sure you are prepared this winter season. Learn more about avalanche safety at avalanche.org. Find and sign up for an avalanche education class with the American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education. Learn more about Summit Country Rescue Group and donate to your local search and rescue organization.

A helicopter hovers over a high mountain peak in Colorado and a search and rescue crew member waits on the mountain for pick up.
Summit County Search and Rescue crews carry out a mission earlier this year on one of Colorado’s high-altitude peaks.

Episode Highlights:

4:30: The pandemic made the backcountry around Denver busy this year and many skiers, snowboarders, and snowmobilers were ill-equipped for safety.
8:15: This year has been a record-setting rescue season in Summit County, Colorado.
12:00: Search and Rescue is preparing for a busy winter season.
13:15: Here’s how COVID 19 has changed search and rescue missions in Summit County.
17:00: Practice your avalanche transceiver skills at a beacon park.
18:15: More people are taking avalanche classes, but these classes are limited and filling up quickly this year.
19:00: Get search and rescue’s tips to avoid avalanches: get the avalanche forecast, check the weather, and stick to low-angle slopes if you aren’t sure about the danger.
25:25: Avalanche forecasting is not an exact science and sometimes you can do all the right things and still get into trouble.
26:15: A case study about five people who died in an avalanche: what went wrong?
27:00: Is technology giving people a false sense of security and too much confidence?
32:00: Colorado typically has a weaker snowpack and experiences more avalanches than other areas of the country.
36:00: A GPS mapping app on your phone, like Gaia GPS, would reduce the number of rescue calls because people could see exactly where they are on the map and easily find the trail if they get lost.
39:00: Two-way satellite communication devices help search and rescue crews to understand the help you need, plus Pitman tells us what happens when you press the SOS button.
42:00: Pitman says call for help sooner rather than later, it could save a life.
48:40: Make a plan for your backcountry adventure but don’t succumb to summit fever, be flexible and willing to adjust plans when you get out on the mountain because conditions may change rapidly.
53:00: Most search and rescue crews are volunteers and they do it for the heartwarming stories with uplifting endings.

Next Episode: Snow Safety Tips with Avalanche Expert and Author Bruce Tremper

Avalanche expert Bruce Tremper is standing in a snow pit and writing down his observation in a booklet. He is wearing a yellow jacket and snow hat.

If the solitude of the backcountry beckons to you this winter, you won’t want to miss the next episode of the Out and Back podcast with avalanche expert and author Bruce Tremper. Winter hikers, skiers, splitboarders, and snowmobilers will appreciate how Tremper breaks down his “low-risk travel ritual” to minimize avalanche exposure in the backcountry. Learn how to use his tips on your own trips to stay safer in the backcountry this winter season.

Tremper begins this conversation with a story from 1978 — a time when he wasn’t an expert at all. Tremper was working for Bridger Bowl Ski Area in Montana, installing the resort’s Pierre’s Knob lift. He ignored his supervisor’s warning to avoid crossing a slide path under the lift line. But Tremper thought hiking around the slide path was too much work. He skied across the steep starting zone, triggered an avalanche, and was swept away in a pre-season slide. This scene is the opener to Tremper’s critically acclaimed book on snow safety: Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain. In this interview, Tremper reflects on how surviving that avalanche sent him on a life-long trajectory to study snow science.

The cover of Tremper's snow safety book Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain. The cover shows a skier catching air off a cliff in steep terrain.

“That was a huge wake-up call for me … I should have died in that thing,“ Tremper said. “It changed my life and I went ‘whoa, I want to learn as much as I can about avalanches.’”

After the Bridger Bowl incident, Tremper earned a Master’s degree in geology and meteorology from the University of Montana, Bozeman. He studied under famed avalanche experts of the time, eventually becoming one himself. Tremper worked on snow safety teams for two Montana resorts before landing his “dream job” as an avalanche forecaster for the Alaska Avalanche Center. When the funding dried up in Alaska, Tremper took on the director role at Utah’s Avalanche Center. Then he literally wrote the book — actually three books — about avalanche safety.

Now enjoying the first years of retirement, Tremper gives us his insights into all he’s learned in his 40-year career in snow safety. Tune in to learn about Tremper’s personal routine for avalanche safety. Tremper emphasizes that his safety plan begins at home with gathering the right gear, checking the local avalanche forecast, and plotting out a safe route on the maps. He talks about the importance of picking the right partner for winter backcountry travel, watching for clues and observations on the way to the mountain, and guarding against the human factors that lead people to make mistakes in the backcountry.

To reap more of Tremper’s wisdom, check out his books Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain, Avalanche Essentials, and Avalanche Pocket Guide (Mountaineers Books). And listen to the podcast to hear Tremper explain how to use each book in your progression about avalanche safety and snow science.

Last Episode: Endurance Superstar Courtney Dauwalter

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Check back on our last episode to find out what drives the queen of ultra running Courtney Dauwalter to set seemingly impossible goals and what fuels her to succeed. Dauwalter is renowned in the ultra running community and beyond for her definitive wins at everything from the Moab 240-mile trail race, to the Western States 100 Endurance Run, to the 100-mile Ultra Trail de Mont Blanc.

In this episode, Shanty and Gaia GPS writer and professional ultra runner Abby Levene catch up with Dauwalter fresh off her win at Big’s Back Yard Ultra, perhaps the strangest running event of all. The ultimate test of the mind, athletes run 4.16-mile loops on the hour every hour until only one person remains. This year, that person was Dauwalter — 68 hours and 283 miles later.

A self-proclaimed lover of long-inseams (she exclusively runs in baggy, basketball-style shorts), candy, nachos, and beer, Dauwalter does not fit the mold of your typical spreadsheet-obsessed ultra runner. She shares how her unbridled passion for running outside for as long as possible allowed her to quit her day job as a high school science teacher and enter the world of professional endurance running. She also dives into the role her analytical-minded husband Kevin plays in her success, and how the duo’s strengths complement each other to form a fun, focused, and formidable team. Also, hear about how Dauwalter’s Colorado Trail FKT attempt this summer ended in the hospital.

Runners and non-runners alike won’t want to miss this episode to catch Dauwalter’s infectious optimism, learn what drives her to push barriers, and to pick up some tips on training your brain to endure when your body tells you to stop. Follow Dauwalter on Instagram and Facebook to keep up with her physical, phycological, and gustatory adventures.

Meet the Hosts

Andrew “Shanty” Baldwin

In 2019, host Andrew Baldwin completed a southbound thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail. After five months on the trail, Baldwin returned home to pursue a career in voice acting. A friend of the Gaia GPS company, Baldwin was a natural choice for hosting the Out and Back podcast.

In each Out and Back episode, Shanty strives to bring you conversations with people who spend an extraordinary amount of time outdoors. Listen in as Shanty taps into each backcountry expert’s superpower so that you can take their knowledge and experience with you on your next adventure.

Mary smiles while lying down and resting her head on a rock. She's wearing a purple jacket, gloves, and a black buff around her ears.

Mary “Hiker Midnight” Cochenour

Mary is the Out and Back podcast producer and a writer and editor at Gaia GPS. Before joining Gaia GPS, Mary worked as a lawyer, newspaper journalist, ski patroller, Grand Canyon river guide, and USFS wilderness ranger.

When she is not in the office, Mary works as a guide for Andrew Skurka Adventures in wild places around the west, like Rocky Mountain National Park, Yosemite, and the Brooks Range in Alaska. Follow Mary’s adventures on Instagram. Also, read her tips on how to plan your first solo backpacking trip and how to read a topo map.

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