Once upon a time, planning for the worst in the wild meant packing a signal mirror and a bunch of flares. With the , you don't need any of those things.听

The Beartooth is essentially a cover that you place over your existing smartphone. Similar to the goTenna, it acts as an antenna to communicate with another Beartooth device. Basically, it听turns your phone into a specialized radio that's听self-sufficient from cell phone towers or Wi-Fi signals.* It also adds a whole new range of features, including voice, encrypted text, geolocation, and beaconing, along with SOS broadcast access for any device in range. The big battery pack doubles the current battery life of your phone.听

Satellite phones are still unparalleled in service, but they come with a hefty price tag. For the casual alpinist and seasonal festival-goer, Beartooth might be the better option. Bring it with you to Coachella where networks are slammed or for that weekend through-hike far from cell service.

$TBD,

*This sentence was modified to clarify how Beartooth Radio and goTenna work.

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Once upon a time we went into the backcountry to unplug. Constant connectivity, while obviously a boon to society in many ways, is exhausting. Your attention is pulled in a hundred directions and every few minutes you鈥檙e jostled out of your groove by another beep or buzz. And so we retreat back to nature to get away from all that and rediscover our humanity.

But here鈥檚 the thing: the Grid is expanding. Our hiding places are shrinking away, and before the decade is out, there may be no refuge left. Yes, really.

Consider: This week, a team from MIT collaborated with NASA and demonstrated technology that can . Yeah, the freakin鈥� Moon. The one orbiting Earth 238,000 miles away. If science can do that, you can bet that streaming Game of Thrones in the middle of Yellowstone is child鈥檚 play. And companies are already hard at work to provide such a service.

For the last year, Google has been testing an idea known as . The concept is to essentially blanket the entire planet in Wi-Fi by putting a network of solar-powered, antennae-toting weather balloons into the stratosphere. Each balloon would float for roughly 100 days, and would be steered so that the grid of connectivity is essentially gapless around the world.听

On the one hand, it鈥檚 an extremely laudable goal, making the Internet (theoretically) accessible to everyone on the planet. The aid it would provide to previously unconnected locations in the arenas of education, medicine, and commerce is massive. On the other hand, what happens to our most sacred places once the web creeps into them? Yes, you鈥檙e enjoying the majesty of nature, but part of you feels like you should check your work email, just to make sure nothing is on fire. And since you have the ability to do that, isn鈥檛 it the responsible thing to do to just take a quick look?

Even if Google鈥檚 balloon project doesn鈥檛 float (sorry), this is the direction we鈥檙e headed. Earlier this year, when Ben Saunders and Tarka L鈥橦erpiniere completed Robert Scott鈥檚 ill-fated 1,800-mile , they were dragging computers, satellite antennae, and solar panels so they could blog and upload photos and video from their tent each of the 100-plus nights they spent out there. I guess you鈥檝e got to keep the sponsors (Intel and Land Rover) happy somehow. As satellite data speeds increase, though, you鈥檝e got to wonder how far we are from someone live-streaming HD video while summiting Everest or K2.听

Even us unsponsored Joe and Jane Schmoes out for a few days in the backcountry already have options. Last year Thuraya introduced the , which is basically a case for your iPhone that pops it onto a global satellite network with the press of a button.听

And earlier this year we met the , a portable Wi-Fi network that fits in the palm of your hand and allows you to connect a whole array of devices to satellite Internet. Now, both of these services are limited in the apps you can use with them, they鈥檙e prohibitively expensive for many, and they positively crawl at early 1990’s dial-up data speeds. But the point is they鈥檙e here already, they work, and they鈥檙e only going to get better.

Obviously, there鈥檚 some good that comes with all of this. Lost in the wild? Download a map. Not sure how to treat an injury? Get medical advice. Running a couple days late because of bad weather but otherwise fine? Let your family know so they don鈥檛 freak out. Someone needs to be medevac鈥檇? Press of a button. These are good and potentially life-saving features. 听

There鈥檚 a dark side, though. One of the best things about going way off the grid currently is that you just have to make that decision once, and then once you鈥檙e out there, you鈥檙e committed to it. You aren鈥檛 constantly wondering whether or not you should be checking your phone because, simply, you can鈥檛. It鈥檚 not an option, and so you let go of those nagging voices, and you鈥檙e able to fully relax and recharge.听

If, however, we lived in a world where even the most remote nooks and crannies were Internet-ready, then, 鈥淚 want to check my phone. Should I check my phone?鈥� is a decision you will have to make over and over again, even while you鈥檙e out camping in the middle of nowhere. The current lack of technology makes it easy for us to just be in the woods when we鈥檙e there, but once the capability is an option, not-checking becomes a matter of will power. And you鈥檒l be subject not just to your own habits, but to the expectations of others. There will be no more, 鈥淪orry boss, I鈥檒l be off the grid next week,鈥� because the entire planet is on the grid.

Last month I did a through-hike across Zion National Park with some friends. One guy used his iPhone as his only camera, which meant it was always on him and always within reach. Sure enough, almost every time we got to a ridge he would check to see if he had bars on this phone. Occasionally he did. So while most of us stood there, jaws agape, staring at the incredible red rock canyons, he would take the opportunity to fire off a quick work email or say hi to his girlfriend. Now, his work and his girlfriend both knew he was going to be off the grid for a week and had no expectation of him checking in, but he did it anyway. Why? Because he was tempted and because he could. And every time it happened we felt him disconnect from the group, from the nature around us, and from the present moment.

Now, that is what happens today when, at best, you鈥檙e grasping for a bar or two here and there. What happens when you have consistent, quality Internet in the wild? Could you resist uploading a photo until you get back? Could you resist the siren song of your email and social networks? Well, how strong is your will?

Just because we at 国产吃瓜黑料 prioritize getting out and away doesn鈥檛 make us luddites. We recognize the advantages that technology brings, and how beneficial it can be in an emergency. But our stance is that emergencies are what this should be reserved for. Bring your phone, but keep it in your pack, with the power off. Think of it as a lifeline that鈥檚 there if you need it. You will be tempted. We鈥檒l all be tempted. But remember why you鈥檙e out there in the first place.

In the near future, the only way to get off the grid will be to willfully pull the plug yourself. We hope you鈥檒l pull it. Deep breath. It鈥檒l all still be there when you get back.听

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A sad truth: most fatal avalanches are caused by humans. An even sadder truth: many are preventable. That’s part of the thinking behind BCA’s BC Link, a two-way winterized UHF radio with a clip-on smart mic due on shelves September 1, 2013. Because it’s so easy to use (as in, you don’t have dig around in your pack to find it) you and your buddies can discuss avalanche conditions as you leap-frog down a slope, or find each other after ping-ponging through the trees.

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Motorola MT352R

Two-way radios might seem absurdly retro, but having an open channel of communication can be priceless on a multipitch climb or when trekking through rainforest in Costa Rica. The latest of the breed, the , has serious range (up to 35 miles) and is good for 15 hours of nonstop chatter. The handsets charge via USB, include mini-flashlights, and pick up NOAA weather radio. QUIRKS+CONCERNS: They鈥檙e fat, which can crowd a climbing harness or bulk up the chest pocket of a parka. They also expose you to a scathing barrage of mall-cop jokes.

HTC Titan II

The smartphone is like that annoying friend who鈥檚 good at everything. The 4.7-inch touchscreen appears bigger and brighter than the 鈥檚, and the Windows Phone 7.5 operating system is as intuitive as Apple鈥檚鈥攁nd better than . Bonus: the Titan II鈥檚 16-megapixel camera has twice the resolution of the next closest smartphone cam. It also packs a wider lens and shoots clearly in low light. Plus, 鈥檚 4G network is screamingly fast, so video streams without interruption. QUIRKS+CONCERNS: Microsoft has one-tenth the apps Apple does. Big is also bulky鈥攏ot quite Gordon Gekko bulky, but close.

Samsung W300

Set the amphibious camcorder to Aqua mode and it auto-adjusts its 1080p video and 5-mp stills for underwater clarity. It鈥檚 also light, palm-size, and bomber enough to handle repeated ten-foot drops from a bouldering crag鈥攁nd comes with a lanyard to prevent such mishaps. The tripod threading is compatible with most helmet-cam mounts, but unlike a POV camera, this one works great as a handheld. QUIRKS+CONCERNS: Gloved hands are apt to tap the wrong button on the rear panel; lacks a raw mode for stills.

Joos Orange

The bests those flimsy foldable ones by combining a photon collector with a lithium-ion-polymer battery, so you can power your phone or GPS when you want to鈥攕ay, overnight in the tent鈥攁nd not just when the sun鈥檚 shining. It鈥檚 also waterproof, shockproof, and functions in Denali cold (minus 4) and Death Valley heat (134). After just a few hours of low-angle winter sun, it topped off both a Garmin Edge 800 and a couple of cell phones via USB and cell-phone-specific tips (included). Bonus: a giant hole in the device lets you leave it cable-locked to a tree while you bag a peak. QUIRKS+CONCERNS: It鈥檚 1.5 pounds and about the size of an iPad.

Canon PowerShot S100

Don鈥檛 lump the C in with other pocket cameras. While the 12-mp CMOS sensor and range of shutter speeds (from 15 seconds to 1/2,000 second) are hype worthy, it鈥檚 the SLR-like control ring around the lens鈥攆or ISO, aperture, and shutter speed鈥攖hat elevates it. Use the ring in combination with the thumb-wheel on the back and you鈥檙e adjusting shots with the ease and accuracy of a video-game controller. QUIRKS+CONCERNS: It鈥檚 spendy for a point-and-shoot, putting it in competition with nicer models from and .

Magellan eXplorist 110

The color screen of the GPS is a breakthrough for the dough, but if you鈥檙e a frequent traveler it鈥檚 at least as important that the device comes preloaded with maps of almost 200 countries. U.S. coverage includes nearly every road in existence. Also sweet: it鈥檒l run 18 hours straight on a pair of AA batteries. QUIRKS+CONCERNS: At 5.3 ounces it鈥檚 a little portly. And while the world map is cool, there鈥檚 no topo function, so for off-grid navigation you鈥檒l be bread-crumbing it.

Beats by Dr. Dre Studio

Bumping Raphael Saadiq鈥檚 鈥淕ood Man鈥� through a set of , it sounds like the man鈥擲aadiq, not Dre鈥攊s there in the room. It gets that personal, at least when you鈥檙e listening to bass-intense rock, blues, or hip-hop. These cans also feature active noise canceling, powered by a pair of AAA batteries, that can mute the din of a 767 engine. A microphone on the cable allows them to double as a cell-phone headset, too. QUIRKS+CONCERNS: All that bass means higher pitches fall flat.

Sony Bloggie Live

Touchscreen functionality makes toggling through menus on Sony鈥檚 new 1080p hi-def a snap. The unit lets you serve up as-it-happens feeds via your cell phone鈥檚 3G antenna or the camera鈥檚 internal Wi-Fi. Use and you can post directly to and , and the cam stores the footage for tighter edits once the action cools off. More goodies include superb close focus and auto rotation (the camera knows which way is up). QUIRKS+CONCERNS: Logging on to social networks is slow, due to the dinky onscreen keypad, and a little buggy; the side-mounted button for shooting stills while filming video is easy to tap by accident.

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Contour+ POV Camera

Last year, Contour beefed up its HD model by adding GPS. This year (with a $200 price hike) it’s added HDMI live streaming: your friends and family can watch as you bomb down a hill or (with an optional waterproof case, $50) go 200 feet below the sea. Meanwhile, Contour continues to deliver video and audio as sharp as any POV camera’s, with less fish-eye distortion.

TAGS: LIVE STREAMING, HI-DEF

Motorola Titanium Smartphone

Sure, there are fancier smartphones, but the Titanium is one of the handful built with military-spec ratings for dust, shock, and temperature鈥攊.e., it can tumble out of a bike jersey and keep on texting. Bonus: it’s one of the few Android phones with Nextel Direct Connect, so it can pair with another device on that network as a two-way radio, making it an ideal first-responder phone.

TAGS: MILITARY-GRADE, ANDROID

Westone Elite Series ES5 Earphones

We’ve long been curious: do custom earphones really sound that much better than off-the-rack jobbies? Yes, they do. The crisp, noise-isolating ES5’s make it sound as though you’re right there in the concert pit. Of course, having ear molds made adds to the cost ($50 and up from an audiologist), but Westone’s entry-level modules start at $300. Greater comfort, additional drivers, and our custom logo upped the final price here.

TAGS: CUSTOM FIT, AUDIOPHILE SOUND

Jawbone Jambox

Considering how small (about the size of a can of soda) and tough the Jambox is, the sound is downright booming. Charge the rubberized rectangle up, connect it via Bluetooth, and go completely wireless, whether you’re using it as a speakerphone or (like us) as the sound system for your iPad.

TAGS: TRAVEL SPEAKER, IMPRESSIVE SOUND

Olympus TG-810 Digital Camera

Waterproof to 33 feet, shockproof to 6.6 feet, freezeproof to 14 degrees Fahrenheit, and crushproof to 200 pounds of pressure, the TG-810 may be the ultimate travel cam. But the truly amazing thing is the near-DSLR quality of the shots. It’s still a point-and-shoot, but with 14-megapixel photos and 720p video this colorful鈥攑lus fun add-ons like GPS tagging and 3-D鈥攊t’s pretty impressive.

TAGS: TOUGH, UPGRADED COMPONENTS

Nikon Coolpix S9100 Digital Camera

Nikon further blurs the line between DSLR and compact with this super-zoom camera, offering a stunning 18x optical zoom that covers the range from wide-angle to telephoto鈥攁nd then retracts all the way into the slim body. A CMOS sensor provides 12.1-mp images and 1080p video, and we like how fast it starts up: less than two seconds from power-up to snapshot.

TAGS: BIG ZOOM, FAST

DeLorme InReach Communicator

Paired with an Android smartphone or a DeLorme PN-60W GPS, this nifty little unit becomes a satellite-powered text-messaging device, allowing you to send and receive tweet-sized texts to and from any cell phone or e-mail address. By itself, it can send preloaded messages or be used as a tracker, allowing folks back home to chart your movements online. $10-per-month subscription required.

TAGS: TRACKING, TEXT MESSAGING

Solio Bolt Solar Charger

Every electronic device on these pages can be replenished by this lightweight, hard-shelled charger. Set it up at base camp and it collects a full charge in eight hours, allowing you to juice your favorite gadgets overnight. Or load it up from the wall in your hotel room and you’ve got a boost for your iPod on the third leg of an international flight. As an insurance policy, it’s a no-brainer.

TAGS: BACKCOUNTRY, COLLAPSIBLE

Sony Walkman NWZ-W260 MP3 Player

You no longer have to settle for either a tangle of cords or a crappy-sounding Bluetooth device. Not only does this waterproof MP3 player-headset sound great and stay where it belongs, but if you forget to charge it before heading out the door, a quick-charge function gets you an hour of music from just three minutes of plug-in time. Our only gripe: the small amount of storage.

TAGS: HANDS-FREE, SWEATPROOF

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THE SELL: A feature-rich phone with military-spec toughness and two-way-radio capability. THE TEST: If you’re hard on your gadgets, the Brute has your back. We stomped on it, threw it down a hill, and dunked it underwater for the max 30 minutes and it still worked. But what makes this phone stand out from its rivals are the call quality and the Nextel Direct Connect push-to-talk option, which turns it into a two-way radio, making it ideal for work crews, families, and search-and-rescue teams. THE VERDICT: Stands up to its name.
Features: 3
Durability: 5

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There are two ways to answer this question. The first is in an affirmative way. Radio wave don聮t suddenly get lazy and lie on the beach (well, maybe they do) in Hawaii, so any FRS (Family Radio Service) device will function just as well there as it does in Hawaii. So you could get one or more pairs of MR350R radios ($85/pair) and off you go.

The Talkabout MR350R Two-Way Radios

The second way is this: You really might as well take a couple of long lengths of string and some tin cans. At their best, radios such as the Motorolas have a range of about two miles. And that is before you factor in hills, water, weak batteries, and a million other things that have an impact on radio reception. This isn聮t a knock on the radios, but you could literally be 100 yards from each other, over the crest of a ridge, and you might as well be trying to reach Cousin Kloogie on Alpha Centauri.

But, hey, maybe you聮re mostly surfing and hanging out on the beach, and the rest of your party is up on the main drag shopping for leather belts or something. They might work there. Then Motorolas I mention are nice. So are Rhino 530HCxs ($500/pair) which have on-board GPS units They also use GMRS (General Mobile Radio Service) frequencies, which have an ideal range of 14 miles. GMRS requires an FCC license, but cost is not prohibitive ($85 for five years) and the application process is not bad.

My own advice: Take your cell phones, have some party organization, and enjoy yourself. No one will get “lost.” Out of touch for an hour or two? Sure, why not? Determine a default regroup point and chill, bro.

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1. NIKON D300 $1,960;

Jimmy Chin's gear

2. AF-S NIKKOR 24聳70MM F/2.8G ED $2,268;

3. AF-S DX ZOOM-NIKKOR 12聳24MM F/4G IF-ED $1,470;

4. When I’m clipped into a belay, I’ll use the NIKKOR 18聳200MM lens. The quality isn’t as good as Nikon’s other lenses, but it’s versatile. $942;

5. BRUNTON SOLO 15 PERSONAL POWER PLANT $650;

6. NIKON D700 $3,260;

7. LEATHERMAN WAVE $100;

8. MOTOROLA TALKABOUT MR350R $80;

9. LOWEPRO ROLLING COMPUTREKKER PLUS AW $370;

10. CHAMOIS $10

11. LENSPEN $15;

12. SONY HDR-HC7: I’m shooting half video and half stills on most of my assignments these days. $1,400;

13. BRUNTON SOLARIS 26 FOLDABLE SOLAR ARRAY $620;

14. AF FISHEYE-NIKKOR 16MM F/2.8D $1,200;

15. AF-S NIKKOR 50MM F/1.4G $582;

16. AF VR ZOOM-NIKKOR 80聳400MM F/4.5聳5.6D ED $2,220;

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A walkie-talkie (a.k.a., two-way radio) that guarantees reception in the forest? Easy. In your dreams.

Talkabout MR350R

Such a creature does not exist. Wireless radios are line-of-sight, easily flummoxed creations, and who knows what they will do in the hills. As regular readers know, I spent a number of years as a search and rescue volunteer. We had radios聴expensive radios, and lots of them. And guys assigned to haul repeaters to hilltops in the hope of extending the signal. For all of that, we might as well have carried reels with ten miles of string with an empty tin can on each end.

What you can do is buy one of the many models out there, and hope for the best. 聮s Talkabout MR350R radios are as good as any聴$90 for a pair, good on both FRS (Family Radio Service) and GMRS (General Mobile Radio Service, for which you will need an inexpensive FCC license), with a range up to 35 miles…in ideal conditions. Otherwise, if you can聮t see the person whom you are trying to speak with, you likely will not hear them either.

Fact is, ski areas are pretty good for these things. They聮re generally open, and you聮re apt to have your party in the same basin. Better yet, TELL them to stay in the same lift basin. They go over the ridge to the next one, they might as well be on a different planet.

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Not only is Motorola‘s Talk颅about EM1000 two-way radio the first with features like an emergency-alert siren and NOAA weather channels; it also has a range of 20 miles and a hands-free function ($70; ).

Motorola Talkabout EM1000 Radio

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