OK Folks, here's the question.
I have a friend who has ridden the Iditarod trail many many times to Nome, He's gettin old 74!, and thinks if he is going to ride his sled from Nome to Prudoe Bay he better get it done this year!! There will be 3 of them. Couple of young guys in there 50's n 60's goin with him
I have been talking to him some and have convinced him to take my spot with him so the local newspaper can track him. Will it work on the ground up there??

Also he he is pretty old school and just uses maps, compass, stars and good ol luck to get him around up there.
He has always come back so he must know how to do some of that!!

So here is the question, hopefully from some who have used it in those conditions!
What is the best GPS for him to take with him on this jaunt. Does not need to be big screen tv, but just needs to let him know which way to go to the next waypoint.
Is there one that works in the severe cold hooked to his handle bars??
I will help him put all the waypoints in before he leaves.

Thanks in advance, if it works for him I'll put a page up here or what ever Z wants to do so someone can follow him.

My SPOT2 works great, even at -40F. Although, I noticed on my last flight up to the Brooks Range north of Kobuk a few weeks ago that a good stretch of the flight between Huslia and Kobuk didn't seem to have any signal and a large gap in position reports on my SPOT page reflected that. As for what sort of GPS an old-timer should bring along, if he's like my grandpa, it doesn't matter. He probably won't look at it anyway. Any old E-trex or the like should be fine. I know having the topo maps installed in a 296 is pretty neat, and probably would be even more useful on the ground than it is in the air.

I've had good luck with my spot and Garmin 60csx on the Iditarod trail. The GPS is hard wired to the snow machine and mounted with RAM hardware. Never tested either north of the Brooks, but both units have worked just fine in rather cold temps on the Iditarod trail.

GPS works great up to Prudhoe Bay and points south. Don't know about Spot.

Gump

I also used a Garmin 60Csx on sleds, ram mount on the handlebar. Worked great and if you only turn the screen backlight on occasionally it does pretty good on batteries.

The manual for my Montana 650 lists lowest temp as -4F and my Oregon 450 and 76s as +5F. The Montana seems to keep working, but I've had the display quit at somewhere around +10F. When warmed up in the display came back on and the tracking seemed to have kept going. Tracking isn't of much use however, if you can't see it on the trail, only to look at after you get home...... The touchscreen or color display doesn't seem to make a difference as the 76s has buttons and is B&W. I've only had the Montana down to those +10s.

I've had my Garmin 90 and Apollo MX20 down to -60 or so outside temps a few times, with cabin temps in the Sled probably -40, and never had a problem with the unit or displays not working right.

Gump

I would do Garmin 62 or 64 series, and I would definitely do the Delorme in Reach SE, 2 way text messaging and iridium network which is more robust than that used by spot, and better in the far north. Spot would work too, I think the delorme is better.

Brad

Durango Skywagon wrote:I would do Garmin 62 or 64 series, and I would definitely do the Delorme in Reach SE, 2 way text messaging and iridium network which is more robust than that used by spot, and better in the far north. Spot would work too, I think the delorme is better.

Brad

Thanks Guys , I got a spot that he is going to use, and will be lookin for the GPS for him.

I had a heck of a time using a Garmin 96 when snowmachining in the Teshekpuk Lake - Point Lonely region in December a couple years ago. The screen would begin to fade after as little as 5 minutes (in the -30s or so). I would put it back in my parka until it warmed enough to use for a few minutes. I could never use it to navigate...but got a feel for what direction I wanted to go and, then used my angle to the blowing snow to navigate. Invariably, I would drift in to the direction the wind was coming from. We did have a spot and it worked with no problems (we did have it in tracking mode, but the daily updates was it's primary purpose).

It sounds like a fun trip driving from Nome to Deadhorse.

Chris

Bob's a character, He hung the new sign up at Rainy Pass about 3 years ago on the trail.
He built it down here and carried all the way there!

Ha, kind of thought you might be talking about Bob, been in Rohn during Iditarod a number of years and have had the opportunity to meet him a few times. Quite a character, I've posed for pictures in front of the sign he hauled up the pass.