Has anybody backpacked with a Band 2?

[mkenyon2]

Has anybody gone hiking and/or backpacking with a Band 2? Or an original Band for that matter? What was your experience? What did you like? What could be better? What problems are there? How long did you go for?

 

[DeNachtwacht]

Untill today, the band only lasted about 4 hours with gps tracking so that would be too short to track a backpacking hike day. But you asked the question exactly on the right day I suppose, because the firmware update that's released today adds a GPS Power Saving mode. This brings less accurate gps tracking but gives you up to 4 extra hours of gps tracking. So you'll end up having about 7 hours, which could be enough for quite some backpacking trips. I just asked one of the developers here if the new power saving mode is also suitable for hiking.

 

[Captain_Eric]

I haven't backpacked, but walked and hiked. I use the "Running Tile," because presently, the band doesn't have a hike/walk tile. It works fine tracking GPS path, elevation, heart rate, and computing calories. (I think the only drawback of using the running tile for hiking is, if you are a runner, your data gets mixed together. Not the end of the world. But I still bet Microsoft adds a hike/walk tile, maybe with less frequent GPS sampling to save battery, sorta like the optional "GPS Power Saving" feature, which was added to the "runner tile, as the other poster mentioned above. For hiking, putting the GPS power saver on is a must. I hope you have a battery pack to recharge your device!!!

 

[anon(8555314)]

One thing I've realized, is that you can pause a GPS workout, whether biking or hiking, plug the Band in to a small charger, and juice up a bit, then put the Band back on and resume the workout. On a typical all day hike or bike tour, you are going to stop to eat or take brief rest stops here and there, so you could utilize that to get more than 8 hours of GPS tracking with Power saving mode enabled. This wouldn't work for an ironman, where there really aren't any stops when you can pause and charge, but for many other types of longer activities, this would work.