[pct-l] MP3 players and hiking

[Travis Beals]

If you're going into the Sierras, don't take any MP3 player that's got  
a hard drive. Many hard drives are not designed to work at high  
altitude (read/write heads are suspended above the platter by  
aerodynamic effects that are sensitive to air density), and, while  
they often do work anyway, there are also quite a few failure reports.  
If you read the fine print for hard drive-based players, you'll often  
see a maximum altitude specified. Max altitudes are also sometimes  
specified for flash-based players, but you can safely ignore these, as  
they're all solid state.

I'd recommend either an iPod Nano or Shuffle, as these are players  
you'll still enjoy using after your trip. The Shuffle is cheaper and  
lighter, but maxes out at 2 GB (roughly 500 songs). The iPod Nano  
comes in 4GB and 8 GB versions, has a screen, and gets up to 24 hours  
of play time on a charge.

As for charging, I have charged a Nano from a Solar Mio charger, but I  
wouldn't recommend bothering with solar because of the weight and  
hassle. Instead, make or buy a charger that will use regular AA or 9V  
batteries to charge the iPod. This is particularly easy with the Nano,  
as it has an internal power regulator that allows it to accept  
anything from 5 to 30 volts (the Shuffle appears to only accept 5  
volts). All you need to do is splice together (or buy) an appropriate  
charger cable. This battery charger will weigh almost nothing, and  
gives you the option of carrying spare batteries for longer stretches  
or just relying on the iPod's internal battery for short stretches.

If you don't mind a little do-it-yourself, the lightest iPod option is  
probably a Shuffle with a charger that takes three lithium AAA  
batteries--this will give you just a touch over 5 volts when the AAAs  
are fresh. You'd have to buy the iPod Shuffle itself ($69 for 2 GB  
version), plus a spare Shuffle dock cable ($29) to turn into a battery  
charger cable. The Shuffle will give 10 - 12 hours of play time on a  
charge, and I'd bet you could get several charges out of a set of  
lithium AAAs.

-Travis