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Rocking out on Everest
20:31 p.m. EST Oct 6, 2004
Published 15:35 p.m. EST Jul 2, 2004
There isn’t anything quite like taking off in an old stripped out Russian helicopter with AC/DC blaring in your headphones. Or even chilling out in high camp with Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald after a long, hard day of climbing.
In the mountains these days you see more and more climbers with headphone wires coming out from underneath their wool caps. Music is a big help, whether the tunes are simply complementing your situation, providing a real life soundtrack, helping you relax, or getting you amped.
Lots of choices
There are a lot of choices out there for listening to music, but you have to remember that at altitude humans aren’t the only ones that start to act a bit weird. The device that is hot right now is Apple’s Ipod. These personal MP3 players, albeit expensive, can hold anywhere from 5 to 40 gigabytes of music – that’s 10,000 songs.
It’s biggest strength is it’s biggest weakness
The problem is in Ipod’s apparent strength – storage. The music is stored on a hard drive. Climbers on both sides of Everest, both this year and last year reported failures as low as the trek into BC. We know of one particular first generation 10 gig Ipod that did make it as high as ABC on the North side, about 21,000 ft, before it started malfunctioning. Some crash and lose all the music permanently, while others start to work again at lower altitudes. Technically the Ipod’s operating altitude has a 10,000 ft ceiling.
What’s the problem? Well, we did some digging around and have found a logical reason. The hard drive isn’t sealed; it has a device that allows pressure inside the drive to equalize with the pressure outside. Data is stored on disc and is read by a head that floats a small distance from the disc on a cushion of air. Unlike a tape, there is no contact. At altitude, the air thins out and there simply aren’t enough molecules to support the head, making it physically crash onto the hard drive. In computing terms this is referred to as a, “head crash.”
Those people in Silicon Valley wear those funny white suits for a reason
It seems hard to believe that the difference in pressure can have such an impact, however, to better understand the exact tolerances we’re dealing with, it’s important to realize that a piece of dust has the ability to crash a hard drive and destroy it.
If this happens once or twice to an Ipod, the drive should still be in decent shape, enough for it to resume operation at a lower altitude. If you keep pressing play, trying to run the device and scratching your head repeatedly, it might permanently damage the Ipod.
The alternatives
So, what are the alternatives? Regular old walkmans playing tapes work well, but if the battery gets to cold, it’ll die or the tape will start to play veeeerrrrrry slooooowly. One tape only holds maybe two hours of music, and the ancient system is rather large with lots of moving parts to break.
Solid-state Mp3 players with changeable flash cards
Solid-state Mp3 players that have no moving parts work great. With flash cards holding one or two gigs, you can store quite a bit of music. Though not tested, microdrive flash cards might have the same problem as Ipods. A flash card that can hold a gig is about $200 to $300. In contrast a 15 gig Ipod is only $300.
The Minidisc
Minidisc players are also another great alternative. The relatively small cd-like disks have a protective covering so they can be tossed around, the device itself is small, and one minidisk can hold over an hour of music (newer systems tout up to 320 minutes of music), and a 5 pack of discs will run you about 10 bucks. The only pain is that you have to record the music onto a Minidisc yourself – there really aren’t too many titles available to buy.
The old CD player
Finally you’ve got the tried and true CD Player that can play burned Mp3’s. This is probably the most affordable solution with one 700 MB disc costing less than a dollar each. Leave your computer in Base Camp and burn what you need, when you need it. If a CD gets too scratched, throw it away and burn another one. The portable CD players that run Mp3 discs only cost $50 or $60 – it’s so cheap you can afford to bring a backup.
So, before you plan to rock out on the mountain, make sure you come correct. Figure out which device fits into your price range, and whose features match up with what your needs are.
Head crashes are not only a problem for Ipods at altitude, but also in computers as well. Depending upon the specific hard drive used, some can tolerate higher altitudes better than others.
Image from Apple's Ipod advertising campaign courtesy of Apple.com.
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