Your Portable Umbilical Power Cord: A Look At Some Amazing Portable Chargers

Imagine you are about to do one last run, you’re nailing every single landing and you get half way down the hill to see that your GoPro battery has died, or you get to the Après ski, and find that your phone battery is drained. Instagram is going to get cold and your followers are going to miss your epic shots of the day or night.

Well, I’m here to help you start avoiding those '1st world problems' by guiding you through how to choose a battery pack that best suits your needs. There are a few things to consider when choosing a portable charging option.

1) How long will you be away from a power outlet ?
2) What devices will you need to keep chargedand how many different connections they have?

3) What cables will you need to carry with you?

Lets do some math and figure out the minimum amount of power you will need to charge your devices all at once during the trip.
On every device (or it’s battery or charger), you will see a bunch of numbers and words that likely won’t make any sense toyou.

There are 2 that truly matter :
1) A number with a trailing mAh (MilliAmp Hour). Think of this as a fluid, if you need to charge a cup (250ml), you would need 250mAh to fill, ie. charge, the device 100%.
2) The speed of the charge. This is determined by a combination of V (Volts) and A (Amps) but these are less important then the mAh.

If there is no info on the device or its documents, Google is a wondrous tool.
Lets lay out all of your devices and figure it out.

iPhone 5 = 1,440 mAh
GoPro Hero2 = 1,100 mAh
Oakley AirWave Goggles = 1,200 mAh
———————————————————————
=3,740 mAh

So basically, if you were to go purchase a random portable battery pack that had 3,740 mAh or more on the label, you could recharge each of these devices at least once or more depending on the capacity of the battery pack.

Pretty simple once you know, right?
So Let’s talk about the options that are out there. Avoid choosing a device that has device specific connections that cannot be changed. Most of the portable devices you carry will be charged with 1 of 3 different cable types: Mini USB, Micro USB, and iPod/iPhone/iPad USB; all of which are compatible with plain ol’USB.

If you are going to go ‘Deep’ like Jeremy Jones would, and you are going to be gone for weeks or months at a time , my first recommendation would be a device that can use natural sources to recharge.

I kid you not, you can charge a USB device using FIRE.
Enter the BioLite .
This little dream gadget will charge your USB devices just by burning the same fire that you would make to keep you warm. Two birds, one stone.

PS, no birds were harmed in the writing of this article.

This one option does not matter how many mAh you need, as it’s a continuous power generator and does not hold the mAh until its needed. The only thing that matters is it’s 5Watts (iPads and other devices will charge a lot slower since they require 10Watts, but it will keep the device alive at the very least).
For $129 USD, this water bottle sized device will keep any GPS or other electronics charged.

Option 2 is one of my favourites, I rely on it on a daily basis.
HyperJuice makes amazing portable chargers, and they have only gotten better since I purchased mine.

The one I have has 2 USB ports. One port is 5W and the other is 10W, meaning it can charge iPads and other devices, simultaneously.
The wall plug to recharge the pack itself is built right in, and it has LEDs on the side to tell you what battery life remains.

This little Monster holds 15,600 mAh on a single charge. If we divide this 15,600 mAh by our 3,740 mAh from earlier, this allows me to charge each device more then 4 times during a trip, and they make even higher capacity ones that could charge your MacBook too!
Go check out the rest of their products.

The last option that I am going to add is another green option, and I’m going to add this because I know a lot of you will ask about it, and I want to give my honest opinion.

Solar chargers! Like the BioLite, it’s an all naturally fueled charger and the only thing that matters is that the USB ports can push 5V.

The issue I personally have with Solar power is how slow the charge will be. It could take a day or longer of constant solar charging to charge an iPhone. It would take a solar panel the size of 2 iPads side by side to hold 5Watt charging at a cost of at least $120+.

If I was to make a recommendation on Solar, I would recommend to get a Knapsack with solar panels on it, like the one sold by Voltaic. This way you can still shred some POW while it charges in your Knapsack.

By no means are these the only options, they are just the ones I have seen in action or have owned and reviewed.
Now armed with the knowledge, you can make a great purchase that will ease your mind about your trips.