Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board High Tech Watch Question

I figured I should ask this community of regular hikers this question.

I see all these high tech watches out now showing GPS data, distance, heart rate, calories burned, and much more. I'm thinking of buying one. Anybody use a high tech watch like this? Any suggestions on what to buy?

All suggestions would be humbly welcomed!

I've been using the Suunto Ambit 2 and love it. It's fully programmable and it'll do everything you're asking and much more. You can actually customize 10 different workout regimens on it. For example, I have a Mountaineering one that has 5 screens programmed into it. It shows me everything from heart rate to distance covered, elevation gained & lost, my total calories burned, etc. I have another mode for Cycling, another for Running, another for triathlons, and more.

They have a web site called Movescount where you can upload all your information and share it if you want to. Here is a link to one I did on Sunday. I guided a car to car climb of North Palisade Peak. Let me know if you can pull this up OK. If not I can try sending it to you another way:

http://www.movescount.com/moves/move44027431

If you look at it you'll see the track stops when I'm around Bishop Pass on my way out. The reason being is the watch ran out of power and shut down. I will program it next time to send signals less often thereby preserving battery life. I was expecting a 15-16 hour day and it ended up being about 21 hours.

Kurt, thanks for the detailed reply. I was able to pull up your link and this has all kinds of great information. I'm sold. That's a heck of a hike you did in one day! Do you have other tracks you've made?

I called A16 in LA because I'm going to be up that way soon. They have the Ambit 2r in stock but not the normal Ambit 2. Do you think the 2r is enough of a watch or should I order the 2?

I have an Ambit2R.

It's great for its intended purpose ... running, biking and other forms of exercise. However the GPS is neutered.
Basically, it does only enough to track your speed.
AFAIK, you can't use it for doing waypoints or anything like that.

What I really want is the Ambit3...

Thanks sds. That's helpful. I do a little running and cycling and would use the watch for that but my real intention is for outdoor stuff like backcountry skiing, peak bagging, hiking, etc. It sounds like the Ambit 2r is not quite what I'm after.

I looked on the Suunto web site and saw the Ambit 3. That looks like a sweet device. It has bluetooth too. I spoke with someone who said they will have it compatible with Android devices too. It isn't yet but they are making an app for Android. I think I'll get the Ambit 3 Peak.

How has the battery life been on your Ambit 2r?

I've done 5-hour runs with the GPS and HRM on, and it still had 20-30% of battery left, IIRC.

As a plain watch, it will do me for more than a week. Hard to generalize, though, because it has a power saver that turns off the display when motionless (2/3 of the day for me), so it might not last others as long.

Very happy with it for what it does.

The battery life on my Ambit 2 has been good. Like "sds" just using it as an everyday watch it lasts for a good couple of weeks or so. When using it with the heart rate monitor and GPS it'll use up the battery a lot faster but you can regulate how fast you use it by programming it in Movescount. There are a huge amount of customization's possible. I'd be curious to see how the battery life is on the Ambit 3 with the bluetooth functions on it.

Based on what you do (backcountry skiing, hiking, etc.) I think the Ambit 3 Peak or the Ambit 2 would be good choices. If you were doing more running, cycling, etc. the Ambit 2r is a good choice.

Here's a couple more tracks I did recently:

Morning mountain bike ride with the dog in Bishop

Mt. Baldy hike

Awesome! Two happy Suunto Ambit users. Kurt I think you're right. I'll get the Ambit 3 Peak. I'll get it just in time for ski season. Bring on the snow!

sds, thanks for sharing your experience with the Ambit 2r. I'm going to show it to my girlfriend. She does much more of that aerobic stuff and that may be just the ticket for her. She uses a small Garmin now but doesn't have much good or bad to say about it. It sounds like you're very happy with your Ambit 2r. Do you use the Movescount website that Kurt was sharing on those links?

You guys are great. Thanks for sharing your insights into this!

Haven't gone online with it yet.

Updating battery life info for 2R...

Did a 5-hr mountain run today, and it says 45% battery.

Also, when worn as a watch, I'd say I get at least 2 weeks on a charge.