Jens Posted June 3, 2008 Posted June 3, 2008 As a total last resort If you have to get back to the car in complete darkness and you have nothing except a cell phone try this. Right now (before you are stuck in the dark), take out your cell phone and walk up to the brightest light in your house. Hold the phone a few inches from the light and take a picture. You have to be fast as some of the camera phones have a brightness reduction feature within 1 second of focus. After taking the picture, save the picture to your phone permanently. In an extreme emergency, whip out the phone and use the picture you've saved as your light. Hold the phone in such a way that you can push a number ever ten seconds or so to get around the energy saving dim feature. Even if you don't use this to get home from a climb, it may help you change a tire or the like. I've tried it and it works better than a little $2 LED I bought at big5. My girlfriend thought up the idea and at first I called BS, but try it. It works. ------------------ An old buddy of mine got down from the top of snowcreek wall in complete darkness by striking his cigarette lighter every few seconds. He said he and his partners had nearly permanent blisters on their thumbs by the end. Quote
catbirdseat Posted June 3, 2008 Posted June 3, 2008 My cell phone has an LED. I just push "clr" twice and hold. I've no idea how fast that would drain the battery. Quote
jmo Posted June 5, 2008 Posted June 5, 2008 I'll try taking a picture of my surefire flashlight with it. Quote
rob Posted June 5, 2008 Posted June 5, 2008 An old buddy of mine got down from the top of snowcreek wall in complete darkness by striking his cigarette lighter every few seconds. He said he and his partners had nearly permanent blisters on their thumbs by the end. This happened to me as a teenager once on an peak near North Bend that shall remain unnamed. The lighter came in really handy. Thank god we were up there smoking pot! Quote
Dechristo Posted June 5, 2008 Posted June 5, 2008 I tried the cell phone/headlamp trick, but I couldn't keep it attached to my helmet. Quote
denalidave Posted June 5, 2008 Posted June 5, 2008 Better yet, just call in a full blown rescue with the cell phone. After all, it's free, right? Good idea, I'll have to try it. Quote
rob Posted June 5, 2008 Posted June 5, 2008 Better yet, just call in a full blown rescue with the cell phone. After all, it's free, right? Good idea, I'll have to try it. I'm going to take a photo of a rescue with my cell phone. Just in case. Quote
G-spotter Posted June 5, 2008 Posted June 5, 2008 I'm so low tech. I took a picture of a lighter. Quote
tomtom Posted June 5, 2008 Posted June 5, 2008 Why would anyone carry a cell phone and not a headlamp? Hi Mommy, this is Jens. I'm on the second pitch of R&D. Can you have some hot cocoa ready for me when I get down? Mommy? Mommy?!? Quote
JosephH Posted June 5, 2008 Posted June 5, 2008 I and my partner once decended from a bluff with a branch covered on one side by luminescent fungus that we inadvertantly turned over while crawling on our hands and knees. We'd been groping our way about after a long FA at a crag we'd never been to before. Starting late because we thought we weren't going to get up it anyway wasn't the 'brightest' idea we ever had. And given we had no idea where we were or were going once we topped out, and the bluff was in-cut with steep, slimy, mossy ravine edges like a sawtooth, we were pretty stoked to stumble across that branch. By the time we did we'd been in pitch black long enough so that 'light stick' allowed us to walk and see edges. Every now and then even the incredibly stupid get lucky... Quote
catbirdseat Posted June 5, 2008 Posted June 5, 2008 Luminescent fungus. That's a good one. It reminds me of that Vin Diesel movie Pitch Black where they used luminescent worms in a Nalgene bottle as a lamp. At least you weren't being chased by monsters. Quote
JosephH Posted June 5, 2008 Posted June 5, 2008 No monsters, but our girlfriends in the car were pretty damn pissed by the time we got back down - all but almost left our asses out there... Quote
billcoe Posted June 5, 2008 Posted June 5, 2008 Interesting: I was in the gorge over 10 years ago in the woods by myself "drinkin and chillin" after a long day out. Spaced and it got dark quick on me. Had to damn near crawl out as there was NO moon and NO light at all, but the interesting part of all this was that there was a trail of phosphorescent spots on the trail. The first one I saw, I reached over like WTF?! is that?! I reached over, grabbed it, and my brain immediately dropped it in shock and revulsion as I touched the soft body grub. Once I got over my surprise that they were only soft/squishy body living insects on the trail, navigation by not stepping on them was relatively easy and very interesting. It was as if the fireflys of midwest-America area had showed up, got stuck in the on position and fell to the forest floor where they lay there to light my way. Never saw anything like it again, must have hit that time right on the money where some species was transitioning, pupating, metamorphosing, mating or something like it. Quote
willstrickland Posted June 5, 2008 Posted June 5, 2008 Nah, Bill. It was probably just the LSD kicking in. Quote
billcoe Posted June 6, 2008 Posted June 6, 2008 Nah, Bill. It was probably just the LSD kicking in. I was thinkin it was a natural high Will, but now that you mention it....:-) Quote
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