Cell Phones. Take them or leave in Base?

While I’m sure some crews were fine with them, we made our kids leave them at base. Adults could bring them. It also our Troop policy that boys leave them in the car on campouts.

Why? When kids are hunched over, pinging away on their phones, they are entirely disconnected from where they are, and who they are with. Not quite “the Philmont Way”, imho.

Besides, battery charging and cell reception isn’t all that great out there.

I highly suggest that you do not allow the youth in your crew to have their phones. Generally in the backcountry they will not be able to get cell phone service so they generally won’t be able to “play” with their phones, unless they have offline games so they’re generally useless and extra weight, except for one or two in emergency situations. If they say they want to bring their phones to use as cameras remind them of how relatively poor phones function as cameras compared to cameras of relatively similar weights.

Our crew was told from the beginning that there was no reason to take phones in the back country.  There was nearly no service, there was no way to charge them and we had coordinated so there were several non-phone cameras. One adviser carried one phone in case of emergency but it was off and buried in the pack.

This is essentially the same as our normal troop expectations so was not a big deal for the Scouts.

That said – we did have one adviser did carry a small solar charger for his fitness watch.  It seemed to work pretty well and was definitely not the only one we saw.

I’ve personally softened my stance on mobile phones at Philmont, as smart phones are so much more than a telecommunications device today.  In our South Country trek this year, we only got service on summits, so there was little temptation for anyone, Scouts or adults, to be checking social media or texting their girlfriends.  Many rely on these devices for photos and video today, and there are useful apps for navigation (not to replace map & compass), birding, astronomy, etc…  While I would prefer that Scouts leave their phones at Base Camp, I would not fight them over it.

It’s a darn good camera as well.

Thank you for your responses. Your insight is much appreciated.  I will pass this on to our adult advisors.

About 1/2 of our scouts brought them, mainly as a camera.  One scout brought a solar charger, several others battery packs.

If I caught them on the phone, I would remind them that the camera would not work if the battery was dead. And there was no place to recharge it in the backcountry.  And no, my battery pack was not for any scouts phone. I did not have to take any scouts phones away on the trip in 2016.

I have Verizon and it did work on Mt. Baldy and other peaks where you have line of sight to a town.

For our normal campouts, phones stay in cars. No debate.