To the Himalayas!

I am an avid music listener. While studying, on the way to school, sitting on the bus, riding an airplane, or exercising, I like to have headphones piping my favourite tunes into my body. I plan on taking my iPod overseas with me this summer. It will be my Survivor-type "luxury" item to keep me sane on the longer flights between Vancouver & London, London & Delhi, and their return equivalents. Could I get along with out it? Absolutely – but I don't have to. The thing is small enough to shove in my pack without major consequence. 

Something I never considered was the potential impossibility of using my iPod on the trek at Chang-Thang Plateau. I'm sure I'll have plenty of other shell-shocked medical students to talk to on the way or strange happenings with my body to preoccupy me, so I doubt I'll need it. However, the limitations of my equipment are still important to know about; the manufacturer's instructions say the device should not be used above 10 000ft.

Why won't an iPod microdrive work, but the Compact Flash in my camera will? The Microdrive is like any regular hard drive.  There is a buffer of air between the disk (platter) and the head which reads it. If you disrupt the air pressure between the two – say, oh by flying to one of the highest airports in the world where the air is pretty thin - the head will compensate and use a more extreme attack, ultimately leading to a head crash. That's not good. Leaving the device turned off should prevent this from happening.

Even though some people have had success with their iPods at very high altitudes, I don't think I'll risk turning it on. My student loans are meant to go to airfares and medical/trekking supplies, not replacing my stupid magic music box.

I hope an article similar to the one below does noes not appear in the papers following my trek.

 Dead iPod Remembered As Expensive

June 29, 2005 | Issue 41•26

"VENTURA, CA—A third-generation, 30-GB iPod, serial number AP356372, died early Monday morning at age 2. "I'll never forget all the great music it used to play during my workouts," said the late iPod's owner Sarah Zartman at a brief memorial held over the junk drawer. "It was convenient, portable, and really pricey—almost $500." Zartman said that, had she known the iPod's lithium-ion battery would have such a short lifespan, she might have spent more time listening to it. AP356372 is survived by a BlackBerry."