Best GMRS, FRS for use in climbing?

[Richard Eh!]

For those of you who use these radios to communicate with your belayer/climbing partner, which make/model would you recommend or discourage? I'm interested in actual distance limits for clarity of response (as opposed to advertised range), ease of use and battery life in summer and especially in winter temps (thinking multi-pitch where yelling to your partner is offset by wind or surf noise or crowded areas, or tugging rope signals isn't very effective).

[szymiec]

Hey, pretty much even the cheapest one is going to be crystal clear from a distance of 60M while climbing. I used the black motorolla ones, not sure of the model but the mose expensive one at MEC for Skiing. The range was insane but is largely dependent on line of sight. Stay away from cheese ball extra features, they just suck the battery.

hope this helps

Chris

[Richard Eh!]

Thanks Chris, yeah the end of a rope isn't that far for sure, but I was hoping to use it hiking, bikiing, paddling, etc. so I was wondering which and/or how many have the advertised range, battery life and so on.
And I think you're right about extra features suking the life out of the battery. That seems to be the case with my GPS as well.