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Reviews > Electronic Devices > Watches > Suunto Advizor > Coy Starnes > Long Term ReportSuunto
Advisor
Long Term Report Aug 20, 2006  morning low on first night in the Cohutta Wilderness
Tester Bio I live in North East Alabama. I enjoy hunting, fishing, canoeing, and most other outdoor activities but backpacking is my favorite pastime. I enjoy hiking with friends and family or solo. I hike throughout the year and actually hike the least in the hot humid months of summer. My style is slow and steady and my gear is light. However I will sacrifice weight for comfort and durability. A typical 3-season load for me is around 20 lb (9 kg) not counting food or water. I usually sleep in a hammock and cook with an alcohol stove. My backpacking trips are usually 2, 3 or 4 days in length. Product Information
Product Description To see all the specifications and functions of which this watch is capable a quick review of my Initial Report is in order. But briefly, the Advisor is to a watch much like a multi-tool is to a knife in that the Advisor is much more than a watch. It is also a thermometer, barometer, altimeter, alarm clock, stop watch and heart rate monitor. It has several memory functions that allow the user to review past altitudes, barometric trends, heart rate during workouts and the list goes on. Long Term Testing Locations and Conditions I have continued to wear the watch daily. I have been on dozens of hikes here in the woods and usually went for a swim in the creek. I also recently wore the watch on a three day hike in Northwest Georgia in the Cohutta Wilderness. During the past two months temperatures have varied from a high of 101 F (38 C) to a low of 66 F (19 C). Altitudes have ranged form around 600 ft (183 m) to 3930 ft (1198 m). It has not rained much but numerous swims plus plenty of sweat while hiking and bike riding have provided plenty of moisture to deal with. Long Term Test Results The Advisor has held up well, better than me in fact. I wilted in the heat of July and August and got a little lazy. I still managed to put the Advisor through some pretty demanding conditions. I will highlight my latest findings. The Advisor is still keeping good time. It is now 7 seconds slower than my atomic clock. This is not bad for almost five months. It has held up to daily wear very well. Despite its large size I have never felt the watch to be heavy or overbearing. My only complaint as a daily watch would be that sometimes when I need to fish something from deep in my pocket the Advisor would hang on my jeans as I jammed my hand inside the pocket. As I reported in my Field Report, setting up a log event is a little complicated. However, I have managed to do a few on my training hikes. The last one I did was on hike that lasted just over an hour and a half. I ascended and descended 920 ft (280 m). I was in my THR zone (anywhere from 120 BPM to 150 BPM) 32 minutes and below it 1 hour and 5 minutes. During this hike my max HR was 143, my average HR was 106 BPM and my low HR was 76 BPM. When I hiked in the Cohutta Wilderness I did not use the log feature but did keep a close check on my elevation gains and losses. To be honest, I went into this hike thinking I would be mostly hiking along a couple of rivers. I was not expecting a lot of elevation change but in fact saw quite a bit. For instance, we left the parking lot at 1240 ft (378 m) and after several ups and downs and 18 river crossings spent the first night at 1780 ft (543 m). The next morning we left the Jacks River at an elevation of 1800 ft (549 m). 6 hours later, we topped out at 3930 ft (1198 m). At one point the trail was so steep and rough it took 4 hours to go 2.6 miles (4.2 km). We camped at 2710 ft (826 m) the second night. Then on the last day we walked down a steep section followed by a series of small hills that were about 200 ft (61 m) different from the bottom to the crest. I hiked the 8 miles (13 km) in about 4 hours, so obviously it was nothing like the climb the previous day. I used the temperature feature a lot as well. I wish it had a memory feature so that I could recall the high and low for each day. Still, I usually just checked for the low when I first woke up each morning which usually coincides with the actual low for the day. I found that once it got much over 80 F (27 C) the watch was accurate while wearing it. However, much lower and it read a few degrees warmer on my arm than when off. I used the compass and barometer less frequently than the altimeter or temperature gauge. I really did not need these features as much as I might have if wandering off the trail more or saw much severe weather. Nevertheless, both proved to be accurate and I liked having them available if needed. Heart Rate Monitor As in my Initial and Field Reports, I have devoted a separate section for the HRM. And as before, I need to define a few acronyms first. HRM = Heart Rate Monitor RHR = Resting Heart Rate THR = Training or Target Heart Rate TTT = Total Training Time BPM = Beats/Minute BP = Blood Pressure I am still using the HRM but not on every hike like I did at first. For one, I noticed my gains were beginning to be very small and secondly, I rested my knee for about three weeks in early July. And while my weight loss has been disappointing, my RHR has improved dramatically. I am now down to 53 BPM when back in April it was 68 BPM. I can also tell a big improvement in my hiking endurance. My blood pressure has remained fairly stable during this time frame. As for my weight loss, I have only lost 2 pounds in the past 2 months. What with resting my knee a few weeks and then wilting in the hottest part of summer, I really did not get in as much serious training as I had hoped for. On July 26th I bought a bike so that I could train harder without hurting my knees as much. With cooler weather just around the corner I will ramp my training back up. Just for the record here are my gains and losses.
 I won't even bother with a picture of my latest weight
loss because it is not nearly as obvious as the first one I took for
the Field Report (see Field Report for comparison photos) I will
say that my size 38 jeans are continuing to get a tad looser but I'm
still a long way from wearing my 36 jeans. I am especially proud
of the lowering of my RHR which is a good indicator of fitness. My gains using the HRM are not spectacular but respectable. I think the biggest compliment was when on our last hike and I arrived at the car only 40 minutes behind my son and his friend, they said, "we weren’t expecting you for awhile longer”. Anyways, here is a sample from my training journal. As you can see, I made a lot of improvement early on but not so much the past two months
Summary Overall, I am thrilled with the performance of the Advisor. It is an excellent tool for backpacking and a great aid for anyone who wants to monitor their heart rate while exercising. To put it in perspective, a 3 run homerun is nothing to sneeze at but if the watch had a high/low temperature memory function it would be a grand slam. Read more reviews of Suunto gear Read more gear reviews by Coy Ray Starnes Reviews > Electronic Devices > Watches > Suunto Advizor > Coy Starnes > Long Term Report | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||