Yeah, and we managed without electricity, the internal combustion engine, gunpowder and metal for quite some time too. If you cannot offer an answer to the question asked, why do you have to come in to be scornful of other people's worlds?
I can't believe I am playing advocate for the use of smart phones / cell phones, but since you are not able to imagine a world outside of your mountains where a smart phone might be of use I can provide a couple of examples from our world. Don't take this as too much of a slight, before I had such a phone I didn't think they were worth having either, and certainly didn't think that I would want to take one on a trip but I can now see there can be benefits. One may not need the phone while in the wilderness, but they are handy while navigating the civilized lands at either end of the trip. In all cases when I travel, my family feels better knowing when I have reached destinations safely.
1. Week long canoe expedition on Stora Le, Sweden. Made the trip three times. First time or so was with a dumb Nokia that held a charge forever. Used it after I was back in the UK at the end of the week to arrange pick up from airport. To navigate around Gothenburg on the way in and out of Sweden for those first trips I carried a bunch of A3 (that is a paper size approx twice Letter size) print outs. At the time I thought that this was a huge PITA but better than being clueless about what was where, or depending on finding a suitable map while there. On the final trip it was very convenient to have a smart phone which not only showed maps, but store locations, opening times and information about the buses and trains, as well as being able to coordinate with some of the group who were there already.
2. Two weeks driving around New Zealand's South Island. News Flash...New Zealand has mountains. Phone didn't work, but GPS did fine when I wanted a position check. More importantly, I was able to carry a bunch of high detail maps for places I might be passing through. I prefer paper, but the number of maps needed to cover my possible route around the country with 1:50,000 topos was prohibitive. The phone was good for communication when I passed through small towns that had signal, and for finding camp sites via pre-downloaded data. Didn't need to worry about charging though since I had a vehicle, but I can see how a few day's tramping might have stretched that. I had a separate camera with spare batteries, but a lot of people use their phones now.
