Chris,
A couple of thoughts on the sat weather/sat phone. If you are considering XM's satellite delivery for weather, I don't think it will work that far north reliably if at all. You might specifically ask XM about coverage at the latitudes where you will be. On the sat phone side, Globalstar has had some significant satellite constellation problems that has cut service reliability in Alaska to where it is barely tolerable. Supposedly this will be fixed in the next couple of months, but if you intend to spend a fair amount of time above 60 degrees north, I would go with Iridium. It costs more to buy and own, but will work better that far north.