Headlamps

[jamal]

Some rascals, probably kids, helped themselves to my 2 best headlamps I had left in my vehicle.

How bright a headlamp do you think u need as your brightest? Has a really bright headlamp really made a big difference for you on one of your epic adventures?

Just looking for some thoughts. Thanks.

[cottonmountaineering]

brightness usually hasnt mattered much for me except when navigating some glaciers at night, i love the rechargeable headlamps that have came onto the market recently, i have a petzl but there are a number of options. replacing batteries sucks, not having spare batteries sucks, wondering how much battery is left sucks. rechargeable headlamp is the goat

[nyker]

I've used Princeton Tec for a while and found them good, comfortable strap, good battery life and bright.

https://princetontec.com/collection/adventure/

[JamalCC]

brightness usually hasnt mattered much for me except when navigating some glaciers at night, i love the rechargeable headlamps that have came onto the market recently, i have a petzl but there are a number of options. replacing batteries sucks, not having spare batteries sucks, wondering how much battery is left sucks. rechargeable headlamp is the goat

Me being stupid and not bringing my headlamp to the summit REALLY sucks!!

(has happened on at least one occasion) I should like to give myself a swift kick ....... but it's easier said than done. although I have kicked myself a number of times in the leg with my other crampon (but it's just not the same)

I somehow inadvertently switched to my other user name. Opps

[daway8]

Really depends on what you're doing... 90% of the time these days I run my headlamp at maybe 50% intensity to save battery life.

Just hiking trough the woods? Probably don't need much intensity.

Following a well established trail in the dark? Don't need much intensity.

Walking a ridgeline? Generally don't need much.

Doing some serious bushwhacking in the middle of the night? Might need to crank it up a notch to spot the best path.

Feeling frisky and/or got stuck out way later than expected and find yourself needing to do some serious scrambling/climbing in pitch black when the exact route is not certain? This is when you might really want full power.

Hopefully that last situation doesn't arise very often if you're doing everything else right unless you're just a thrill seeker, but that's an overview of the general categories of situations that tend to arise in the mountains - or at least the main ones I've personally experienced over the years and from which I derived my 90% of the time estimate...

Oh, and the one I've not yet needed to try out (and hopefully never will) is if you're stuck needing help from search and rescue in the middle of the night - a really bright light could be helpful then too...

[justiner]

I probably wouldn't take anything except a 18650-based headlamp with me these days. Many of them have a charging port on them and a battery level indicator, so they work like a rechargeable head lamp, but you have the option to swap out batteries when you need to. I find head lamps that have batteries you cannot swap out to be lower capacity than those that do. And 18650 batteries are cheap to buy online.

Fenix makes many ones, but for hiking, check out the HM65R-T V2.0.The low settings work for it seems forever, and the high settings will do most high powered jobs you would need, say getting spotted by a helicopter after you've broken your leg.

Some come with a red light setting too if you're looking for something like that (nice for camping). If that's too expensive, Sofrin makes some very affordable ones (with a bump down in quality), like the Sofirn H35R. The HS42 is kind of a middle ground in terms of quality of the two I've mentioned.

I mostly use the Fenix HM62-T these days. It's very lightweight, and has a red light mode. No charging port embedded, but I bought a few batteries that have one on the top cap (comes with one of those types of batts, too).

[desertdog]

+1 for Petzel. I have used a version of the Actik Core for years and it’s great. Rechargeable, several brightness settings, easy to use, buy an extra battery to go with it just in case. It’s all you need. On sale at Backcountry.com

[TomPierce]

If the primary task is staying on or finding an established trail, I personally don't think that requires a lot of power. Pretty easy to stay on an established trail at night, my primary concern would be battery life/burn time. Obviously more is better.

But for off-trail work, esp for those pursuing technical objectives, I'd vote for more power, e.g. finding a specific rappel anchor at night (slung pillar/tree, bolts in a rock, etc.) You need to find a pretty small, specific target at night, and of course it's always a moonless night. And raining . Great reliability and power are appreciated.

One pet peeve: Fwiw, I currently use a Fenix HM60R. Great reliability, sturdy as hell (metal case), 18650 battery and I carry a spare. But the optics, oy. I used to have a Mammut Lucido headlamp, only 85W, but it had the best spot beam I've ever seen: Super focused, it'd throw a pencil spot beam 100m. But the new headlamps seem to favor a floodlight approach. Last month we crossed the Green River on a moonless night in packrafts and we needed to avoid sandbars and hit a landing target before being pulled too far downstream. We did it (twice!) but we would have appreciated a better spot beam to find our position on the river. Not a huge deal, it was tame water, just annoying.

-Tom

[mtree]

I must admit I'm not sure what I have. Its a Petzl or Black Diamond. Rechargeable, red light mode, 3 light levels. Seems fine. I rarely use it and have never needed it hiking even in the dark (thanks to bright moonlight). I also carry a multi-function flashlight which is sometimes more useful especially camping. I guess a headlamp is fairly low on my list of gear.

I guess it depends on what you want it for? If you plan on lots of hiking in the dark or complex routes, see what justiner or daway recommend.

[JamalCC]

The last time I needed a head lamp, I was being lazy, and thought I had plenty of time to be up and mostly down before dark. I had already carried it half way up the mountain. It's maybe silly to save a little weight and room in your pack for something so light as a headlamp, but I thought it would be fine at the time to leave it. There was a full moon, too. The upper section was class iv but it took me way way way longer to navigate it for reasons I won't go into. I had summit fever and chose to continue, though it was far too late to reasonably keep going. It was dark right about exactly when I reached the summit. The moon was full, but it was completely obscured by thick clouds, so visibility was miniscule. I won't elaborate further, but it was a mistake that could have made this peak my last one.

I just about deleted this post, as it makes me look pretty bad. I shall leave it, I guess, Maybe someone will gain something from it. Don't climb like me. Be safe.

Thanks everyone for all of you who have contributed, so far.

[Wildernessjane]

I’m a big fan of the Nitecore brand. I have several of their models.

[JamalCC]

I’m a big fan of the Nitecore brand. I have several of their models.

Thanks Jane. Have you ever had one of your Nitecore headlamps not work at some point? Do you think they are just as reliable as Petzl headlamps?

There's a good chance I'll go for the petzl swift rl....

I think this review might be a few years old as the newer ones are as bright as 1100 lumens.

https://www.peakmountaineering.com/petz ... ch-review/