Hiking

Image by Keturah Stickann via Flickr

Read On . . .

Headlamps and Hiking go together like . . . . mmm . . . Chinese food and chocolate pudding! No, they don’t go together at all, I mean like peanut butter and jelly or ice-cream and sprinkles . . . yes, that’s better, anyway, hiking headlamps come in really handy when you’re hiking, they’re hands-free and they automatically point in the same direction as you’re looking and hiking (if you’ve put it on straight that is).  However, all hiking headlamps were not created equally, you need to make sure that you choose the best hiking headlamp for the job.

Headlamps for Hiking – What To Look For

Hiking headlamps are identified by different specifications:

• how far the light actually goes from your hiking headlamp, or “beam distance”
• the actual intensity of the glow of the light, or brightness (they call this “lumens”)
• how long the battery is likely to last for in the headlamp
• the weight of the hiking headlamp . . . not just for when it’s around your head whilst you’re hiking, but also for carrying in your backpack throughout the daytime
• size of the hiking headlamp

Choosing a Hiking Headlamp

When you’re choosing your hiking headlamp for your next back packing adventure into the unknown (or even somewhere you’ve hiked regularly before), you need to decide which is the most important issue for you. I mean, I know that you’ll want to put it on and be able to see what you’re doing . . . but bear with me!

The lumens (or brightness) of the hiking headlamp is obviously important, but that’s not the only specification to take into account. What you really need to know is how well it will light up the trail right in front of your hiking boots, that’s what you’ll probably need it for, so you need to know how well it will light the hiking trail, how far ahead of the hiking trail it will light (a bit like dipping the beam on your motor headlamps) and for how long it will continue to light up the hiking trail . . . yes, battery life. A headlamp is no good if the batteries are flat, it won’t even keep your ears warm!

They don’t do much for your hairstyle either, but us hikers are used to having bad hair days . . . even when we haven’t been hiking or backpacking!

Anyway, he did offer a bit of good advice there, don’t just buy the cheapest hiking headlamp you can find, you’ll be really stuck in the dark without it . . . buy a good quality hiking headlamp and it won’t let you down!

Are these dudes crazy or what! Mines are dangerous in the daytime, never mind hiking to a disused mine in the middle of the night, even if you had got a mining or hiking headlamp. What are those warnings they make on television, oh, I know, “do not try this at home” (even if you have a disused mine in the back yard).