headlamp mod for alpine climbing

Hi all,
Can anybody offer some guidance with adapting a robust AA or CR123 (eg Spark or ZL) headlamp to better suit my needs. I am after a lightweight headlamp that is suited to alpine climbing, where the throw can be critical for routefinding. I have read much of the threads on this forum and they are very good but have left me a bit confused! I dont own either of the above headlamps but i think their throw is not adequate for my needs. My options as i see them are 1. Modify one of the above lights to improve its throw or 2. Get a 'thrower' and adapt/use a diffuser for closer ranger tasks oe 3) Just get a 18650 powered unit and suffer the weight?
I am interested in any of your ideas and am not afraid of having a go at some modding. Thanks in advance for your input. Regards, Jack

Hey there,

I don't do alpine climbing but I do a fair amount of hiking and the headlamp issue is one I've done lots of research on. FYI, Zebralights tend to be more floody so just be aware of that. I also wanted a light headlamp that used AA batteries because they are easily replaceable and cheaper than cr123. (And chances are some other gadget I have uses AA in case of an emergency) How much throw do you need? I own lots of headlamps so I'll give you my quick take...

Petzl Tikka Plus - very light, floody beam, not that bright, uses 3xAAA, has gotten outdated and isn't used much.
Energizer Trailfinder Micro - rear battery holder for 1xAA battery, lens system for flood/throw mix, always turns on at highest setting, continuos ramping of brightness, battery seems to drain pretty fast.
Spark ST6 220 - 18650 battery, heavy but great build quality, battery drain when turned off, great throw.
Led Lenser H14 - 4xAA batteries, larger and heavier, great spot to flood focusing, can be attached to backpack as clip-on light (multi-use)
Fenix HP11 - 4xAA batteries, lighter than the Led lenser but still quite large, good amount of throw. Led Lenser has higher build quality but more expensive.

And last but not least my current favorite for lightweight hiking, the Fenix HL21. This headlamp is tiny and made of high quality plastic so its very light. It only uses one AA battery and my favorite, it uses a smooth reflector which gives it great throw for its size. It also has a removable diffuser included which makes it great for up close-up tasks. Its amazing how much light it puts out at full power. Has a great 3 lumen low mode which Fenix clains lasts around 53 hours ( don't know how accurate that is but mine has been very impressive so far). The only thing my other headlamps have that I miss on the HL21 is a red LED which is great for keeping night vision but the low mode is good enough.

Hope this helped.

What are you using now?

Many people use a floodier light most of the time (headlamp) and only occasionally need throw and therefore just take a small thrower flashlight for that (route finding).

Are you doing a lot of climbing at night or just winding things down?

It's hard to hike with a spot beam IMO.

Just trying to get an idea as to how you will be using this headlamp.

how much throw do you need? 50 meters? 100 meters? more?

The only way to have good lighting for closeup work without losing all nightvision is to have low-level dim. The only way to see way into the distance is to have zoom on high brightness.

The LED Lenser H14 Headlamp does both - and anything in between.

You may want to carry a handheld thrower too! I carry a Quark Mini S3 that has a tweener beam that easily throws 60m. very light too.

I wanted a thrower headlamp for the exact same reason you do. After building several heavy ones that work very well I finally came up with a single AA design that is perfect. It uses any type of aa including li-ion. It is small, light and throws up to 200 yards. It includes a nice flip-up diffuser lens for general purpose hiking. If you are interested reply to this post and I will put up some pictures. The mod is very extensive but I could either show you how to do it or make one for you.

I'm a park ranger in New Hampshire who does mountain SAR and on vacations I climb in alpine situations, including the Andes, the Alaska Range, and Everest. For route-finding on crevassed glaciers- where you never know if you're going to punch through, a good light can come in handy. However, I must say, I used to use a Petzl Tikka with three old LEDs and they probably gave out 30-50 Lumens, and once I even forgot to turn it off- and when I went to pick up my helmet it was on- but we were harnessing up and I tossed in extra batts and believe it or not it suffice for routefinding in glaciated terrain. On Everest a few years ago everyone seemed to have Tikkas and they worked fine.
I use the PT Apex Pro- but thinking seriously about new Black Diamond Icon- 200 Lumens- as an alternative to the PT Apex Pro. Also coming this Spring is a Petzl with auto-adjust brightness to extend battery life and allow you to read a map and then look up, then back, without blinding yourself. These will both probably serve you well- they were designed for alpine climbers. Lately I carry a BD Storm as backup, and a Tikka as a 2nd backup. As for the more esoteric lights that people on this forum use, SPARK, Zebralight, I don't know how well they hold up in bad conditions- but Black Diamond is at least tested by alpine climbers. Use Lithiums in sub-zero temps. You also may want to consider something that takes batts that are available in Jackson Hole or Quito or Kathmandu. That's usually BD or PT or Petzl. Petzl is used by mountain SAR , Urban SAR, and Cavers, which says something about their durability I suppose.

As for the suggestion that you have a hand-held- light CR123's are light enough, and compatible with the Apex Pro, that even if they're hard to find elsewhere you can carry a box of them to the Himalayas and you won't have to worry about running out of batts- also they're lithium so once again good at subzero temps. Any of the 2 x CR123 units with throw that are recommended by people here would work. The only thing is I have frankly never used a handheld in a climbing situation- my hands are usually preoccupied with my ice tools, the rope, placing gear, or even trekking poles. (If you're using CR123 batts anyway, consider the Surefire Minimus.)

As a park ranger in a small state (NH) where you're never far from a charger, I have the luxury of recharging, so I use the Petzl Ultra- but that's because I'm never more than one night out on a search or rescue. By the way, the so-called-SAR lights advertised here- ultra high throw lights- seem to be next to useless for finding people in the mountains in NH. There's too much scrub or trees to penetrate. Sometimes we will use the penetrator (on a siren) to try to attract lost people, but light gets blocked pretty quickly by vegetation, esp in the summer. It's amazing what you can see from a Blackhawk with FLIR at night- in a wilderness situation a cell phone light is better than a bright light if you want to be found, and it doesn't blind the pilot. I'd be curious if others who do SAR actually find these very cool, (but heavy) long throw lights useful. I use them for LE when I'm not on patrol in the mountains- to blind someone who looks like they are going to be a problem-usually drunk and rowdy campers- but not for SAR.

I'm assuming it'll be cold at your altitudes, so that'll probably limit the lights you can use based on battery chemistry.

Here's a site with some flashlight beam pattern examples that might be useful

http://fonarik.com/test/indexen.php?model=218&scene=1&mode=0

clockclimb said:

I wanted a thrower headlamp for the exact same reason you do. After building several heavy ones that work very well I finally came up with a single AA design that is perfect. It uses any type of aa including li-ion. It is small, light and throws up to 200 yards. It includes a nice flip-up diffuser lens for general purpose hiking. If you are interested reply to this post and I will put up some pictures. The mod is very extensive but I could either show you how to do it or make one for you.

Click to expand...

Hi Clockclimb,
sorry it has taken me a year to get back to you. I am actually VERY interested in the mod you have made for these purposes. If you have already posted some details, could you direct me there. Otherwise I am keen to learn more. I am guessing you started with a dedicated thrower, and worked with a diffuser?? Anyhow thanks again!!

The single beam version uses an AA battery of any type including 14500 li-ion. It is much brighter with the li-ion of course. 14500 runtime is about 4 hours on low and a very short 25 minutes on high. I only use high for routefinding then go right back to low. The diffuser works great although the pictured method of attachment is quite crude. It rotates upward. If I were to make a lot of these lights I would come up a much better and prettier system. If you are interested in this light send me a p.m. I could just send it to you to try out. Both lights put out an awesome focused 320 lumen beam that reaches 200 meters.
The double beam version weighs maybe 15% ?? less than my Petzl Nao. The Nao comes in at 187 grams (6.5 ounces) with battery. This light is really nice, there is no need to change brightness settings for routefinding. Just push the second button to turn on the focused beam - then shut it off. Your wide angle beam is still on as it was unless you turn it off with its dedicated button. This light uses a 17670 battery, or a cr123 or AA or AAA. Runtime on high is 1.5 hours with the 17670, with the wide angle beam you can dim it to get anywhere from 2.5 hours to 10 days. It is based on the Ultrafire h4. Private message me for more info. Jordan

My Nao is a fun headlamp. It is rated to 108 meters. It has only about 1/3 the lux of my custom headlamps. They are considerably brighter at 200m than the Nao at 100m. The Nao is also very expensive! I have had a lot of fun with the custom built lights but so far have only made them for myself or friends.

+1 for the Petzl Nao. The ability to adjust brightness levels hands free is great for climbing.