...three lights on me the other night. Rock climbing with a buddy in Colorado on an "easy" dome climb. Well, I had trouble with one overhang section and before you know it we were in pitch black, 200 feet up, trying to work our way off the face to the down climb section in 20 degree weather falling fast. Fortunately we had the right gear but I "only" had three lights on me and darn--none of them headlamps. So, my buddy, with my AAA ITP in his mouth sets anchors across the face in pitch black, dodging snow and ice spots, me with my LM31 in mouth clearing across the face to a point where we "speculate on the best way down" and it's still 20 degrees and the temp is falling fast. The LM31 can barely squirt it's light down the face enough to make out an escape route far below. So we set a good anchor in the crack we're hanging on, I get belayed down 160 feet, right at the end of the rope, to a scramble off area, and holy cow I'm so happy. My buddy heads down and 10' down his self-belay the ITP regulates off to pitch black. So down he comes in the dark with my LM31 lighting barely from below. He's down, but ropes won't pull down from the anchor up top so down we walk--ropeless hoping it's navigable. Now I give him the LM31, I take out my Micra Photon Freedom, back in my mouth, and down we scramble through the snow to the bottom, leaving gear, ropes and pride on the rocks. We got it all back the next day but left a smear of pride on the rocks. Other than normal lesson learned I now commit to pack a headlamp, a long-distance thrower, backup and buddy lights with plenty of batts. My buddy was mucho happy I brought so many lights that night and the motto three is one and two is none now rings clear. Also learning the advantage of non-regulated lights for mission-critical applications. Take care and pack extra....
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