Hey all. A friend of mine does some Mountaineering and wants to get a new headlamp. She likes the Blackdiamond Icon Polar, because the battery pack is separate and can be put in clothes to stay warm and functional, also because the light uses commonly available AA cells. It doesn’t seem available anymore though. I’ve looked at the Fenix HP30 and olight H25 (dislike) but am wondering if a normal 18650 headlamp would be sufficient.
ANYONE here has experience with 5+ day treks at high altitude? What lights do you use and suggest? What sort of outputs would be good for snow use? (I’m a Tropical guy so kinda have no idea. )
A quick search showed me that Black Diamond still makes AA headlamps with separate battery packs, and the outputs far exceed the 200 lumens the Polar looked to be rated at. The Icon 700 model can be had for $100 or less if that helps your friend any.
AA batteries for mountaineering makes no sense anymore. They are much heavier and offer less power than 18650. The HP30R runs off cr123 if disposable battery use is a must. I would just carry two charged 18650 spares and you would probably have enough autonomy for weeks depending on how it is used.
In fact, to keep things even lighter, I would consider something like a Zebralight H600w or Armytek Wizard Pro Nichia and use it with a cold weather 18650 battery such as this Fenix which is rated down to –40 C/F.
The weight savings would be significant, and it would be a significantly smaller, simpler light with less that can go wrong.
I would just avoid the cheap 18650 headlamps that aren’t regulated or temperature controlled.
I use the Fenix HP25R for multipitch/alpine climbing, but it’s heavily modded. It’s a nice light in stock form, flood light is really nice for close range lighting activities like vertical rock climbing, and the spot would be useful for longer range viewing but I ended up putting a quad in there instead: Project Gemini: Yet another headlamp mod. Not a cheapo this time though..
I didn’t find the UI flexible enough for my liking though.
Mountaineering means different things to different people. For a lot of people it’s the exact same thing as regular hiking, but in mountain environment. For those people, any hiking light will do.
I agree with Pavlo. What’s the point with AA? I’ve heard arguments like “Oh, but you can buy AA in any regular shop”. Well, that’s fine if there are any regular shops along the intended route. I bring a few spare 18650 cells with me.
Ahh. Thanks for the info guys Yes, Mike, it’s not mountain hiking, friend plans to head up Everest some day. Pavlo, thanks for the link for the fenix cell. I didn’t think any lithium ion can handle very low temperatures well and that’s why I was steering away from recommending a light with a head mounted battery.
That Fenix uses Panasonic NCR18650F cell under the wrap. I suggest a look at the datasheet discharge curves at different temperatures:
What you can see is:
that Panasonic rates it to –20C. Fenix lies about –40.
at –20C the cell has very high internal resistance. Turning on a fully charged cell with dicharge current of 2.6A (which is quite a lot) drops the cell voltage below 3V. This would already trigger over-discharge protection of many flashlights. Does Fenix add a protection circuit? It may trigger as well. Then internal resistance warms up the cell and voltage recovers and the cell delivers 1800 mAh before dropping below 3V again. But:
2.6A is a lot, a lower mode would work better
that’s with a fully charged cell, half-discharged will be unusable at –20C unless warmed up
that’s with a new cell, a worn one would probably work worse
I would still recommend a light with remote cell placed under clothes.
Ahh, Everest… Well, the only parts that would have been technical are taken care of by ladders, otherwise it’s uphill (then downhill) hiking pulling along an ascender that’s clipped into a rope. As long as the battery pack is separate, any one will do.
This website has some interesting opinions on headlamps used in cold alpine environments mparam.com . I haven’t purchased from this site I only have read some articles.
I own many of those on their list. Or an earlier version, most are fairly solid, I would suggest staying with AA or AAA as you can get replacements all the way up the Everest Trail from Namche Bazaar until about Portchee or so. They’ve never heard of an 18650 battery but some of the new ones have pretty good USB charging.
I have 2 of the BD Icons. The first one was real heavy, the 2nd one was only heavy. I bought them for a specific purpose and now that the purpose is over, they mostly sit around unused someplace. Whatever your friend chooses, I highly suggest he get a second backup. I recommend the Petzl E+Lite. Thing is so tiny he/she won’t notice it’s there. Saved my ass once, I always have one out climbing now for backup if it looks like a longer, and not a normal, climbing day. I have no knowledge of the Petzl Bindi, but it may be a much better choice as any outback walkabout someone (or the lodge) will have at least one solar panel, you could recharge it via USB.
Get an Olight H1R or H2R. Use a small portable USB power pack for your pocket. Then use the Olight magnetic charge cable to the H1R/H2R.
It will charge and power the light at the same time.
The brightness will be limited by the USB PS current output, if the Light’s internal battery is depleted, and needs charging while doing this. So it would be best to make sure the H1R/H2R internal battery is fully charged, to give you the maximum, non-turbo brightness.
In other words, if you start with a fully charged H1R/H2R battery, you will only be drawing current from the portable battery in your pocket, as long as the light’s current draw(brightness setting), does not exceed the USB PS output charge current. Once it does, the lights internal battery starts to deplete , but at a much slower pace than it would without the USB PS backup.
If you need longer than the 2ft. magnetic charge cable that comes with those lights, the Olight L-dock Kit comes with a much longer one.
So you say they do a good job of working around their own needless limitation? USB can deliver more power than they need.
It kinda sucks that they are unable to use USB PD to deliver full power through it.
But then I don’t know any other light that would use PD.
And the powerbank market is still not doing PD well either.
For me the Fenix HP25R is the winner in category headlamp for mountaineering. It has three light sources, you can use it for cooking, studying map in the tent and also for looking for trail. The weight is splitted to front and rear side of head. Ideal for 18650 (Own micro USB charging port) and could be used with two CR123.
Only problem is that it´s relative old model.
I use it several years and I´m very satified. Now I´m looking for some replacement but I can´t find better headlamp for this type of use.
I used Princeton Tec Apex Extreme. I can assure you that this is one of the coolest headlights in the market. It emits light with intensity 130 lumens and like Blackdiamond Icon Polar it too has a pack that can detach and be worn close to the body so that the batteries keep going. I don’t know whether your friend use crash pads in his outdoor activity. If he doesn’t use it, I would l like to suggest him or her to use this cushioning that protect climbers against injury from falling.
