UKH

Just completed my Ml course and thought I had a decent headtorch but doing the night navigation it ended up quite poor looking out to the distance, great nearby but looking out for features it performed poor. I have a vango think I roughly paid £20 for it.
Can anyone recommend a better one for my Ml assesement.

In reply to Dingerbell:

My lad has a Decathlon Onnight 700 (£15.99) and it's really good for the money. Various power settings and including a red light ideal for night navigation.
I'd recommend it to anyone with a limited budget.

In reply to Dingerbell:

The Petzl Myo is very good and although not cheap I think it is worth the money. I use it for fell running at night and it is bright enough to feel confident and move at pace and also has a useful boost function for picking out features when navigating.

You can programme the various beam settings to maximise battery life or brightness depending on what you need and it has a regulated beam so it doesn't fade out in use. I'd buy another if I lost this one, which is my general benchmark for a good piece of kit!

In reply to Dingerbell:

I’ve been very pleased with my one of these https://www.alpkit.com/products/qark

Very bright and good battery life - the reactive lighting is useful when map reading too.

In reply to Dingerbell:
There's loads of threads out there if you do a search but I'm still using one of these for night time biking and fell running:

https://tinyurl.com/yb6alzkp

(eBay link)

Cheap, cheerful, reliable so far (have been using for 5+ yrs now) and brighter than most torches five times the price.

Cons - a bit clunky, battery not the lightest, and you might need to invest in a spare battery if you are doing all-night nav (seems to last 6-7hrs for me when new which is great) but I've had a couple of bad batteries.

In reply to Dingerbell:

Petzl tikka xp. Simple and bright

In reply to Dingerbell:

I remember having a similar experience during my ML course. Firstly bought a Princeton Tec torch which was (and still is) amazing. This is the model: http://www.princetontec.com/apex
Have more recently started using a Petzl Nao, similar to this: https://www.needlesports.com/51857/products/petzl-nao-plus-bluetooth.aspx -- well worth the cash if doing any night work in the hills and either will be helpful for assessment.

Hope this helps
Mark

In reply to Dingerbell:

I bought a Black Diamond Spot a few years ago, based on recommendations.

In terms of light produced its good, but has a major flaw: the locking system is totally inadequate. I can't leave it in a pack for more than an hour or so without finding it has switched itself on. So simply cannot be relied upon to function.

In reply to Dingerbell:

I've got an Alpkit Viper (£18) and use it for winter climbing and night running. It's seen me through lots of dark approaches and descents, starting and finishing routes in the dark and night legs of the Ramsay's Round and Bob Graham. On the latter two it did 8hrs straight without a change of batteries. I can't see why you'd pay more for a headtorch unless you needed serious lumens for some reason.

In reply to Dingerbell:

Seconds for an Alpkit model.

I've had mine for about 4years and still going perfectly. Gives out great light and reliable.

In reply to David Martin:

i ve got a newer one and it seems fine to me, hold the button for 5 seconds or similar. I like it
Wonder if they have updated it?

I have a few alpkit older models, that are fine but all (bar 1 which is shagged) have had to be repaired.

In reply to lithos:

That's the same one I've got. I think it is terrible!

A lock that is nothing more than the on-button being held down for 5 seconds is a recipe for disaster. No matter how I pack it, I'll find it having switched itself on probably half the time I take it anywhere. I've taken to inserting a post-it note between one of the batteries and the contact which I need to insert/remove each time.

In reply to Dingerbell:

I have a Petzle NAO, which is very bright and proved very good,over the last couple of years, though it comes in at a fairly hefty price tag. I tend to use it more perhaps because it's easily recharged.

I picked up a black diamond cosmo recently because it was cheap (£15) from a major retailer, and I have to say I am pretty impressed with it for the money.

All other head torches I have owned have been rubbish, but I expect that's more to do with LED technology improvements in the past 5 years.

In reply to Dingerbell:

Alpkit, bought at their stand at Rheged last year for a fraction of the price of Petzl/BD, it's been fine. I've got one of those tiny Petzl e-lights as well, so small there's no excuse for not having one with you and it kicks out a surprising amount of light for its size.

I'm looking for a new headtorch too, as I don't trust my Myo RXP any more. I'm looking for something similar to the BD Storm, i.e. waterproof, bright, and without any external wires. Does anyone have any recommendations for something similar to that? I don't like the Storm tbh, because it's got too many pointless functions for me. Something more simple but equally rugged would be great, particularly for UK winter climbs in damp/wet conditions, and early alpine starts in cold dry conditions. Replacable batteries too, not USB rechargeable please! (Sorry for the hijack!)