Do you ever find yourself still climbing as the sun goes down?
Well, this tends to happen to me often, especially when on Yosemite’s big walls. The problem I often encounter when climbing with a headlamp is getting it to fit right on my helmet. This often requires removing the helmet from my head and then going to through the motions of getting all the headlamp clips on my brain bucket to fit the headlamp straps that keep it in place. This often requires the use of a second light — thanks partner — to get the headlamp to fit right. If it doesn’t secure correctly then — oops! — my light falls hundreds of feet to the ground. This has happened before, much to the disappointment of my then girlfriend who asked why I returned her borrowed headlamp, which I retrieved from the base, in a mutilated condition.
That’s why I’m excited to use the new Energizer 360 Degree Cap Light ($31.95). It fastens to directly to my helmet (or to a ball cap, which I don’t personally wear) and then can be rotated so the light shines directly in out in front. It has a slim weight, is simple to use and runs on a single AA battery. The 360 has three light settings: white flood beam (low and high) and red. Large buttons make it easy to operate with gloves and the 360 is water resistant.
The bright LED bulb found on the 360 delivers 40 lumens of light for 30 meters. This is enough light to use for climbing, but not super bright. The trade off is that this light is very compact. The battery life only extends a few hours, so this wouldn’t be a good light for 24 hour pushes on El Cap unless you bring extra batteries (which isn’t so bad), but it works great for times when you only climb at night for a few hours, or for negotiating the descent after completing your climb during the last hours of the day.
My hope is that the 360 fits on all helmets. I’ll find this out when my testing unit comes in the mail. The Energizer 360 Degree LED Cap Light is not yet available in stores, but will be coming out in the upcoming fall/winter season.
