Into The Night

With the shortening of days and the switch back to standard time there is little daylight available for running in the evenings. This necessitates the use of artificial illumination if one is running off the streets and away from local lighting. 

You can never have enough of certain things; electrical power, data storage, environmental cooling, money and in this case lumens. This has been born out with me numerous times during night orienteering and rogaine events. Of course more lumens comes at the expense of more power which translates to more batteries and thus unto weight. 

Having had lots of headlamps over the decade's I'm familiar with many makes and models. Most of my favorites have been Petzls. These are usually well constructed and get the job done. When selecting a headlamp for the MdS several criteria needed to be optimized:

1. Produce a reasonable spot type, trail finding beam
2. Be able to produce a diffused beam
3. Multiple intensity settings
4. Maximized operational time
5. Minimized weight
6. LED light source
7. Replaceable batteries

I finally settled on the Petzl Tikka XP 2.  The Petzl Zipka Plus 2 was a close second.  Reasoning was as follows.

The Tikka has both a spot beam and a flip up diffuser for wider angle operations while the Zipka only has a flood type beam.  The Tikka has almost 15% more light output over the Zipka.  Both of these headlamps have multiple intensity setting and both should have sufficient operational time for the duration of the event (even without spare batteries).  The Zipka beats the Tikka on weight but only by a small amount (0.6 oz/17 grams). LED light sources on both guarantees no need for a replacement bulb. Both of these Petzl model run on three AAA's.

If you really had to minimize weight and were not concerned about light output the Petzl E+ LITE would be your choice.  I personally carry one of these in my trail running bag as an emergency/backup light.

Night runs with the Tikka XP 2 have been very good.  The top two intensity settings both provide sufficient lighting to run even on very rocky trails and provide for route finding capabilities.  You can also program this model for the intensity settings you wish.  Depending upon the situation the spot beam is preferred over the diffused one, however it is easy to switch back and forth.

Finally, a word on batteries.  AAA batteries are small and light weight.  It goes without saying that lithium AAA's are the choice for this application since they have higher energy densities and weigh about 1/3 less than their alkaline counterparts.  Their increased cost is far outweighed by their superior performance.