I’ll never forget my host brother’s reaction when I leant him my old headlamp in Kenya back in 2004. I was living in small community with a local Kenyan family near the Mau Mau forest, where only kerosene lanterns and clunky, cheap flashlights are available. He was amazed by the ingenuity of wearing a light on your head and not having to hold it in your hand. I ended up leaving my headlamp with him, his need (and appreciation) of it was far greater than my own. He’d be blown away if he saw the Snow Peak headlamp.
I was impressed with the headlamp immediately when I first saw it at the Outdoor Retailer market last January. It’s the quintessential light hardware for your camping or traveling needs. Simply put, it is the mother of all headlamps.
The shape of the light differs from other headlamps. It has a silicone orb instead of the more common small rectangular shape. When it it’s rounded state the light acts as a lantern and illuminates the surrounding area.
The plastic hook on the adjustable head strap hangs the light from the inside of your tent. You have three options of brightness-full light, low light and flashing light. Perfect for your choice of activities in your tent- hosting guests, setting the mood, or having a strobe light party.
By pressing down into the center of the orb, the orb will turn concave, and the light will focus into a straight beam. This was a very cool feature indeed. Also, the light has a variable dim setting. As you you hold down the button on the top, the light will slowly dim, and you can set the light to any of these levels. Though it didn’t seem to serve much purpose for me, I liked this feature for the ooh-and-ahh factor.
I use this headlamp both for traveling and for camping. In countries that have frequent power outages, it’s nice to have it next to your bed. I liked using the lantern feature in my tent on the river as well when I need to get my pack organization on. My one issue with it was that as a headlamp it can be slightly bulky; it’s by no means minimalist when worn it on your forehead. In my opinion, this con is a fair trade off considering the pro of getting to have the lantern feature as well. All in all, the headlamp is very useful addition to my camping and traveling gear.
The Snow Peak headlamp retails for $56 and can be bought here on the Snow Peak website.
Top photo of the headlamp courtesy of Snow Peak. The lower two photos were taken by Joslin Fritz.