If you’ve ever had an epic on a climbing day, you understand the value of a quality climbing headlamp. Whether it’s an alpine start or an unexpected sunrise on your multi-pitch objective, a climbing headlamp will help you keep moving upward long after the sun has gone down.
With so many headlamps out there, however, it can be difficult to find just one that works for you. To help you out, we’ve got the ultimate guide to the best climbing headlamps around. Here we go!
Black Diamond Icon
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Icon | Storm | Apex | Revolt | Spot325 | E+ Lite | NAO+ | HP25R | Tikkina | Reactik+ | |
| Lumens | 500 | 350 | 550 | 300 | 325 | 50 | 750 | 1000 | 250 | 300 |
| Beam Distance | 100m (high); 2m (low) | 85m | 120m | 80m | 80m | 100 feet | 140m | 187m | 60m | 110m |
| Battery Run Time | 70 hours (high); 175 hours (low) | 120 hours | 150 hours | 175 hours (low), 30 hours (high) | 4 hours (high), 200 hours (low) | 10 hours | 15 hours (low), 6.5 hours (high) | 1.5 hours (turbo), 42 hours (low) | 120 hours (low), 2 hours (high) | 10 hours (low) |
| Beam Options | High, Low, Strobe, Red, Green, Bliue | High beam, Low beam, Strobe, Red, Blue Green (all colors with strobe) | High, Medium, Low, Strobe | High, Low, Strobe, Red | High, Medium, Low, Strobe, Red | White, Red Strobe | Flood, Mixed, Focused, Red | Floodlight, Spotlight, Red | High, Medium, Low | High, Medium, Low, Strobe, Red |
Designed to illuminate everything around you, the Black Diamond Icon Headlamp is the go-to headlamp for precision night climbing. Pumping out an insane 500 lumens of light, the Icon is a professional-caliber torch ready to take on any conditions.
Black Diamond’s Icon headlamp is made for those of us who just can’t imagine using anything but the best. With 500 lumens of light output and a maximum beam distance of 100m, the Icon makes darkness a thing of the past.
Plus, the BD Icon features a waterproof rating of IP67 and is submersible up to 1 meter. With a variety of different beam options, including high, low, strobe, red, blue, and green lights, and a removeable battery pack, there’s a lot to love with the Black Diamond Icon - if you can get over the headlamp’s weight and bulk.
Made to handle any conditions you could possibly face, the Black Diamond Storm is a veritable workhorse in foul conditions. With 350 lumens of power and a fully waterproof housing, there’s nothing that the Black Diamond Storm can’t do.
Whether you’re working your project late into the night, or you’re trying to navigate back to the car at the end of an epic, the Black Diamond Storm provides reliable, high-quality lighting in any conditons. Thanks to a newly designed lighting profile, the Storm has great peripheral lighting for close range activities, including climbing.
Plus, Black Diamond’s PowerTap technology makes it easy to adjust the Storm’s brightness as you climb. Finally, the Storm’s compact, low-profile frame is both fully dustproof and waterproof in 1 meter of water for up to 30 minutes, making it a durable and reliable choice for climbers in the most challenging environments.
Bright, robust, durable - three words that can be used to describe the Princeton Tec Apex, one of the brightest climbing headlamps on the market. Illuminate your climb and keep moving well into the night with the Princeton Tec Apex headlamp.
Built for professionals and avid outdoor enthusiasts, the Princeton Tec Apex headlamp is the foremost in powerful lighting in a robust design. With a single Maxbright LED and four Ultrabright LEDS, the Apex can put out up to 550 lumens of light in a spot beam or bright flood. Two switches make it easy to flip through lighting modes, so you’ll always have the best lighting for your conditions.
The Princeton Tec Apex’s waterproof housing means you can keep using your headlamp, even in the middle of a storm, while the light’s powerful battery keeps your world illuminated for up to 150 hours. Plus, the Apex’s lifetime warranty means you can adventure without worry.
Waterproof, rechargeable, and uber-versatile, the Black Diamond Revolt is a headlamp designed to meet the needs of climbers around the world. Designed to accompany you on any nighttime excursion, the Revolt makes it easy to see those minute footholds on your project so you can spend more time focusing on your climbing.
Packed with two LEDs that can emit up to 300 lumens of super-bright light, the Black Diamond Revolt is powerful and versatile for any mission in the mountains. Use the Revolt with Black Diamond’s proprietary AAA rechargeable batteries, or pop in a set of disposable alkaline batteries and you’ll be set for up to 175 hours of burntime on low power.
The Revolt’s scompact design is waterproof rated IPX8, meaning you can operate it in up to 1.1 meters of water for up to 30 minutes, so there’s no need to worry about your headlamp if you’re caught out in a storm. Whether you need to find your way down a walk-off at night or make your way through a boulderfield on an alpine start, the Black Diamond Revolt has you covered.
Whether you’re looking to get some laps in on your favorite climb in the morning before work, or you get benighted on a mountain, the Black Diamond Spot325 packs a lot of brightness into a small package. Fully waterproof, compact, and built to last, the Spot325 is a user-friendly headlamp for any climbing adventure.
The Black Diamond Spot325 pumps out 325 lumens of LED brightness all out of a tiny, efficient housing. The newly redesigned compact body of the Spot325 is more ergonomic than its predecessor, allowing for increased comfort and ease of use.
A second switch provides easy lense mode selection while better optical efficiency provides a brighter light that also saves battery life. Plus, the Spot325’s redesigned optics offer better peripheral lighting for close -range vision while climbing. Oh, and with an IPX8 waterproof rating, there’s nothing the Spot325 can’t do.
Ultracompact and designed for light-and-fast missions in the mountains, the Petzl E+ Lite is an übersmall headlamp for climbers and outdoor enthusiasts. Designed specifically as an “emergency” light, the E+ Lite is for climbers who need a headlamp, just in case.
If you’re the type of person who always likes to be prepared, the Petzel E+ Lite Emergency Headlamp just might be for you. This ultralight headlamp is designed to be stored with its batteries for up to a decade, so you can keep it in the bottom of your pack for those unplanned epics.
With a locking on/off switch, the E+ Lite prevents accidental activity, so you’ll always have it when you need it most. Plus, the E+ Lite can operate in temperatures from -22F (-30C) to 140F (60C) and can be submerged in 1 meter of water for up to 30 minutes, so you won’t have to worry about durability with this small, but mighty headlamp.
Since the E+ Lite only has 50 lumens of light output, we wouldn’t rely on it as our go-to light source for climbing, but it is a great item to have in your pack. At just 27g in weight, the E+ Lite is so tiny, you won’t even realize you’re carrying it until you need to use it.
The Petzl NAO+ is an über-powerful rechargeable headlamp that automatically adjusts to meet the lighting needs of your environment. With a whopping 750 lumens of power, there’s no darkness that the NAO+ can’t brighten.
For highly-technical, high-consequence terrain, the Petzl NAO+ is your go to headlamp when you just can’t compromise on brightness and performance. With 750 lumens of brightness in an intelligent and programmable package, the NAO+ is the ultimate in modern headlamp technology.
When pared with the MyPetzl Light mobile app, users can easily program the NAO+ to best meet the needs of their current activity. Plus, thanks to Petzl’s Reactive Lighting technolgoy, the NAO+ can assess the ambient light conditions and use just enough light to keep your surroundings bright, making it easier to conserve your battery life. Plus, the NAO+ charges through a convenient micro USB port and can burn at 750 lumens for up 6.5 hours - perfect for those technical alpine starts.
With 1000 lumens, the Fenix HP25R is the brightest headlamp in this review, making it a great choice for any climber that just can’t sacrifice brightness when adventuring at night. Whether you need a spotlight or floodlight, the rechargable Fenix HP25R has it all!
If you need to shine your light bright for night climbing, the Fenix HP25R just might be the headlamp you’re looking for. With 1000 lumens, there are few headlamps in this price range that can beet the HP25R in brightness or size, making it a suitable choice for frontcountry climbing.
Thanks to two beam options - spotlight and floodlight - the Fenix HP25R allows you to see long distances (up to 187 meters) while also showing details in close proximity and through fog. If that wasn’t good enough, the Fenix HP25R can be used with either rechargeable or disposable batteries in temperatures down to -40F (-40C). Try to beat that!
Compact, yet powerful, the Petzl Tikkina offers superior up-close proximity lighting without the weight and bulk of a brighter headlamp. Thanks to its sleek design and ease of use, the Petzl Tikkina is a great choice for climbers on a budget.
Whether you plan to do a lot of night climbing, or you just want to be prepared for whatever may come, the Petzl Tikkina might be the headlamp for you. Tipping the scales at a miniscule 81 grams, the Tikkina is a great headlamp option for the weight-conscious climber.
The Tikkina’s durable housing unit is easy to use, with a single button for quickly flipping through all of the lighting levels. The Tikkina is even able to be powered by AAA or a CORE rechargeable battery, offering a wide range of various energy sources so you can always stay in the light.
Compact, programmable, rechargeable, and smart, the Reactik+ is Petzl’s solution to the ever developing needs of outdoor enthusiasts. With Petzl’s new Reactive Lighting technology, there’s nothing the Reactik+ can’t do in the mountains.
Built with 300 lumens of lighting power, the Petzl Reactik+ is a solid all-around headlamp option for climbers. Thanks to Petzl’s Reactive Lighting technology, the Reactik+ can analyze the current light situation to provide an appropriate amount of illumination without any action on the part of teh user.
Plus, the Reactik+ is designed to pair seamlessly with the MyPetzl Light app, allowing you to check in on your headlamp’s battery life and program your settings to your activity through your smartphone. If that wasn’t good enough, while the Reactik+ is rechargeable through a micro USB port, you can add in the optional standard battery pack for use in remote areas, making this one of the most versatile headlamps around.
Headlamps are simple, yet ingenious creations. Attach a bright light to your head and you leave your hands free to take on the world. You can climb, ski, bike, walk, or just read your book in your tent at night all without having to fumble around with a flashlight in one hand. What more could you want?
But, despite their funcitonal simplicity and humble origins, modern-day headlamps are technology-packed and critical pieces of outdoor gear. These days, headlamps come in all sorts of shapes, sizes, and designs, so it can be difficult to find one that’s just right for your needs, especially when you need it for something as adrenaline-filled and consequential as rock climbing.
To help you make the best choice when looking for your new climbing headlamp, we put together the ultimate guide to choosing your next backcountry lightsource. Here are some key things to consider when looking for the best climbing headlamp:
In our homes and daily lives, we use a variety of different kinds of bulbs to illuminate our world. In our lighting fixtures, we often use incandescent light bulbs, or other, more energy efficient options, such as a compact flourescent lamp (CFL) light bulb. However, in the outdoors, the LED (light emitting diode) is king.
LED lights are preferred in harsh and inhospitable lightbulbs for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, they contain no toxic mercury, they turn on instantly at any temperature (both hot and cold), don’t contain any glass, and don’t emit any of the UV rays that cause colored materials and fabrics to fade over time. Additioanlly, LED bulbs emit significantly less heat than other light sources and can emit colored light. Plus, while they used to be expensive, their are becoming cheaper and cheaper to manufacture over time.
Thus, when you buy a headlamp, you’re almost certainly going to buy a model that’s chock full of LED bulbs. This is considered the industry standard for a quality headlamp, so if someone’s trying to sell you a light without LEDs in it, you should be very suspicious.
A lumen is a unit of the total quantity of light emitted from a light source per unit of time. That might sound a bit confusing, but basically a lumen is a measure of how bright a light is, with more lumens indicating a brighter light.
Pretty much every headlamp manufacturer worth paying attention to will give you information about the maximum lumens output of their headlamps. While this is a useful measure, insofar as it gives us an idea of how bright a headlamp is, it does not tell the whole story.
Since lumens are a measure of light output in all directions, it doesn’t tell us about the quality of the light beam in both distance and close-proximity situations. Thus, don’t get trapped into thinking that a high lumens rating necessarily means a higher quality headlamp.
For climbers, however, a higher lumens rating means that we’ll likely be able to see more detail in the rock and ice in front of us, which is helpful, especially when we’re pushing hard grades in the middle of the night. Thus, getting a headlamp with a high lumens rating can make a big difference on more difficult climbs.
Beam distance is an important feature in many headlamps, especially those used for hiking. When it comes to climbing, beam distance may or may not be of importance. When you’re rock or ice climbing on steep terrain, it’s unlikely that you’re really going to care about the minute details of the route 200 feet ahead of you - instead, you’re focusing on finding those miniscule footholds and crimps right in front of your face.
That being said, a longer beam distance is very helpful when navigating difficult terrain that’s less than fifth class (i.e. non-technical), such as on a fourth-class approach or on a walk-off from the top of a climb as it allows you to see the terrain in front of you. Additionally, a longer beam distance allows you to better plan out your next steps while traversing glaciers or rocky talus fields.
These days, most headlamps do more than just shine a white light in front of your face. Depending on the headlamp you buy, you may get a plethora of different beam options, including high beam, low beam, strobe, red light, blue light, green light, among others.
Each of these has its own unique purpose, though climbers will likely find that high and low beam, strobe, and red light are more than enough. The high beam/low beam option is great for adjusting the brightness to the conditions, while strobe is good for emergency situations. Finally, a red light allows you to see clearly without disrupting your detailed “night vision,” which is helpful when you’re trying to look for small holds.
Until recently, nearly all headlamps ran on a few AA or AAA batteries. However, many modern headlamps now run on rechargeable batteries, disposable batteries, or both.
While disposable batteries are time-tested to be reliable and convenient, they do cause a bit of a sustainability concern, especially since proper recycling facilities aren’t widely available. Additionally, leaving a set of disposable batteries in your headlamp for too long without using it can lead to damaging corrosion inside your headlamp.
On the other hand, rechargeable batteries help eliminate some of the waste produced by disposable batteries, which is their greatest benefit. While being rechargeable also means you can save money on disposable batteries, it also poses some challenges to how you can recharge your headlamp on a longer climbing trip. A portable battery pack is perhaps your best option, but does add weight to your pack.
Battery run-time is a measure of how long a headlamp can produce a visible light before the batteries die. Nearly all headlamp manufacturers list this spec on their packaging, though, be warned: almost every manufacturer grossly over-estimates the battery run-time of their products. Thus, while this is a useful - and important - spec, take the manufacturer’s words with a grain of salt.
The last thing you’d want is to be in the middle of a nighttime epic, climbing along with your headlamp, only to get rained on and for your headlamp to break. Thankfully, plenty of modern headlamps bear some semblance of waterproofing, with some being “rain-resistant” and others being fully submersible for a short period of time.
Therefore, if you spend a lot of time in wet environments, investing in a waterproof headlamp just might be one of the better gear decisions you make. It might cost you a bit more, but you’ll definitely be happy if you ever get caught out in the rain at night.
No one wants to carry a brick around in their pack (or on their head, for that matter), so weight is certainly important when it comes to choosing the best headlamp for climbing. That being said, you’ll often find that a heavier headlamp has a longer battery life and higher lumens output than a lightweight option, so there will almost always be a trade-off in this department.
At the end of the day, you can only wear one headlamp at a time, so it’s important to pick a good one. If we had to choose just one of the ten amazing headlamps that we reviewed for this list to take on our next adventure, we’d go with the Princeton Tec Apex Headlamp. The Apex was a solid overall performer, with a whole lot of light output, a durable, waterproof construction, and a quality selection of beam options. The main drawback to the Apex is its relatively heavy weight, but if you can’t compromise on brightness and light quality, the Apex just might be the choice for you. Happy climbing!
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