But I rarely use flashlights when camping, and when I do, I use an LED windup or an old Russian squeezer. Batteries aren’t worth the bother, they inevitably fail and have to be disposed of carefully to prevent poisoning the water table. If you send them to the landfill, they’ll just end up in your grandchildren’s non-functional gonads…

Here is a test. Get to a campsite after dark. Try to hold a flashlight (torch?) in one hand, and erect the tent with your other hand. I would rather appear to be a dork and sleep well than look “cool” and spend an hour trying to set up a simple dome tent.

I also went through a couple of weeks without power in Florida a few years ago when three hurricanes blew through. Once again, headlamps were awesome.

just become i’m female doesn’t mean i want flowers and pink on everything.

What makes you think that girly things are only for women?

that’s utterly rediculous. My headlamp is invaluable: cooking dinner, eating dinner (I let it hang on my neck and it illuminates my plate nicely), doing dishes, tent/tarp/guyline adjustments, bathroom runs, etc. I then hang it in the top of my tent and use it as a tent lamp. It also has a red lens for retaining night vision, and it has an adjustable angle. I don’t have a use for a flashlight or a lantern (which is fantastic for minimalist backpacking requirements).

I have had various lanterns over my 3 decades of camping, and currently I don’t cary one in my gear. Lanterns blind everyone in the campsite, let everyone else in the campground see what I am doing, and they are bug magnets. The flashlights I do carry in my gear box are loaners that are given to the folks that forget their light, or the children that like to play with them! :) Otherwise, I wouldn’t even have them in my gear box.

Getting up to pee in the night is exciting enough without being ‘totally in the dark’ when meeting a large bull buffalo.

Or a yeti.

I also prefer a switch instead of a pushbotton- I don’t care for the headlamps that I have to cycle through 4 or 5 settings to turn it on and off, especially when much of my use is going to be a quick look at something, then shut the light back off.

And although it’s not always practical to have light pointing in the same direction as your eyes, it seems pretty practical to me *most* of the time. But then, I’m weird about liking to see where I’m pointed, being the life-long clutz that I am.

Lisa, I totally get that you like this product because it has “cute, girly patterns,” but I don’t get what’s actually girly about them. The pattern is retro, but would it seem girly if it were in, say blue and orange? The color purple makes it girly. Why? Are males that like this color or would consider wearing this product less masculine?

The product pictured is called the Wiz, described as “kid specific” on the product page. This is obviously their design for girls. The boy version has crazy mean, cyclops octopi on the band. It’s subtle, but this is just another product designed within the narrow constraints of negative stereotypes operating within gender binaries.

Colors aside, this product, yet again, shows us that boys will be judged by their actions (being a mean scary octopus), girls by how they look (pretty patterned clouds).

TrueChild.org is an organization that deals with the effects of negative gender stereotyping on children. Check it out for more info. This stuff is real, it has real consequences, and we should all be aware of that when discussing products like this, however frivolous it may seem.

A couple hours? Try ten minutes (at least South). Right at Serramonte shopping center in Burlingame, the fog stops abruptly, which drove my parents nuts until we moved farther South on the Peninsula.

Back ON topic – I don’t know about super cute, but this is certainly more stylish than your typical headlamp. Unfortunately, at 18 lumens, they’re not particularly bright.

When will inanimate objects stop having genders?

I read that as ‘intimate objects’. They definitely have gender.

I can’t imagine why any of my campground neighbors would look down on me for using one, especially when they’re hauling in cases of bottled water and throwaway styrofoam plates (oh, I guess feeling better than other people is a campground pastime).

Also, I think it cost under $20; how much did your flashlight AND red lantern cost, Jack?

With a headlamp, you can, for instance, hike or climb or run through the night, or before dawn on an alpine start, with trekking poles or ice axes in your hands. Or you could use your map and compass or GPS, in the dark, with having to hold your flashlight in your mouth or something silly.

I guess a flashlight would be okay for car camping … But I have been using my headlamp, even for that, for four to five years. My impression is that a headlamp is at least as “hard-core” as any other option, for very practical reasons having to do with keeping one’s hands free.

as a female who spends a lot of time outdoors, this kind of thing pisses me off. just become i’m female doesn’t mean i want flowers and pink on everything.

:D

I guess there’s an element of “harder-core than thou” about it, but while you may think they’re cute, most people seeing your light bobbing around at night probably think you look like a dork. They’re not terribly practical, either – sometimes you don’t want light pointed exactly in the direction you’re facing – illuminating the ground in front of your feet, for instance.

Besides, you’re using them in the DARK and they’re TIED TO YOUR HEAD – their cuteness is completely immaterial. :)

As for practicality, I’ve always found having both hands free far more practical than being able to point the torch at an arbitrary location (if I need to use my hand to reposition the torch).

As for me, I’m just happy that this approaches my request for ‘moar climbing posts’. Thanks Lisa!

It’s only going to be about 89 today, but I’m guessing that would be enough for most San Franciscans to get a little sweaty.

I know, I know: I lived in SF for several years and thought leaving the coast was terribly unhip, unless you didn’t get out of the car until you got to Tahoe. But I won’t tell.

Do know that a headlamp (adjustable to point where you want it to) is useful in, say, North Dakota parks where you are camping among buffalo. Getting up to pee in the night is exciting enough without being ‘totally in the dark’ when meeting a large bull buffalo.

Apparently they usually only get irritated if you are riding a bike or skateboard, but I always feel a bit anxious in the middle of the night.

For those who think I am being a total wimp: the buffalo like to see where I am too! I met one in the dark a couple of years ago. I was without a headlamp) and he was totally panicked.

I can see pretty well in the dark, but perhaps the wildlife deserve a small break as well.

The headlamp is also useful for small campsite chores after dark, so let’s not be too huffy guys!