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jharman2 wrote:I have a few personal considerations regarding backup lights.
1. You need a total of 3 light sources that are sufficient to "cave" on. You do not want to attempt to exit any cave on a glow stick or a candle. Trying to do that is likely to precipitate another emergency.
2. The 2nd source of light should be as bright or nearly as bright (75%) as your primary. Ideally these are the same lamp so parts and batteries can be interchanged if necessary.
3. Two light sources must be mounted on the helmet, or one on the helmet and one around your neck.
My kit consists of a helmet mounted STEN and a helmet mounted Zebra 18650. I keep a spare STEN and battery in my pack. That may sound like overkill, but I would hate to abort a multi-day camp trip because my primary lamp failed and I only had two old Tikkas for backup.
Lava wrote:I just wrote the chapter on lights for the upcoming new edition of the NSS' Caving Basics book, and essentially agreed what you said here. However, I would say that you do need two lights on your helmet so that you can turn the second one on if the first one fails while you're in a precarious position - a light dangling on the neck will probably not be of much use to you if you're in the middle of a climb when the first light fails.
Lava wrote:I also said that the third light doesn't have to be bright at all, that it should be long-lasting but only bright enough to get you safely out of the cave. I can see the benefit of modifying that stance In the case of a multi-day camp trip though.
jharman2 wrote:I see many folks with a neck lamp as a backup and have always assumed they may be worried about being without light if they somehow lost their helmet. Loosing a helmet seems like it's quite unlikely.
jharman2 wrote:This is a very good point, and exactly why I don't neck carry my backup. I see many folks with a neck lamp as a backup and have always assumed they may be worried about being without light if they somehow lost their helmet. Loosing a helmet seems like it's quite unlikely.
potholer wrote: having a spontaneous light loss on a climb is also unlikely, assuming someone is using a proper light without a tendency to peril-sensitive failure.
Lava wrote:potholer wrote: having a spontaneous light loss on a climb is also unlikely, assuming someone is using a proper light without a tendency to peril-sensitive failure.
Having come of age in the in the bulb era of caving, I've experienced more spontaneous bulb burnouts than I can possibly remember, and during all kinds of situations - climbing, on rope, hopping boulders, etc. So you'd be hard pressed to persuade me to take that second light off of my helmet. Aside from bulbs, I've also had electronics fail and batteries die. I'd agree that modern lights are an order of magnitude more reliable, but from reading these and other forums plus talking to other cavers, I know of failures in Sten lights, Zebralights, Sparks, El Speleos, and Scurions. So I think it's far more likely to happen than you are implying.
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