Anyone have any recommendations for a good headlamp that will fit on a helmet for mountain rescue work? Need a bright light and good battery life.

I prefer small, waterproof, adjustable LED headlamps that use AAA cells. My current headlamp is the BD Storm. I try to avoid the brightest settings so that I won't blind the patient or fellow rescuers when I turn my head to talk to them. Also, on the lower settings, the headlamp will last all night. If I need a bright light for search or route finding, I carry a small but bright hand held LED flashlight attached to the sternum strap on my pack. You are less likely to blind someone inadvertently with a hand held light. I am using an Olight M22 right now. There are many fine headlamps and flashlights out there, but regardless of which one you choose, ALWAYS have fresh cells in your light and carry new spares in your pack.

BD Storm is my current fav

Personally i would go for the black diamond Icon polar because you can store the battery in your clothes keeping the battery warm and it actually has enough battery to work with it for extended periods with an actual run time of abut 8 hours on high mode, i got this advise of the type of headlamp from Andy Kirkpatrick.

For small lamps like the BD Storm or Petzl Tikka, I recommend carrying a spare lamp, so you never have to change the batteries in the field.

Those types of lamp are perfect for use around camp or when following a decent trail, but marginal for route-finding on foot and really poor if you need to find a belay station that's a rope-length away.

If you need something seven times as bright, you can either go hand-held as Yeti suggested, or consider one of these:

http://www.vftt.org/forums/showthread.p ... nda-bright Note that you get under three hours of battery life if you leave it at the highest setting, 8 1/2 hours on low.

My BD Spot died on my last trip and I had to follow my buddy who was wearing a "Spot" type headlamp and it was a nightmare descent for me. I now carry a small but very bright LED handheld when I really need a bright spot or strobe. The battery life is relatively short on high power but it only uses one AA so I carry a spare if I need it. This little 3W wonder will put out a spot at 100' that will temporarily blind anything that looks at it. They call them tactical lights and I can sure see why.

Personally, I don't like wearing battery packs on my head. You can't keep the batteries warm in cold weather and if I'm not wearing a helmet the tight headband gives me a headache. I used to cave and our standard was always the 4 D cell battery pack with a corded headlamp. We'd run the wire inside of our jacket to protect it and I never had any problems except for the weight of the batteries. Here's a high tech LED version of my old cave lamp. It's sold as a bike lamp but it sure looks like it'd fit my helmet with no problem.

http://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo ... 1187/2798/

Bob

There are lots of very powerful bike headlamps out there that could work for hiking. They're designed to throw a beam sufficient for traveling at 20MPH. Some of those high-wattage lights can get hot, hot enough that you wouldn't want it in your hand.

How much do you want to spend and what are the criteria for a light used in mountain rescue?

Consider some of the lights used in caving. They typically will have high brighness AND power saving modes, but the big difference typically is weight - AAAs are typically not going to cut it for 10+ hours underground unless 1)you want to fill your light with mud by constantly opening to change batteries or 2)you never have enough light to see the passage you just passed.

http://www.stenlight.com/
http://www.petzl.com/us/outdoor/headlam ... d-series-0

There's a post here with a nice spreadsheet of lights:
http://forums.caves.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=14881

Just be prepared for some sticker shock - a good light in caving is like good boots in mountaineering .

I have the petzl duo 14 - it's a great light but dated - the halogen option really only offers redundancy since the 14 leds are just as bright. Frankly the petzl ultra-vario, sten s7, or really anything based on a cree xml - might be a good option. These lights have options for a super long throw - the difference between seeing a problem at a distance vs wasting time to walk up on it. Of course that said, you could save a lot of money with a more standard headlight, and the a secondary handheld torch style light.

The Mammut X-Sun is a very bright headlamp (200 meters) with a rechargeable battery pack that has excellent longevity.

http://www.mammut.ch/en/productDetail/2 ... X-Sun.html

I have one and quite like it. Only down sides are price and weight.

Testing out the Mammut X-Sun. It really fits the bill. I always carry a four D cell headlamp and also an Ultafire XML-T-6 which will light up a stadium. Thanks to all for the advise.