Eye & Pen: Lifestyle, Travel, Photography and Literature
  • Main
  • Blog
  • Topics
    • Accommodations
    • Bucket List
    • Cheap Travel
    • Culture
    • Essay
    • Destinations
    • Inspiration
    • Interviews
    • Narratives
    • Personal
    • Photography
    • Restaurants
    • Reviews
    • Safe Travel
    • Travel Planning
    • Trip Update
    • Weekly Wanderlust
  • Photo Gallery
    • Photo Gallery – All Places
    • Photo Gallery – Aruba
    • Photo Gallery – England
    • Photo Gallery – Europe
    • Photo Gallery – Iceland
    • Photo Gallery – Ireland
    • Photo Gallery – Italy
    • Photo Gallery – Northern Ireland
    • Photo Gallery – Other
    • Photo Gallery – Scotland
    • Photo Gallery – USA
  • About Brandon
  • Contact

Cutting out the burden by cutting weight: Reviewing Black Diamond’s Icon Headlamp

9/28/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
If you’ve ever seriously trekked in the wilderness for days, then you understand the difficulty of carrying all of the equipment you may need without entirely burdening one’s self with the excessive weight and overall burden of a full pack, plus essentials. When you consider how many items are needed for a simple 3-day trek and stay in the wilderness, it cam become daunting… Imagine carrying your clothes, toiletries, food, cook wear, tent, sleeping bag, axe, medical supplies, pack, boots, etc. And that’s keeping it to the basics, because when you’re out in the deep wild world, you never know what may happen, so you must be prepared for anything.
Picture
Now, if you’re no stranger to this experience, and have decades of survival experience, then you can no doubt travel lighter than a lot of other people, because you likely have the ability to adapt and be creative with what nature provides you if you-know-what were to hit the fan. For me, personally, I like to strike a balance between over-packing and preventing hating life from the weight burden. When I’m camping with friends, I’ll go full-force glamping, where I take multiple full-size tents, sleeping bags, camp chairs and tables, a large cooler, as well as an electric chainsaw. Yeah, imagine carrying all that deep into the woods; no thanks. So, when you’re planning your next trip, consider packing economically, by choosing your gear carefully. If you can take skip on that large lantern with heavy D batteries, and instead choose a headlamp, right there you’re cutting out pounds of weight and are freeing your hands. I do this wherever possible. And when I’m backpacking overseas, you will see me be even more judicial in my choices.


Headlamps are a favorite of mine, because they cut down on weight, cost of operation (no need for those overbearing and overly expensive batteries), and allows you to explore the dim and the dark with no need of your extremities. Having hands free when in a truly wild area, with healthy wildlife, can be the difference between life and death. No joke; it’s the simple things that can give you the leg up when abroad, because avoidance starts with prevention.

Personally, I’ve only just recently came across my favorite headlamp. I’ve used headlamps for years in my camping and wilderness treks, but I’ve always felt the models I had tried out previous were either cheaply made, weak brightness or were very uncomfortable. But when the fine folks over at Black Diamond sent me their ICON headlamp, I was immediately enamored with the quality of the product. If you’re not familiar with Black Diamond, I suggest you start, because they are among the industry standard of creating the best of the best, at a reasonable and affordable price, unlike many other competitive brands. I’ve worked with their tents and sleeping bags in the past, and have always loved the quality.

The ICON headlamp is a tiny, beastly light that fits around your skull with a comfortable band. The light is powered with a battery pack that can either fit on the back of the band, on the back of your head, or which can be wired down to your belt, where the battery pack can hang freely and perhaps more comfortably. Most headlamps don’t give you that option. The ICON comes with a QuadPower LED spotlight and 1 DoublePower white LED that emits a max up to 500 lumens, with a max distance of 125 meters… You read that right: 500 lumens!

What makes the ICON headlamp so damned special is that it’s extremely bright, lightweight, and easy to use, but even more so, is it’s feature capabilities: the ICON comes night vision ready, which means that it has red, green and blue light spectrums that allow you to see more and see better in lowlight and night situations. How cool is that?! Other features unique to the ICON headlamp is that it has a freestyle dimmer, a strobe setting in case of emergencies, the night vision settings of course, as well as a proximity sensor and a setting lock. All in all, I came away very impressed after my initial testing of the ICON headlamp by Black Diamond, and would recommend it to anyone who travels, or simply likes to wander about in the dark. It’s well made, very well thought out and accomplishes so much in a tiny case.

If you would like to learn more about Black Diamond, click here.


Article written by Brandon Scott / Eye & Pen
(Main photo by gruenewiese via Flickr – Product photo © Black Diamond)

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Article Topics

    All
    About Blogging
    Accommodations
    Bucket List
    Cheap Travel
    Culture
    Destinations
    Discussion
    Entertainment
    Environment
    Essay
    Fine Art Feature
    Gear
    General
    Giveaway
    Green Living
    Guest Posts
    Inspiration
    Interviews
    Lifestyle
    Luxury
    Narratives
    Not Recommended
    Other
    Personal
    Photography
    Restaurants
    Reviews
    Safe Travel
    Trip Planning
    Trip Update
    USA Road Trip
    Video
    Weekly Wanderlust

    RSS Feed

    Monthly Archive

    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    November 2021
    September 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012

    *Disclaimer: All blog posts featuring products, reviews, or suggestions for products or services are governed by our Disclosure. Products were received free to review, so to provide authentic opinions and content for our readers. The opinions and ideas in this post are the writer's own and are uninfluenced by any other person or business. We receive no compensation for product reviews. Links within non-product review posts may be sponsored.
 
+
 
 Privacy Policy  |  Terms of Use  |  Disclosure
Copyright © 2011-2024 Brandon Elijah Scott / Eye & Pen. All rights reserved..