Stop it! This has absolutely nothing to do with head torches :)
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Nippersmith, abject apologies, absolutely no offence intended; but as you came across as being "a bit sniffy" about Primark ( appointed suppliers of my harvest festival Y fronts ), it seemed that each of your comments deemed a retort!:rolleyes:
ANYWAY TO REAL HEADTORCH MATTERS:- This evening, 11 Bowland Bats met in Sedbergh, on the road between The Peoples' Hall and Lockabank Farm for our annual trot over Calders to The Calf. 7 of us did the full out & back route. Initially a bit of light rain. Once on the col between Winder and Arant Haw it was blowing a hooley and visibility was clagged in to around 3 metres. Being the 'old man' of the group and asthmatic, I took a 17 minute headstart and was well chuffed that the 'speedy young pups' did not reel me in until on the way back over the summit of Calders; and then only because I had to go into my bumbag for my gloves .... hands were warm enough on the way up but starting to chill on the descent; I was hand holding the Vision 2 below waist level due to the thick clag! 9 of us had a convivial apres run in The Dalesman.
WERE YOU (anyone on this forum) the headtorcher who was descending from the direction of Arant Haw towards me as I traversed up the E flank of Winder, about 7.15 p.m? You did not actually descend to meet me but continued on the ridge, up to the summit of Winder!
Oh WD. there is no need to apologise, please, I started it with my snobby observation on the disposability of Primark underwear; I will own up to being a fan of 'middle of the road' M & S, and then we can move on :)
I ordered a head torch recommended on this thread, but had to send it back as it was faulty, so I am scouting around for another.
Dear Nippersmith, I tend to use my bike light, which came complete with an optional head harness. It's a Hope Vision 2, beautifully crafted in Barnoldswick, Lancashire and a very useful 400 lumens output. Beam pattern is just wide enough, but it has ample range. I use it on ouput level 1 ( of 1 to 4 ) most of the time. A bit pricey at £160 but I only bought it as I received £100 worth of vouchers for Wheelbase at Staveley, as a birthday present, and the only thing that I then needed for the audax bike was a really good front light.
My backup headtorch is my old Black Diamond 'Icon'. The main beam is a tightly focussed 3 watt hyperbright L.E.D. ( pretty much like a Petzl Myo XP ) but unlike the Myo XP (which uses a flip-up diffuser for localised lighting; you are still burning 3 watts worth of battery and the diffuser saps so much of the light output that the light is nigh on useless ) the Icon is also equipped with 4x low wattage superbright L.E.D.s that provide ample output for localised lighting and running ascents; plus a huge increase in battery life. A very versatile headtorch for £50 - £60. I bought mine from Ultimate Outdoors, if you have a branch locally, and they give a 10% discount if you can show a current FRA or YHA membership card.
Ian.:)
Hey, WD, what a good recommendation, thank you. I will try the Hope Vision 2 as the versatility is very attractive to me. Beautifully crafted too, it sounds very impressive. Currently out of stock at your place but I will find and buy and let you know how I get on. I can't run for 2 weeks due to my physio flagging up a suspected stress fracture, investigations ongoing. I will let you know how I get on with the HV2. Thanks, S
This morning's headtorcher!
Another weekend and the usual ferrying of the kids to their various activities, starting wih my daughter's gymnastics on Saturday morning. I also needed to get in a long run in preperation for the Edale Skyline so nothing for it but a 4:45 alarm call this morning and out running by 5am. It was a nice run actually The first hour with the head torch. Dazzled a few rabbits loads of roosters and then the dawn corus. Really felt like spring. Why did God make animals as stupid as sheep? For those of you who know Cobden Edge I was travelling anti clockwise towards the very narrow section with the style by the wood with 20 odd sheep in front of me. Instead of breaking off to the left when they could they just kept running towards the bottle neck with the fence on one side and a cliff on the other. I had visions of a farmer charging me for the cost of 20 dead sheep after they ran over the cliff. Luckly they managed to squeeze through a gap in the fence. So a good (but slowish) 4 hr 21 mile run. Got home at 9:15 time for a quick shower then off to gymnastics at 9:30 only to be told that my daughter was a bit tired and was not going.....
just shy of 8.5 miles and just shy of 2000ft ascent, clear skies with great views of Jupiter-Venus conjunction
I didn't get home in time to run with Stef and friends at Bolton Abbey last night but arrived in time at the Swan for a just-pulled pint of Ilkley Mary Jane. Apparently the run was good; the MJ was awesome :w00t:
10 Bowland Bats met up by the cattle-grid above Cow Close on the Langcliffe to Malham road, for a trot around our version of the Settle Loop. The 5 in the slow group set forth at 18.40 and as we headed S under Attermire Scar we met a local headtorcher heading N ( ?Geoff Laycock? a Settle member ). Then ESE to pop out on to Stockdale Lane at a sharp bend below Little Banks. E up the lane for 600 - 700 yards then L onto the PBW that climbs over to Nappa Cross and NE to the junction with the Langcliffe track, which is taken WNW to return to just below Jubilee Cave then R over a stile to follow the trods back to the cars.
Garmin showed 7.84 miles of tough undulating trails in 1 hr 45 mins, but one mile of the undulating, gravelly Langcliffe track had been covered in 7 min 14 sec. Seems years since I've run off road at 8 min / mile pace!! The fast 5 had started at 19.00 and returned 5 mins behind us, for an elapsed time of 1 hr 30 mins.