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Travel Himalaya Nepal
Light & Power

Headlamps

The 3 AM starts are not optional on some routes.

About the links on this page.Some go to Amazon, and as an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases — at no extra cost to you. It does not change what we recommend: every card here also says who the item is not for, and a few things we think you should simply rent in Kathmandu or Pokhara instead, which earns us nothing.

Black Diamond Spot 400 — The 4 a.m. start and the walk to the toilet block
Best overall

The 4 a.m. start and the walk to the toilet block

Black Diamond Spot 400

400 lumens, AAA batteries, IPX8

Bright enough for a pre-dawn pass and simple enough to fix in the dark with cold hands — it runs on AAAs, which is heavier than a rechargeable and is exactly why we recommend it.

Swappable AAAs mean a dead lamp is a two-minute problem, not a trek-ending one

Red mode that does not wake a whole dormitory

Waterproof enough to be forgotten in the rain

Heavier than a rechargeable

You carry spare batteries

Lock-out mode is easy to forget, and it will drain in a pack

Not for you if: Weight-counting fastpackers. Take the rechargeable and accept that a flat battery at 4,800 m is your problem.

Check price on Amazon
Petzl Actik Core — For people already carrying a power bankBest rechargeable

For people already carrying a power bank

Petzl Actik Core

The hybrid design is the honest compromise: charge it off your bank most nights, drop in AAAs when the solar has failed for three days — you pay more than either single-format lamp costs.

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Black Diamond Astro 300 — The spare that lives in the bottom of the duffelBest backup

The spare that lives in the bottom of the duffel

Black Diamond Astro 300

Cheap and light enough that carrying two lamps stops being an argument — the beam is flat and the strap is thin, so it is a backup and not a main lamp.

Check price on Amazon