Petzl Tikkina

At our hotel in Leh

I had bought this headlamp before the Chadar Trek in 2016 from Amazon for Rs 1600. I haven't used it much ever since except at home for doing certain odd things and for the odd road trip to Rajasthan. But the Chadar trek itself is a pretty tough testing ground and it passed with full marks.

At the price, which is very low for a product from a well established brand, it is an excellent choice if your requirement does not include night time walking. This is a basic flashlight for using at night in the camp - for looking for things in the tent, eating in the mess tent, going to the loo after dinner etc. 

It is not meant for long walks because the beam is neither too long nor very wide. But, for keeping it handy in the camp even when you go to sleep it is ideal. In Chadar I used to often just keep it on, aimed at the tent's ceiling, to overcome the boredom of the night inside the tent.

It consumes very less battery. So you can keep it on instead of constantly worrying about battery running out and keep switching on and off. The original unit came with pre-loaded batteries. They are still going strong. 

The unit is very light and you hardly feel its presence on your forehead. The unit can also be kept at various angles to either help see things in your sack or the path to the toilet. The headband is of good quality and not itchy. The unit can be used in two intensity modes. It has one switch which is used to serially switch the unit on, dim and switch off. The small problem here is that if you are on the dimmer mode, you need to switch it off first and then go to the stronger light mode.

Our guide at Chadar, Tashi Skelzang liked the unit very much and asked me to give it to him for his hikes to the Stok Kangri where you need to walk in the dark. He said this would do fine for him despite the beam being officially not very wide. I told him since I had got quite attached to it by then, I wouldn't give this particular unit but would buy a new one for him and send it to Leh. Unfortunately that has yet to happen (It happened before the Roopkund trip in May 2017 when Sujan personally carried it to Leh for me. Tashi was ecstatic after getting it. I am deeply indebted to him for what he did for me in Chadar.)  

If I have to find a fault with the unit it is the non-intuitive way in which it has to be opened to insert the batteries. But if I can work it out you can too :-) Someone might say the unit is not rechargeable. I am glad that it is not. In a remote location if the battery runs out you cannot recharge it. It is best that this feature is left out. Of course you can always use rechargeable batteries. It takes three AAA batteries.

Incidentally Petzl is the name of the brand, after its French founder. Tikkina is the name of the model. They have many other models of flashlights and headlamps and other mountaineering equipment. This I think is the most basic one. But it serves my purpose just fine. I take it along even during my self drive trips.

Some Addition After Roopkund Trek (June 2017)

As the battery goes down the unit gets dimmer. I did not realise this was happening. But after I changed the batteries, I realised the light became much stronger. But this was after the early morning Roopkund push :-)

I was researching other headlamps with stronger and wider beams and realised the unit has a few shortcomings. A. It does not have any lock to ensure that the unit is not accidentally switched on inside your bag. The unit also does not have any red or green or blinking feature. These are apparently used as distress signals. The unit cannot be USB charged.

The clear advantage of this unit against its more expensive brothers is that it takes rechargeable batteries. I will perhaps get a stronger light sooner or later like a Black Diamond Storm but this unit will always remain my favourite.