I recently reviewed two climbing accident reports in Yosemite National Park in which an LED headlamp was separated from its harness during a fall.These were models in which the lamp snaps into a yoke attached to the strap system. Two different brands were involved. In the first incident (November 10, 2007), two climbers were rappelling at night on Cathedral Peak during a sudden snow storm. One climber accidentally swung a short distance and struck a corner. The low-speed impact did not hurt him but it popped his LED headlamp out of its yoke (on his helmet) and the lamp was lost. Later that evening one of the climbers died due to hypothermia. The loss of the headlamp had slowed them somewhat but it may not have been a major contributing factor in the climber's death, since they were already in serious trouble. In the second incident (May 15, 2008), a climber was seriously injured in a leader fall on the Nose route of El Capitan at night. His LED lamp separated from its yoke during the fall and was lost. The injury forced the climbers to wait until morning before moving, so the missing lamp played no role in the accident or its outcome, as far as we can tell. I had a short conversation about this with John Dill (YOSAR) and we looked at two of the latest model LED headlamps that come with yokes. This design enables you to interchange different lamp and harness models at will, but you run a significant risk of losing your light. Even without this particular risk, there are lots of other ways to lose or damage a light,and the loss can be serious, so YOSAR recommends carrying your spare batteries in a spare headlamp. The accidents mentioned above will be published on the YOSAR website and in the AAC's annual Accidents in North American Mountaineering.

Majid Sabet
June, 13-2008

Can you clarify which models were involved in these events?

The Petzl headlamps that use the ADAPT connectors are a likely culprit.

http://en.petzl.com/petzl/LampesNews?News=147

I see that their new helmet is even being offered with a clip that works with this system.

Regardless, neither of those acccidents were caused by a broken headlamp.

Not many headlamps will survive impact with the rock anyway. My Princeton Tech one broke at the hinge just while it was in the pack. It's best to have at least two headlamps in situations where the loss of one would be critical.