Anyone ever lose/have a dead headlamp in the middle of a bigger multi pitch route?

I'm curious to hear if anyone has any good stories where their headlamp died or dropped, maybe their partners failed too and you were just completely dark in the middle of a bigger multipitch climb. Did you just wait till the morning or try to bail in the dark? I carry one of those tiny headlamps in my chalk bag as a back up out of fear of this as well as a couple spare rechargeable batteries. 

My partners headlamp died on the West Face of Cerro Torre.  It got dark just before we started descending and I gave him my light as he had to lead all the raps since I lead the whole route.  Rapping the Torre without a light was moderately terrifying.  I definitely gave him some shit for not having extra batteries on such a big route.

Helmet with headlamp on it both fell off my head on P3 of RNWF Half Dome.. had to do the last 4 or so pitches to big sandy in the dark. I put my phone light on and zipped it into my puffy jacket’s pocket for some dim ambient light. Never using those petzl magnet buckles again haha

I forgot my headlamp and followed the last few pitches of Red Dihedral on the Hulk with my iphone flashlight in the breast pocket of my flannel. My partner was not terribly amused. 

No funny stories, but with caving, headlamps of course take a central role. I've grown into the habit of wearing my backup light, as a necklace. 

You can always rig your phone to your dome 😄

I once incorrectly reattached by BD headlamp to it's band. Three quarters of the way up the fourth pitch of Braille Book on Higher Cathedral Rock, it popped off and I watched it rattle down into the heart of the mountain. I down aided to a ledge halfway up the pitch then built a bail anchor mostly by feel (appropriate for the route I guess) to get back to my belayer. He led us down the thankfully straightforward rappels, and then we did a very slow hike out using my phone light. Not sure why I wasn't using my phone light on the retreat. We slung a block for the last rappel, which ended up being helpful in a few weeks when me and another party descended from where Book of Job and Braille Book merge via Braille Book.

RNWF Half Dome, ‘90? Malfunctioning BD headlamp before Big Sandy. We shared one that night and on the descent trail.

Related question: What do people do now with the ultra lite USB-charged headlamps since they don’t take spare batteries? Carry a stick USB charger or a spare headlamp?

The higher the consequences of losing a light on a route, or the descent, the more likely I'll have a small spare with me. One for the team, sort of thing

MIchael Plappwrote:

RNWF Half Dome, ‘90? Malfunctioning BD headlamp before Big Sandy. We shared one that night and on the descent trail.

Related question: What do people do now with the ultra lite USB-charged headlamps since they don’t take spare batteries? Carry a stick USB charger or a spare headlamp?

I use my rechargeable as my primary and bring a 2nd cheap headlamp with AAAs, sometimes also with extra AAAs. I draw the line at bringing a 3rd headlamp...

Read a quote from a guide once:  "you carry your spare headlamp batteries in your spare headlamp". 

MIchael Plappwrote:

Related question: What do people do now with the ultra lite USB-charged headlamps since they don’t take spare batteries? Carry a stick USB charger or a spare headlamp?

I don't know about other headlamps, but the one I use most of the time (petzl tikka) can use both the battery pack or 2 AAAs. And you can buy spare rechargeable battery packs, though they're almost as much as the headlamp itself so I just keep some spare AAAs around

My partner forgetting his headlamp nearly resulted in a fatal accident while descending a desert tower and we narrowly happened to luck out of it. I wanted to share this to underscore the importance of headlamps on big routes! 

So there we were, wearing backpack leg warmers laying on our rope on a small bit of sand next to a large flat boulder that had detached and slid a couple feet to make a tiny crows nest on top of Daff Dome. My partner and I each spooning with another man for the first time. We took turns being big spoon and little spoon and yet not ever being able to get warm enough to stop shivering. 

It all started at the top of the second pitch of West Crack when my partner said he had an emergency #2 situation and had to go down immediately. Because of the leaning nature of the climb and the rise of the slope I was able to lower him to the ground from there. After relieving himself he managed to climb back up to me. Everything seemed handled and on track to finish even though it was late in the day when he said he had "good news and bad news". The good news was that he still had our one headlamp but the bad news was that after he dropped it and caught it with his foot, the battery had blown out the back (it was a 1st gen Petzl Zoom that used the proprietary square batteries). Pressing on we finished the climb doing the last easy pitch in darkness that is only surpassed by being in a cave. When we made the decision to bivy after not being able to locate the decent in the dark it was quite nice out with a high blanket of clouds that covered the sky. Later the sky cleared and temps plummeted.

And that is how we missed Tommy Caldwell's hours long firsthand account of the kidnapping ordeal in Kyrgyzstan with Beth, John, and Jason. My partner and I had an invite to hang at the Tuolumne YOSAR camp that night and it happened the Tommy had just gotten back. And thats also how Tommy and I missed our first chance to meet and be lifelong bestest buddies.

*Sidenote: We found the decent rappels as soon as we woke. They were 12 feet from us on the other side of the boulder we had slept by and we were back at the car 20 minutes after getting up.

Amazing replies! 

Doing the long rappels down the notch from the Lost Arrow notch. My partner apparently forgot his headlamp and mine was almost dead. Now, rapping the notch is kinda sketch in daylight. I don’t remember how many rappels it is, but it’s a lot.  So we get down the first couple rappels in the actual notch, which is vertical, moist and full of loose blocks held in by the abundant greenery. That ends and it opens up to a big expansive slab, which is where my headlamps dull glow finally craps out. I was down there searching for the anchors like Hellen Keller.  With 8 or 9 rappels to go, we both kinda just shrugged it off and laughed. But we did start tying knots at the end of the ropes. 

Climbing late into the night up to the bivy at El cap spire alcove on the Salathe. Pre-LED, so my headlamp was of course on it's last juice. Couldn't find any bolts, so I anchor off a 3 foot tall boulder with rap tat, stuff some cams under it.

 Start hauling, buddy starts jugging. 

Halfway thru hauling, in the dimness I can make out the boulder rocking with each pull on the haul line, my cams beneath it slowly opening and closing with each pull.

"JUG SLOWLY!!!!" I yell down, waiting for him to get up so we can hand-over-hand the haul bag up the rest of the way. 

Lots of mistakes there, besides not having good batteries. Funny thing, YOSAR had a spotlight down below, shinning it up on dean potter doing his ropeless nose ascent. They'd shine it on us occasionally, which just made the climbing impossible to see (our own shadow)

Not really that exciting of stories since they were in the morning but I have two:

1. After climbing All Along the Watchtower in the Bugaboos, seeing the northern lights on the ridge, then rappelling from a snow bollard and getting our ropes stuck, my headlamp died when we were hiking along the snow to get back to the Pigeon-Howser col. Wasn't a big deal since it was a clear night with a big moon. Actually made navigating a little easier since we could see the outlines of the features against the stars and the moonlight was reflecting off the snow. Spent the next day filling up my fart funnel (bivy sack). After a day of rest we went back to get out ropes and head back to Applebee; the 'shrund had fallen down and kindly deposited our ropes on the glacier.

2. Climbing a NIAD my headlamp was dying while following on Sickle Ledge. Just forgot to charge it. I sat at each anchor in darkness, then turned the light on when setting up my jumars and doing lower outs. It lasted until the sun came up around Dolt.  We finished by the afternoon, so no shenanigans needed on the descent. 

One way to save batteries is to use a headlamp when it is really needed. That is, learn to function without it. Far often I see people with their headlamp on when there is enough ambient light. Which might not be any light. I rely on my night vision especially when traveling on snow.

That said, most all of the lamps made today suck. The switches turn on too easily. Numerous times I have pulled out a lamp only to find the batteries are dead because the switch got tapped accidentally. I have started packing them without the batteries installed. Of course when they do work, changing the !@#$% light from red to white, bright to dim is worse than trying to do the hokey-pokey.

Set off down a what turned out to be an eleven pitch rap off a failed first ascent with a single 60m rope down an unclimbed face building the belays by the light of the worklight on my battery drill. We made it.

Allen Sandersonwrote:

One way to save batteries is to use a headlamp when it is really needed. That is, learn to function without it. Far often I see people with their headlamp on when there is enough ambient light. Which might not be any light. I rely on my night vision especially when traveling on snow.

That said, most all of the lamps made today suck. The switches turn on too easily. Numerous times I have pulled out a lamp only to find the batteries are dead because the switch got tapped accidentally. I have started packing them without the batteries installed. Of course when they do work, changing the !@#$% light from red to white, bright to dim is worse than trying to do the hokey-pokey.

Yes. My biggest headlamp challenge is trying to remember the unique secret code to getting the light I want.