It’s a simple equation: As nights get longer, backpackers have to spend more and more time outside in the dark. If you’re a make-miles-at-all-costs kind of hiker, that may be fine with you: You hike from sun-up to sundown, maybe adding on a couple of headlamp-lit hours at the end, and then head straight to sleep. But if you’re the kind of backpacker who likes to kill some time unwinding with your friends at the end of the day, don’t want to spend it blinding each other with your headlamps, and can’t or aren’t interested in putting in the work to make a fire, having a lantern is key.
Unfortunately for ounce-counters, lanterns are extra weight. While there’s a good argument to be made for carrying one—a quality lantern can pull double-duty as both your power bank and a party light—not everyone wants to dedicate their precious pack space to carrying a secondary light source. If you’re that kind of backpacker, you still have options. Make your headlamp into a warm camp lantern with these three lightweight tricks.
The big difference between a camp lantern and a headlamp isn’t power: Most headlamps on the market put out at least as many lumens as an average backpacking lantern, and usually significantly more. The issue is the way they focus that light: Headlamps’ beams, whether spot or flood, are directional, designed to illuminate the area in front of the person wearing them. In contrast, lanterns cast their light evenly and softly in 360 degrees. In order to use your headlamp as a lantern, you’ll need something to diffuse its light. The easiest thing to use: Your water bottle. We found this technique works best with a translucent but not transparent bottle, which diffuses the light more effectively. Just unscrew the lid, strap your headlamp to the top of your (empty) bottle with the beam pointing down. (Note: This and the following methods work better if you turn your headlamp to flood mode instead of spot.)
More of a bladder than a bottle person? You can also MacGyver a camp lantern using something you almost certainly have in your pack: A stuff sack. While a few companies make dedicated diffuser sacks for headlamps, this trick works with any white stuff sack that’s lightweight enough to let the light through. Lie your headlamp on the ground and cinch the end of the stuff sack around the lamp housing. (Make sure the lens isn’t directly touching the fabric, or the beam will shine directly through instead of diffusing.) Fabric not stiff enough to stand up on its own? You can also hang the whole contraption from a branch or the top of your tent by your headlamp’s strap. Pro tip: Try puffing into the cinched down opening of the stuff sack to inflate it, which will help provide more even light.
This method is the easiest of all, but you’ll need some special equipment for it: The Petzl Noctilight ($20) is a zippered case with a flat bottom and a translucent, soft plastic dome on top, designed to both diffuse your headlamp’s light and act as storage for it when you’re on the trail. It’s dead easy to use: Pair it with most Petzl headlamps and you can press the power symbol on the dome, which lines up with the button on the headlamp, to turn on the light without taking it out. (We’ve found the Noctilight works with compact headlamps from other brands as well, but you may have to unzip the case to trigger the power.) The Noctilight also features a built-in cord, allowing users to easily hang it from a tree (or, as we did while hanging out in a shelter on a trip to Panama’s Parque Internacional La Amistad, from a nail).
From 2023
