Colorado Mountain School Blog: Black Diamond Storm Headlamp

Black Diamond Storm Headlamp

Earlier this season in Rocky Mountain National Park, the Black Diamond Storm headlamp helped me recover lost equipment and get my first turns of the season. Here's my recount from an AIARE Level I Avalanche Course.

We had spent most of the day bringing all of our skills together with a terrain tour in Tyndall Gorge. On our way back to the trail head we decided to set up one more companion rescue drill. We selected a site in between Dream and Nymph Lakes to do our beacon search. The students located and dug up the target in record time. We all got ready to ski down the trail and a question arose about double burials. I demoed and discussed some methods. Time flies by and it's time to go meet the rest of the group and get back to the classroom to wrap up the course.

AIARE Level I Students in RMNP

Our Avalanche Level 1 arrives back at the Colorado Mountain School after being in the field. The guide team collects the rentals and it dawns on me to check my pack for the extra beacon…it is not there. I check my truck…not there either. I now know that the beacon is still under the snow surface in between Dream and Nymph Lakes. I grab my skis, skins, boots, and Black Diamond Storm Head Lamp and whisk to Bear lake parking. By the time I arrive at the parking area there is only one car and folks are walking to it all bundled up and staring at me. I toggle through the different levels of lighting. Double tap and I get the red setting…no need for something brighter. Sure enough 100 lumens will do the trick during a new moon and off I go up the trail disappearing from the whispering folks shocked on my late ski decision.

I arrive at the site of where we were practicing. Boom baby! Here it is. I rip my skins, buckle my boots and away I go skiing trough the trees back to the parking area. This happens to be my first real ski run of the season and it is lead by my BD Strom Headlamp. I arrive back to CMS with the beacon and all is well. The BD Storm stays in my ski pack all of the time waiting for the next nighttime adventure.