Last Year | translate:/Global/SiteRating: 4 | Accessories

A lot of thinking has gone into the Klymit Inertia X-Frame. It’s incredibly small when packed (the size of a bean tin), can literally fit in a pocket and comes in at 237g. It’s a remarkable feat. Uninflated it resembles one of those scissor-cut paper snowflakes; those holes are a canny way of saving weight and also creating something called ...

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Karrimor X-Lite FL (2013)

£70.00

Identical in shape and length to the Therm-a-Rest NeoAir X-Lite, that is where the similarities end. This is a solid effort from Karrimor, chief proponent of the closed-cell foam ‘Karrimat’ back in the 1970s. The company has gone through various twitches since – including a visit to bargain basement hell – but the quality of the kit available these days ...

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Therm-a-Rest Neoair X-Lite (2013)

£120.00

Therm-a-Rest has long dominated the inflatable mat world, but it has innovated more in the last few years than ever before with its NeoAir range. This flimsy-feeling but superlight mat doesn’t self-inflate (which doesn’t really matter) but it offers high levels of comfort with a small pack size, and the X-Lite has had its corners sanded off into a mummy ...

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Multimat Adventure 38 (2013)

£79.00

Robust and simple, Multimat products have been a favourite among budget- and quality-conscious buyers for many years. The Adventure 38 has a vertically punched foam inner much like the £70 Karrimor X-Lite FL, and shares length, shape and the same type of valve with the cheaper mat – a swivel-top ‘lock valve’ that allows you to add top-up air without ...

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Hyalite Peak AC Regular (2013)

£80.00

Clearly Batman’s mat, this Hyalite (formerly Pacific Outdoor) product has the interesting duality of being both very packable and very supportive. Six air-channelling longitudinal baffles (lilo-like air chambers to you and me) offer good support helped by the two outermost baffles being slightly larger than the inner, stopping you from rolling off the mat and helping keep you warm. A ...

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Black Diamond Icon Polar (2013)

£85.00

While many headtorches at this price can pump out 200 lumens for only 20 seconds (to prevent overheating), the Black Diamond Icon Polar can emit that level of light for 75 hours without difficulty – and this feature sets it apart. It is powered by four AA batteries and these can go in a battery housing on the head or ...

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Mammut X-Shot (2013)

£85.00

The Mammut X-Shot has been upgraded for 2013 with a ‘Boost’ function, which allows it to pump out 200 lumens for 20 seconds – a useful feature when, say, you want to check where the path goes during a descent. The torch has a single high-powered LED and a pair of lower-powered LEDs to provide a range of lighting that ...

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Silva Ninox (2013)

£45.00

The Silva Ninox is a well-priced headtorch that provides a good output of 110 lumens, which is ideal for general camping and hillwalking. There are minimum, medium and maximum power settings, and selection is via a small button on the top; however this button is too small and too smooth to be easily operated when wearing gloves, which is the ...

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Cyba-lite Egg (2013)

£19.00

As the name suggests the Cyba-lite Egg has been designed with an egg-shaped housing, and this encloses the batteries, power switches and lights. There is one white LED that has two settings; on maximum power this gives out 85 lumens for 10 hours while on the low setting the Egg emits 10 lumens for 120 hours. This is good for ...

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Hope Vision R4 LED (2013)

£199.00

The most powerful headtorch in our test, the Hope Vision R4 LED can pump out 1000 lumens over a distance of 105 metres. But what’s really neat is that you can select between two sequences of operation. In ‘Race’ sequence you get that full power option but much less battery life (just 2.5 hours at 1000 lumens). However in ‘Trail’ ...

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Alpkit Gamma (2013)

£15.00

The Gamma has been awarded the ‘Best Value’ accolade by Trail in the past, and it remains a superb option for those on a tight budget. You can however only buy this direct from the manufacturer. But you get a good light output based on the main high-powered LED, although when compared to higher-priced units this does not create such ...

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Petzl Nao (2012)

£135.00

The first time I used the Petzl Nao I didn’t think anything special was happening: it shone a bright light ahead of me to guide me along a path, then when I glanced at the map in my hand it illuminated it so I could easily check my course. But don’t all headtorches do this? No! When a normal headtorch ...