While headtorches might be the usual weapon of choice in the battle with long dark nights they’re not without issues. I often find they leave me feeling a little isolated from the world around me and there’s always the ‘blinding whoever you’re talking to’ problems to deal with. The AlpKit Glowe overcomes both of those with little compromise anywhere else.
The Glowe is both a lantern and a torch. Press the button on the base and you have a torch, point it where you like, even into the faces of others if you’re missing the ‘blinding whoever you’re talking to’ comedy moments. However, if you slide the upper and lower sections apart the Glowe transforms into a rather useful lantern that illuminates quite an area on high setting or provides a nice warming glow under your tarp on low.
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| The Trinity is Glowes big brother. |
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| Glowe in lantern mode. |
The Glowe uses a single led and runs off 3 AAA batteries that live in the base. A simple button on the bottom turns it on / off and also controls the settings. You can stand it up on the ground (it has little fold out feet) or hang it from a branch or some such depending what you’re doing and where you’d like the majority of the light. The lens in lantern mode isn’t clear but slightly opaque so there’s no glaring or harshness.
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| 3 AAA batteries, easy to change – easy to carry. |
There’s 2 power settings plus a third flashing mode which may come in handy for something at some point. In high, there’s a surprising amount of usable light, the picture below was taken in the Bear Bones special light testing facility and although not clear in the picture the Glowe easily lit the entire 4m x 8m space.
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| On high setting – I’m not sure you can do ‘beam shots’ with lanterns! |
When the switch was flicked to low the output drops quite dramatically but it still produces enough light to read or cook by as long as you place the lantern nearby. The really nice thing about the low setting is the battery life … somewhere around 50 hours from some quality batteries! By sensibly switching between settings it should be possible to eek out every bit of battery life but if you just bang it on high, illuminate the forest and leave it, you’ll only have about 2 hours before things start to return to their natural dark state … it’s really not an issue, just be sensible.
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| On low setting – the Glowe glowing. |
On my scales the Glowe weighs 120g with batteries on board and measures 112mm x 51mm at its widest points. The Glowe is available in either red or blue so you can match your eyes and costs £12.50 which I think is a real bargain … it even comes with a good set of batteries and that price includes postage!
If you want a bit more light and don’t mind about a weight increase then there’s also the Trinity lantern … like the Glowe but BIGGER. You can buy yourself one at AlpKit
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| Amen to that brothers. Fold away hanging hook on the top. |
I have one of these lights and I really like it. It's great for car camping and random home uses but I find, even with Lithium batteries that's it's a bit heavy for bikepacking. 'Sides, I'm normally racing and have my headlamp to use for the short amount of time I'm awake anyway.
Having said that, it's good enough to be in the "go camping" carry-all that I have for every bike race or camping trip.