We often get asked what that satellite dish thingy is on our heads. Well my friends, we are not tuning in Tokyo, we are lighting up the night with our Scurion headlamps. Today in Interior Alaska, sunrise is at 10:50 am and sunset is at 2:43 pm, leaving us with a period of real daylight of exactly 3 hours and 53 minutes. That means that we have almost 20 hours each day of darkness right now. Our training is getting very involved at this point in the season. Most days the dogs are doing 50 to 60 mile runs. Some days they will do this more than once with a resting camp in the middle. Combined with chores and hookup times, we are easily working in the darkness for 12- 20 hours each day at this point in the season. We need the best of the best when it comes to headlamps.
Cody arrives in Dawson City in the 2013 Yukon Quest and signs in under the light of his Scurion. – Photo by Scott Chesney
There are many headlamps out there on the market and we have tried most of them. Most of the headlamps you buy at a store like REI are okay for smaller teams, but once you hook up 14 to 16 dogs they will be stretched over sixty feet in front of you. Now imagine running trails that are looming with moose… We need to be able to see beyond the leaders of the team to spot moose a safe distance away. The Scurion can do this easily. The Scurion at it’s full setting has a lighting power of 1450 lumens, which is brighter than the headlights of our truck.
This is the medium setting on a 12 dog team. I can easily see all the booties and watch dog’s gaits for change. I can also see a safe distance ahead for moose.
The other awesome thing about the Scurion is that it uses a 4-cell rechargeable Lithium Ion battery. On the low to medium settings pictured above we can easily get about 6 to 8 hours of light before recharging. We carry a couple extra batteries and a charger. When we get back to training camp or to the next checkpoint, we pop the batteries in the charger and they are fully charged and ready within 3-4 hours.. Perfect for your average race schedule and more than perfect for training. There are some other high quality brands of lights out there, but few have battery life like the Scurion headlamps. They have options for belt pack batteries that you can keep warm, but we just use the 4 cell battery on the back of the head. The cold temperatures, which sometimes reach 40 degree below or colder do not seem to affect battery life.
Scurion has been a supporter of our kennel the past two years and we absolutely appreciate their support. We are proud to use one of the finest headlamps on the market. For more information on Scurion headlamps for dog mushing, please check out their website http://www.scurion.ch/jm/index.php?Itemid=106
Paige at the finish line of the Iditarod in 2013 sporting her Scurion. Photo by Scott Chesney