Micro Head Torch Shoot-Out: Petzl E+Lite Vs Fenix HL10

 The Stats

	Petzl E+Lite	Fenix HL10
RRP	£24.95	£25.95
Max Output	26 Lumens	70 Lumens
Max Runtime: High	55h	50 mins
Max Runtime: Mid	55h	2h 45mins
Max Runtime: Low	70h	27h
Max Distance	29m	15m
Impact Resistance	1m	1m
Water Resistance	-1m IP67	-2m IPX-8
Weight	26g	58g
Dimensions	L40mm x W32mm x H23mm	L69.5mm x W29.2mm x H28.2mm
Battery	2 x CR2032 (included)	1 x AAA (included)
Guarantee	10 Year Guarantee	24 months free repair, limited lifetime warranty
Degree Tilt	360 degrees	100 degrees
Bulb	4 x LEDs (3 White +1 Red)	1 x Cree XP-E LED
Number of Modes	5	3

First Impressions:

My first impression of the Petzl E+Lite which was purchased from Nightgear.co.uk was “is this some kind of toy!” It’s absolutely tiny only a little bigger than my thumb, at only 26g and almost entirely made of plastic it doesn’t feel in anyway substantial. 

Just a smidge bigger than my thumb!

Being as small at it is has some pluses and some minuses for me. On the plus side I always like to pack light but try to cover as many eventualities as possible so the e+lite is great in that respect. On the minus side being that small means I will undoubted at some point in the torches life lose it, probably somewhere at the bottom of my bag but if it drop on to the forest floor even a small leaf could hide it from my sight forever more. The other thing I noticed is that is doesn’t appear to have the usual headband you expect with most head torches, this has been replaced with a retractable reel of what looks basically like cheese wire,  but on closer inspection seems pretty strong  and not uncomfortable to wear,  when you consider this torch is designed to be mainly used as an emergency head lamp its fine. All the 5 functions are easy to see immediately on the front of the torch, it has a low, high and strobing white beam and a solid and strobing red beam too. As well as the off setting it also has
a lock setting to ensure it doesn’t turn on whilst sitting lost at the bottom of your rucksack. The tilt function on it is the best I’ve seem with a little ball joint at the bottom giving the torch the possibility of pointing it in any angle or direction needed.

On to the Fenix HL10 which I got from Outdoorfusion.co.uk, first impressions are this is a much meatier torch and although still pretty tiny it weighs in at twice that of the e+lite. It has a “normal” style elastic headband that is as comfortable as you’d expect and is easily adjusted by a toggle at the back.  The torch itself sits in a plastic case attached to the headband, this case pops open and allows you to remove the lamp section and use it as a stand-alone normal flashlight which is pretty smart. 

The Fenix out of is casing

The flashlight section is made of adonsied aluminium and feels very rugged despite its diminutive size. It can also stand up on it end on a flat surface which I’m sure I’ll find a use for, just not sure what yet! Once clipped back in to the plastic case it is able to rotate 100 degrees up and down, which is all you would really hope for in a head torch. The button set up on the Fenix isn’t as immediately as obvious as the Petzl, it has one rubber button on the top of the lamp which you need to hold down for two to three seconds before the torch will turn on after that tapping the button with cycle through it’s low, medium and high settings. Holding the button for a further few seconds will turn it off.

The Field Test

For this test I worked two consecutive days at the Hunter Gather Cook School, both days run in almost exactly the same format  (stag dos) and both days will require me to work for around 3 hours in our off grid kitchen in the dark. Rather than using the Oil Lamps I usually work by I just used one of the head torches each day.

Standard start to the day at HGC

The first torch up was the Petzel which fared pretty well, the red light setting is great to switch to if you are having a conversation with someone you don’t want to blind, the main and even the economy settings worked well for the sort of jobs I was getting up to in the kitchen but were perhaps a little lacking when it came to foraging for ingredients out in the woods. Comfort wise my initial scepticism about the cheese cutter style head band were unfounded and once on the torch was so light and comfortable I found myself forgetting it was even there! Also the retractable style of the band meant that it could be warn on the wrist, which adds some extra versatility. Towards the end of the day there was a noticeable drain on the battery with there being little difference to the eco and standard modes. I’d say overall it performed excellently and for most people who will only be requiring a little time and light to set up camp until their fires are going it will be perfect. Considering that this head torch is designed to be an emergency back up, it actually out performs what it says it can do on the tin.

Getting down to some serious Fallow Carpaccio

The second day was a chance for the Fenix HL10 to shine and it really did! The initial 70 Lumens were just what I needed to badger away in the kitchen and woods to my hearts content. The lamp has an auto dim function when on high power and dims after a few minutes on full power.  I think if it had been left on full for the whole period perhaps the batteries might not have made it all the way through the day. Like the Petzl it did dim as the day came to a close but this is a fairly long test for a micro head torch so to be expected. The dimmest setting was fine to switch to when talking to our guests but I found the way the button set up worked to be a little less simple that the petzl although perfectly usable.  Overall it performed excellently which leaves me with a pretty close call as to which one I would choose as the winner……

Manning the kettles

The Results

And the winner is…...The Petzl E+Lite. The Petzl just scrapes the win due to it’s tiny size and massive versatility. It’s a great little all rounder and as I said previously it out performs expectations of just an emergency back up. This would be great for anyone who expects light weight and medium to light use. Only thing I will say for both of these torch is that carrying a spare set of batteries would be a good idea should you have to use them for an extended period.

Light Photography Competition

Your word painted in light competition.

I'm so happy to see this blog getting so many views and so much positive feed back I'd like to give something back to you my readers. I'll be off tonight deep underground to an abandoned train tunnel to practice my other love, photography. I'd like to offer five readers who comment below a photo of the word of their choice painted in light, it could be your name, your lovers name,your child's name or just a word that means something to you (please not supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!) I'll be in touch and email it over to you tomorrow or the next day. Be quick you've got until 8pm. So whats your word going to be? If it's Love I've got it covered!

Best of luck!

How To: Trap UK Signal Crayfish

"In 1976 a Cray commando unit was sent to the UK by the USA for a crime they didn't commit. These crayfish promptly escaped from a maximum-security farm to the English countryside and went underground. Today, still wanted by the environment agency, they survive as food for foragers. If you have a hunger, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the crAy-Team."

KNOW YOUR ENEMY / DINNER

North American Signal Crayfish – The Foe

Length: Adults usually about 15cm but can be up to 30cm

Body: Generally bluish-brown to reddish brown. Smooth all over. Two pairs of ridges behind the eye sockets. Spines absent from behind cervical groove. Rostrum well developed with parallel sides and long apex.

Claws: Smooth on both sides, underside bright red in colour.

Habits/habitats: Aggressive. Invasive. Lives in streams, rivers, canals, reservoirs, water-filled gravel pits. Burrows extensively.

Distribution: Found across England, especially in the south. Wales but also in present in Scotland.

Status: All Signal Crayfish caught should be humanely destroyed. It is illegal to put them back.

European White-clawed crayfish – The Friend 

Length: Adults usually about 10cm but can be up to 12cm (excluding claws)

Body: Usually brown or olive brown in colour. Smooth but pitted. Two pairs of ridges behind the eye sockets: however second pair may not be visible. Has a row of sharp spines behind sides of cervical groove. Rostrum (extending point on top of head) triangular with very short apex.

Photo courtesy of www.castlebar.ie

Claws:  Top side rough, underside dirty white to pink.

Habits/habitats: Relatively docile. Lives in streams, rivers, canals, reservoirs, water-filled gravel pits. Capable of burrowing.

Distribution: Found in central/northern England and eastern Wales

Status: Protected. All white clawed crayfish caught should be released. It is illegal to kill them.

Licensing:

A License from the Environment Agency is required to make sure people aren’t going to go out and start trapping in an area where UK Crayfish or Water Voles are present. To get a license and get trapping you’ll need two important things, 1. You’ll need to find a place where you know the signal crayfish are present, 2. You’ll need the landowner’s permission to trap there. This may seem like quite an obstacle to over come but when you consider that around 75% of the UK’s rivers now have Signal Crayfish in at some point it gives you some hope., that and the fact the crayfishing licenses are FREE! Once permission is granted you’ll receive a credit card sized license for each of the traps you have applied for which must be attached to the trap when it’s in the water. The traps must be UK legal which means the entrance to the trap must be no more than 9.5 cm across if the entrance is more than 9.5 cm across, there must be an otter guard or restriction on the funnel leading into the trap the holes in the mesh must not be more than 3 cm across, the trap itself must not be more than 60 cm long or 35 cm wide.

My Story:

I had been interested in trapping crayfish for some time but had no idea where to find them so it was a stroke of luck when a guy who came to Hunter Gather Cook for work experience mentioned he used to catch them on a river nearby. That’s all I needed to know. The very next day I sneaked off with a couple of friends down to the river in question armed with a piece of bacon and some string (hi-tec I know!). My friend who was local and had fished that same stretch of river all his life was sceptical, “never even seen one on in all my years……” he had to stop short as I’d just picked up a sizeable claw from the river bank, he was stunned and immediately started taking photos of it with his phone, tweeting and messaging his fishing friends as we all unfortunately tend to do these days. The claw was most probably the leftovers of a herons dinner, I have quietly witnessed them wading along the river plucking them out.

 

With that we tied the bit of bacon around the string and threw it in the water not really expecting much to happen, within a minute or two I mentioned to my friend that I thought I could see something in one of the small holes that lined the bank of the river, another minute passed and whatever it was gone from the hole. I had a little tug on the string to see if anything was happening at the other end, and there it was! my first crayfish hanging on to the bacon like his life depended on it, I gently pulled him closer to the bank but just as he was about to surface he shot off backwards like some kind of rocket propelled mini lobster. That day was early last summer, since then I have acquired licenses for personal consumption for about 5 miles of river and 20 traps,  my friends and I have consumed no less than 300 crayfish and I am about to upgrade my licenses to commercial ones with hopefully 150 traps.

To some that may sound greedy but my time spent around the river has made me realise how destructive these little blighters are not only do they carry a plague that has all but wiped out our native species, their burrowing in the river bank has cause parts to peel away and fall in causing it to silt up massively and this has proved detrimental to the trout populations. In short the less of these in our rivers the better, I hope to be able to remove, eat and sell as many as possible and in doing so give something back to the local eco system I so regularly use as my food source.

Trapping and Preparation:

Night before:

1: Check all traps to ensure not broken (if broken in someway could end up snaring unwanted wildlife.)

2: Fill my bate boxes for each trap with the bait of the day. Stick in the fridge for the morning.

Casting Day: Head down to the stream with traps and bait.

Look for the tell tail holes in the bank where the crayfish nest, around that area place the trap with the bait box inside in one of the deeper pools nearby. Secure the trap with paracord to the side of the stream.

Repeat for the number of traps you have.

Once finished check the time. Never leave the traps unattended for more than 24hrs as other wild life may be caught and you don’t want to cause any unnecessary suffering.

Trapping Day: Back down to the stream for the same time as the day before bringing a holding cage.

  

Gently rope in the traps as you can often find Crayfish on the outside of the trap. Once the trap is landed carefully pick off the Crayfish on the outside and place them in the holding cage, then open the trap and shake in the rest of the catch.

Repeat with each trap.

Once all the traps have been emptied in to the holding cage close and secure it ensuring none can escape. Similar to the trap find a nice deep bit of stream, secure the holding cage to the bank with paracord and drop it in.

At this point the Crayfish should be left to purge, essentially they are sitting in the holding cage with no food but don’t worry I have been told they can actually survive several weeks without food so the 3-5 days they’ll be spending in there won’t bother them much.

The purging period enables the crayfish to get rid of much of the crap and gunk that you come across should you decide to just eat them as soon as they come out the river. It also adds a certain sweetness and flavour to the meat.

In the deep south of America they have a preferred method of pouring a lot of salt over the crayfish before boiling, this essentially agitates the crayfish causing them to vomit and crap and to me looked like a pretty unpleasant time of things for the little blighters.

Once purged my preferred method and the one recommended by the RSPCA is to place them in the freezer for around an hour. This stupefies them putting them into a state of semi hibernation. Once in this state they can be put into a pot of boiling water with little worry that they will suffer any pain.  Once the water is boiling they should be ready in 5 minutes. They’ll come out Bright Red and ready to eat. If you are not serving immediately it is best to douse in cold water otherwise they will continue to cook in their shells and become tough and chewy.

So that’s it for now, if you’d like to learn a bit more about preparing them for the table and perhaps meet a few crayfish in person before you make the leap in to trapping yourself why not book onto one of the Hunter Gather Cook Courses this year and get cooking with these tasty little critters!

Photos by Nick Weston

Review: Kinco Pro 2051 – Cold Weather Work Gloves

Features:     Neoprene Wrist and Rubber Pull Strap

              Thermal Waterproof Lining

              Knuckle Protection

              Reinforced Shock absorbing palms

                       

Suggested uses:     Any Cold / Wet Weather Tasks

                    Mountain Biking

                    Construction

                    Snowmobiling

                    Delivery

                    Baggage Handling

Before I start this review I’d like to tell you all a little glove related story from my younger years. Before my knees told me enough was enough I was an avid ski racer, ski instructor, snowboard instructor and general mountain man. Not your Grizzly Adams type mountain man (the beard is a relatively recent thing) but someone who loved the environment I was in and would undertake any job to stay near the wilds and snow. I have worked in the stunning High Sierras of California, the freezing wilderness of the Laurentian mountains of Quebec, and the awe-inspiring Fitzsimmons Range of British Columbia. One thing that the people who work in these harsh environments all need are gloves you can rely on and across all of these places the one glove brand that all workers agreed as the best was Kinco.

Kinco are relatively unheard of in the UK but Snowshepherd Off Piste Specialists have recently begun stocking their range of winter gloves.

Review:

I was in need of a pair of gloves that would see me through the winter, keeping my hands warm and dry during the colder wetter months, be it chopping logs, mountain biking, or the various tasks I undertake whilst working at the Hunter Gather Cook School. I opted for the Kinco Pro 2051 Work Glove as they check all the boxes, have the reputation of being super durable and at £25 thought they where a bit of a bargain when you compare them to a pair of Assos Fugu S7 gloves at £91.99!

For mountain biking they are spot on for the colder days, in fact they are the first cycling gloves I have had that had withstood a long grim ride through the rain and still remained completely waterproof. They fit well and are unrestrictive and dextrous providing no problems with braking or gear changes. The shock absorbing palms are also very comfortable.

For log splitting and outdoor work they are a revelation! Previously I had just grinned and bared my freezing white knuckles after giving up wearing gardening style gloves as they lacked the movement and dexterity I needed. Now I can spend hours happily working away splitting logs with the shock absorbing additions to the glove protecting my palms from the vibration off the axe handle and keeping me warm.

In summary Kinco Pro 2051 Gloves are a must for anyone who wishes to grab the winter outdoors by the scruff of the neck and tell it “you don’t bother me anymore!”. They are well made, well padded, unrestrictive, waterproof, durable and would be recommended to you by anyone in the know.

Here are a couple of other short reviews:

 “Work great for any winter activities snow shoveling, firewood cutting and wood splitting. Add sno seal and they are totally awesome.”

 “I haven't found a more durable, warm, or better value work glove than Kinco's for the cold and snow.”

Wild Canapés: Sussex Crab Blinis

Sussex Crab Blinis with Sorrel, Three Cornered Leek and Hairy Bittercress

This is a great foraged version of a classic canapé using three-cornered leek in place of spring onion and sorrel is used to replicate the tart flavour of lemon. Hairy bittercress isn’t essential, but certainly makes it look fancy, which is I guess one of the main aims of a canapé. If you’d like to learn how to identify the plants required in this recipe, get in contact and I can point you in the direction of some kick ass wild food courses.

Makes 20 canapés

Ingredients:

20 blinis

1 dressed crab

1 tbsp of mayonnaise

1 tbsp Dijon Mustard

2 floret of hairy bittercress

15 three cornered leek leaves

10 sorrel leaves

Salt

Fresh ground black pepper

Recipe:

Wash all your foraged ingredients well with cold water. Finely chop the three-cornered leek and sorrel.  In a bowl, combine the dressed crab, mayo, Dijon, three-cornered leek and sorrel.  Gently stir to combine, trying to keep the crab as chunky as possible.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Ready made blinis usually go into the oven for 5 minutes at gas mark 5.  Once cooked, remove from oven and on to a plate.  Add a small dollop of the mixture to each blini and add one frond of hairy bittercress to garnish.

Serve

ENJOY!

My year in the Hunter Gather Cook Kitchen

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