The Best Headtorches For Winter Running

The clocks have gone back. For dedicated runners, this means pulling on a pair of winter running tights, shrugging on a warm running jacket and hat, and strapping on a trusty headtorch before heading out into the darkness—whether it’s morning or evening.

But not all headtorches are equal. The good news for runners is that technology is advancing rapidly, making the latest releases more compact and lightweight, with smaller USB-charging batteries that produce more power and last longer.

However, lumen ratings and battery power stats may leave many runners scratching their heads. It can be hard to know what kind of headtorch is best suited to the kind of running you do. An ultrarunner running through the night on remote, muddy, wet trails requires a completely different type of illumination from a road runner navigating well-lit footpaths.

I’ve tested the best headtorches available to help you figure out which are worth your hard-earned cash, and which will work best for the type of running you do most.

How I Test Headtorches

For each headtorch on test, I tested it in darkness, both on roads with street lights and with poor lighting, as well as on pitch-black, root-filled, off-road trails. I also took gloves to see how easy it is to operate them with your hands covered, as more often than not, you’ll be using gloves while running in the dark through winter. My test runs varied in length from 10km to 20km.

Best Headtorches

A hybrid headtorch designed for use on road and trail, Black Diamond’s Sprinter 500 is lightweight and has a snug fit thanks to the extra strap that goes over the top of your head, providing stability and more importantly ensuring zero bouncing while running.

Another pro is the red rear LED, which includes two strobe settings to ensure you’re visible to drivers or cyclists behind you.

The front LED is bright enough to light up both dark pavements and unlit roads—on max power, it emits a decent 500 lumens. You’ll never need that amount on well-lit roads, but it means you can take it on off-road trails with confidence, ensuring you can run on dark bridleways with a warm, wide-ranging glow powering you for up to 3.5 hours on max power.

Overall, it’s a capable all-rounder. The only downside was I found it hard to switch from the regular, low-light mode to the more powerful max mode while running, especially with gloves on. It requires a tap-and-hold (what Black Diamond calls a Power Tap) of the only button located on the front LED, but half the time it didn’t seem to work—perhaps my finger isn’t powerful enough.

The IPX4 waterproof rating means it’s stormproof, and the hybrid battery means it can run on either the rechargeable USB lithium battery or three AAA batteries.

• Review sample supplied by Trekkit.

This headtorch is built for trail running, so if you prefer high peaks to the high street we’re glad to tell you that you can rely on this one to guide you through off-road night runs.

The Trail Runner Free 2 Hybrid has a number of useful features to appeal to runners. First, the fit is snug with no bouncing. A single strap with a rubber grip and the battery pack placed at the rear ensures it fits like a headband and won’t move during your run. The battery pack is also ingeniously lightweight, with no wire connecting it to the LED lamp, which itself is small and easy to adjust keeping the overall weight down for those looking to save grams.

However, one downside is that I found the plastic fixing holding the lamp at the front began to press into my forehead uncomfortably after as little as 30 minutes of running. I’d recommend wearing the torch over a hat or cap for comfort.

In terms of beam strength, this is up there with the best in test. There are three settings, easy to toggle through with just a press of the main button, with a max output of 500 lumens that matches the Black Diamond Sprinter 500. I found that medium was sufficient for running through forests and over moorland at night, providing adequate illumination to ensure confident foot-placing.

It has a small red safety light on the rear, which is not as flashy as some others, but the headtorch makes up for that with sheer ease of use and impressive illumination in the forest. It also uses Silva Intelligent Light, which is a type of sensor-based light-dimming feature (other headtorches use their own similar technology). In short, it can sense how dark or light it is and adjust the beam accordingly. So, for example, if you hit a section with street lights, the headtorch will dim, saving power and giving you more light from a charge.

The hybrid battery pack also means you can charge it via USB or use batteries as a back-up if it runs out, which is useful if you’re planning a long night run. The IPX5 waterproof is a high level of protection—it will survive all but being submerged, meaning it will happily see you through the wettest weather on the trails.

This is a powerful beast for such a low price. You get a dazzling beam that lights up the trails in front of you with brilliance, meaning there’s no worries of missing a giant root or looming rock. In fact, when I first switched this to max 900 lumens power in the dark of the countryside, I was taken aback by the reach of the beam. It offers more of a direct torchlight beam rather than a “glow” that lights up the surrounding area, which is ideal for runners who like to see far ahead when on the trails.

It’s also easy to operate, with or without gloves. Simply twist the switch on the side of the lamp to rotate through the three powers of brightness. 

However, what you save on price, you pay for in weight. The battery pack is slightly unwieldy and rather heavy, and because it sits at the back of your head it can cause the whole head strap to bounce if not secured properly.

The head strap itself is basic, with an uncomfortable plastic housing that holds the light, so like the Silva Free 2 Hybrid, it’s worth wearing a hat under it. But if you run off-road in the dark for no more than an hour or two, this is worth a look. It’s not built for ultra-marathons that will take you through an entire night—the charge simply won’t make it through.

One last minor gripe: Access to the USB charging point is fiddly because you have to unscrew the battery housing.  

This doesn’t look like other headlamps on the market. In an effort to reduce weight, Petzl has stripped down the strap to a simple elastic cord in places, making it adjustable and more comfortable than it looks.

You’ll also notice the size of the torch itself: The oversized shape is engineered to provide the blinding 1500 max lumens, which provides daylight-like levels of illumination. Its sheer power blows the other headtorches on this test away, and even in full beam in Petzl’s Reactive mode it will last up to two hours. The Reactive lighting is designed to intelligently change the brightness and beam pattern based on information received by the sensor, dimming when the surrounding light is brighter. It’s controlled via a large button on the base of the LED lamp at the front, and the size of the button makes it easy to press, even with gloves on.

The rear-positioned battery pack is not too heavy and balances well at the back of the head. It also features a flashing or continuous red LED for extra visibility, whether on the road or in the mountains. Also, in a genius piece of design, the battery pack can also be used as a charging bank to power other items such as your phone.

To charge the unit, you remove the battery pack and plug it into the charging cable. Sliding it back onto the unit can prove a little fiddly, but that’s about the only downside I could see to this headtorch (aside from the price), on what is truly a superlative running headtorch for the trails—one you can depend on for a race that will take you from dusk to dawn.

The price reflects the high quality of the lamp, fit and lightweight design, but if you’re planning to run a 100-mile race that takes you through the wild country overnight—or just want to see as clearly as possible in the dark—the NAO RL is an essential purchase.

This is a deceptively powerful unit from Forclaz. For a low price, you get a powerful 300-lumen light that can gleam up to 65m ahead. During testing, it worked well on the roads, but taking it on the trails resulted in a beam that’s gratifyingly wide for the price. Granted, battery life is short at just 2½ hours on max power (and the 80 lumens medium power is not suitable for off-road use), but it will do the job if you find yourself running in an area with limited, or no, light for a short period of time.

The major downside to the HL500 is comfort. The battery is located within the lamp unit at the front, with nothing at the rear of the head for balance, so the entire unit bounces as you run, especially the light itself. You can tighten the strap, but if I over-tightened it, I found it pressed painfully into my forehead.

It’s IPX5, so it’s highly waterproof, and a decent option if you’re on a budget.