Originally Posted by
Defaultmp3
I do SAR in southern AZ, but there's quite varied terrain, given some of the mountains we have, so we cover desert scrub, semi-desert grasslands, and forests; we will always be carrying rescue packs that typically weight at least 30 lb, and can often be substantially more. For recreation, I've also hiked quite a bit in the mountains of CO, CA, and WA; I am a huge believer in poles, and am also often carrying a ruck that is often close to half my body weigh, so the poles help with that, particularly in elevation changes; I also find myself carrying much lighter daypacks in rougher terrains, often in the scree and boulderfields above the treeline, or in post-hole filled snowfields or on the glacier. In all these situations, having free hands is very important to me. Having multiple angles of light to get different perspectives is certainly something that is quite important in SAR, but the need to be hands free in order to safely navigate, particularly off-trail, is even more important.
The issue of blinding people with lights is simply being cognizant of where you're pointing the light; an important skill to learn in many roles, particularly those where helmet mounted lights are the norm (firefighting, caving, etc.).
On the issue of peripheral vision, we get around that by simply a combination of having a decent amount of spill in the headlamp (even better if you can have a headlamp that can output both a thrower and a flooder at the same time) and constantly scanning.