I always thought the best time to go for a
night ski was during the time of the full moon. For decades,
that was the only time I would venture out in the night with
skis afoot. This limited the night-skiing opportunities to a
mere week or so each month. Why?
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VIKI MATHER |
Why indeed? After all these years, I finally
decided to go for a ski in the dark of night, while the moon
hid on the other side of the planet.
Thousands upon thousands of tiny points of
light stood out with clarity on the backdrop of blackness.
Still, it was not enough light to illuminate my path so I
turned on the headlamp to see where I was going.
Though the batteries in the flashlight were
new, I wondered how long they would last while powering the
bright halogen light? This headlamp has three
LED lights as well, which use a tiny fraction
of the power of the brilliant halogen. Two lights are red, and
the third is a bright bluish white.
The first part of the trail was fairly flat
as it wound through the forest of spruce and birch. The white
LED worked well here. Its light shone 20 feet or so along the
trail. When I came to the first serious downhill, I switched to
the halogen. Though I knew the trail well, I had no desire to
ski beyond the sphere of my light. The light was good, almost
as good as a brilliant full moon.
A long flat area lies at the bottom of the
hill as the trail runs through a black spruce bog. I turned on
the red LED lights here, just to see what they would be like.
Red light is supposed to be good for night vision, or so it
said on the instructions that came with the light.
Switching to the red lamp, suddenly the stars
became visible. The little red lights illuminated the trail at
my feet, but did not create that blinding circle of the white
lights. This is always a problem with bright lighting at night
- all you can ever see is that which is within the spotlight.
We are blinded to
everything beyond the reach of the light.
With the red lights on, I could see the trail as well as the
stars above, and the forest along the edge of the trail.
I decided to turn off all the lights while
climbing the next hill. After all, I wasn't likely to run into
anything at that walking pace. Half way up, I paused to
catch my breath. Stars and trees and snow,
and the deep quiet of a midwinter night. What a great way to
enjoy the season.
Viki Mather lives by a lake near Sudbury.
