Debate: My $18 headlamp saved a trip but a $200 jacket almost ruined one
Two seasons back I got caught in a storm near Bend, Oregon and my cheap $18 headlamp was the only thing that kept me from stepping off a trail in the dark. It ran 14 hours on one set of batteries and never flickered. Then last month I dropped $200 on a rain jacket that soaked through in 20 minutes during a drizzle on the same trail. The cheap one did its one job. The fancy one failed at its only job. So which matters more, price or function? I want to hear your gear stories where the cheap thing won and the expensive thing lost.