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hellroaring
Trad climber
San Francisco
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I will speak only for myself. In regards to a previous poster, in no way, shape, or form do I ever feel "braver" when I strap on a helmet (I wish it was that simple actually), nor have I ever been more willing to risk a fall, and I certainly don't think it makes me more immune from injury.
I have a hard time believing anyone would think that they are more immune from injury or death just because they happen to be wearing one, but then again what some people believe never ceases to amaze.
On a side note I rode my bike in San Francisco for years without a helmet. I guess I was intoxicated with young man's immortality syndrome because I couldn't be bothered to actually wear one.
Now I wear a bike helmet, and sure enough, one day I got hit by someone running a red light. I remember thinking that it was like I was a little doll and a giant hand grabbed my head and and slammed it into the windshield. I had no control over the forces of physics, which is a very sobering feeling.
I'm just glad it happened after I started wearing a helmet.
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Abissi
Trad climber
MI
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My lifelong goal is to avoid drooling all over myself while sip and puffing into a little hose to move my chair back and forth. a good goal to live life by: AVOID THE DROOL - wear a bucket.
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Bad Climber
Trad climber
The Lawless Border Regions
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^^^^^^^
Good advice.
BAd
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rincon
climber
Coarsegold
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Just wear your goddamn helmets and stop trying to justify your pussification.
:-)
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Ksolem
Trad climber
Monrovia, California
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Rincon, you took this picture. Lucky for you you didn't call me a pussy then, I'd have knocked you over your helmet-less noggin with a jumar just to teach you a lesson...
:-)
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GDavis
Social climber
SOL CAL
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DON'T SAY FUK IT
GET A BRAIN BUCKET
GET IT
ITS PLASTIC AND PROTECTS UR BRAIN
C U AT NEW JACK CITY!!!1
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yosemite 5.9
climber
santa cruz
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Climbing in Yosemite on September 7, 2017. The leader flipped the rope above me and a pebble hit my sunglasses hard in the lens. Good thing I had sunglasses on. Yes, I was watching me leader instead of being distracted. I have had small rocks hit my helmet also a few times.
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kenman
Trad climber
Centennial, CO
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Sep 15, 2017 - 03:08pm PT
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I remember as a kid. No one wore a helmet while biking. Ramps, jumps, doing 40+ downhill on a road. No helmet. Now I would not think of it. When I started climbing, I did not wear one. Now I might not if toproping at a safe spot but I always wear one sport, trad whatever. I was on the ground and a ground squirrel knocked off a rock. It hit right on top of my helmet. WOuld have left quite a nasty gash if not for the helmet.
Just like a bike. Just like Skiing. Just wear a helmet.
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Faafo
Trad climber
Carlsbad
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Sep 15, 2017 - 04:06pm PT
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My parents have been making me wear a helmet since I was a baby. I am now 28 years old and still wear it daily. Helmets aren't for gumbies.
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rincon
climber
Coarsegold
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Sep 15, 2017 - 04:18pm PT
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People should just wear helmets at all times.
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EdBannister
Mountain climber
13,000 feet
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Sep 15, 2017 - 04:51pm PT
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Bernt Prause was the pioneer.
when the Joe Brown came it at 35 ounces, he developed a chopped carbon fiber polyamide soup that was injectable, the result, the Edelrid 15 ounce helmet, that was stronger and more resistant to puncture than the Joe Brown. 1988 i think. all that followed owe him thanks...
I loaned mine to someone i thought was a friend when he needed it for Denali, i never got it back.
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Don Lauria
Trad climber
Bishop, CA
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Sep 16, 2017 - 11:48am PT
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Been climbing for 57 years. Started in 1961 at the age of 28. Wore a helmet once on Whitney’s east face in 1963 (not sure what sport it was designed for, certainly not climbing). I hated it. Kept hitting my head on little overhangs and projections. Haven’t worn one since. Not proud of that fact.
Yes, even before he put it in print, Yvon told me “You don’t need a helmet unless you’re climbing where rockfall is probable”. He had just (1961) climbed Edith Cavell with Beckey and Doody. Loose, very loose. Lots of rockfall.
So with that in mind and my experience on Whitney, I never purchased a helmet. However, I considered it late one day in August of 1964 when, on the first ascent of Pingora’s north face in the waning light, Aaron Schneider loosed a fusillade of rocks from the top of the last pitch. The last pitch is a steep rotten gully. Ed Speth (RIP) and I were positioned at the gully’s base when the rocks and Aaron’s “Rock!!” got our attention. I could see the sparks of the rocks as they approached our ledge and instinctively ducked just below the top of the ledge in front of me – just barely behind the lip. One very large rock struck the ledge and the back of my head simultaneously. I luckily was wearing a thick wool stocking cap and suffered nothing more than an accelerated heartbeat. Speth was unscathed.
After that experience you’d think I would have driven straight to Jackson and bought a helmet, but no. By the time I exited the Winds the rockfall experience was secondary to the jubilation of having done a first ascent and the experience was filed away for occasional “epic recounts” at parties and campfires.
I still do not own a helmet, but in my decrepit state I probably have seen the last of leading – especially alpine routes. However, thanks to this thread and Goldstone and Donini, et al, I’m ordering a BD Vapor today.
[Speaking of Ed Speth, I’m thinking about writing an anecdote about his short life – later.]
See: Never Heard of Ed Speth (RIP)?
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Alois
Trad climber
Idyllwild, California
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Sep 16, 2017 - 01:16pm PT
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I wore helmet when it was not at all cool...Ok, I feel better now.
In 1985, three of us scrambled around the base of Liberty Ridge of Rainier. All three of us had helmets. About half way up to the Thumb Rock, you could hear this high pitched sound, a whistle and Andy Fried got hit with a golf ball sized rock. Broke his MSR helmet in half. Luckily he didn't loose balance (we were not roped) nor got hurt, and we kept going.
Some years later, Miguel Carmona and I sat below the main face of Big Rock in Riverside County. We both wore helmets and were laughed at by quite a few people hanging around at the base. This was after all completely safe mini-wall with nothing loose above us. Some noob was climbing the upper flake, tried to put in #3 Friend, dropped the piece and it hit me flush on top of the helmet. Suddenly, nobody was laughing... The helmet (Edelrid Superlight) was totaled.
I still do a bit of both rock and alpine climbing, so it is better to have helmet on at all times. For me it would be easy to just leave the thing home, but then, things happen when we least expect them..
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Bad Climber
Trad climber
The Lawless Border Regions
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Sep 16, 2017 - 05:06pm PT
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Good post, Alois. It's important to keep parties above in mind. Noobs, accidents, gravity doesn't care. Haven't we all dropped stuff? My personal shame: After leading the unprotected easy slab on Black Magic in the Needles (CA), I somehow let a cluster of for our five brand new 'biners slip through my fingers. Boy, did I cuss a blue streak as I watched them skitter down the granite and off into space. No one below, so no harm done--but damn! A fist-full of new 'biners? Arg. I've read so many stories of folks knocking stuff off on the Matterhorn that I don't think I'd want to do the route. I've never made it to the Alps, but the crowding must make many outings very dangerous, helmets or no.
BAd
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Sep 16, 2017 - 06:06pm PT
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Good Don....you have too many things in that handsome head to share. Just back from two days in the Black Canyon...drove 65 miles to Montrose before I realized I still had my BD Vapor on.
Edit: Before the obvious comments come I will say that wearing my helmut for 65 miles was a function of the helmet's lt. wt. and comfort BUT, also the fact that it was on the head of an old climber with diminished brain function.
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Gnome Ofthe Diabase
climber
Out Of Bed
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Sep 24, 2017 - 08:42am PT
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NO VISOR (its to scratched) goggles, fit but bugs get in . . .)
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Sep 24, 2017 - 08:46am PT
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Helmets are for poosies!
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