Climbing Helmets - how much do you really know?
So you think all climbing helmets are the same?
Well you would have been right if I'd asked the question 10yrs ago however developments over the last 10yrs or so have made a big impact in the design and construction of climbing helmets. No longer are your choices limited to what colour helmet do you want but there are major construction differences to choose from. Do you know what the differences are? This article will touch on the key issues and give you the resources to find out more and make the right choice.
Climbing Helmets 101
Climbing helmet design was driven by our experience in the mountains where the major concern was falling rock landing on your head and wiping you out for good. The resultant cradle design is excellent at preventing just this. However when you go into a good climbing shop you can expect to see a range of helmets that look like they were designed 20yrs ago, some that look like bike helmets and some that appear to be a hybrid of the two.
The bike helmet look-alikes were the first breed of lightweight helmets, they have no cradle but sit directly on your head. The Petzl Meteor is a classic version of this although Petzl no longer manufacture that helmet. This type of helmet excells at side/rear/front impacts similar to those you may see if you hit the ground whilst single pitch cragging or hit a ledge. However it's not as effective as a traditional hemlet at top down or pentration impacts. The pentration issue is caused by the small gap between the inside of the helmet and the head. Summary : great for cragging rather than mountains.
The traditional cradle design, ie. Petzl Ecrin Roc, as we said is great at top and penetration tests. The cradle dissipates most of the force from a top down impact and the gap at the top of the helmet between you head and the cradle gives plenty of leeway in pentration test. However this format is not as good at side/front/rear impact. Summary: great for mountains not so good for cragging.
The hybrid design, ie. BD Half Dome or Petzl Elios take a closed cell foam section (bike stlye) for the top/inside of the helmet and add a cradle thus giving a lightweight helmet with the benfits of traditional hemlets. This is still a compromise so isn't the absolute answer. Summary: good at both but excell at neither.
Just wear a helmet!
SAying all of the above the ket issue is in any accident a helmet is better than bone.
Any helmet is better than none.
Check out these links for more indepth information:
Helmets 101
Look in the Helmets section and pick the 3 articles to download.
As a result helmets and the subsequent standards were designed to give as much protection from top down impact, transmit as little force to the wearers head and neck as possible and to protect against penetration from falling objects. H
Well you would have been right if I'd asked the question 10yrs ago however developments over the last 10yrs or so have made a big impact in the design and construction of climbing helmets. No longer are your choices limited to what colour helmet do you want but there are major construction differences to choose from. Do you know what the differences are? This article will touch on the key issues and give you the resources to find out more and make the right choice.
Climbing Helmets 101
Climbing helmet design was driven by our experience in the mountains where the major concern was falling rock landing on your head and wiping you out for good. The resultant cradle design is excellent at preventing just this. However when you go into a good climbing shop you can expect to see a range of helmets that look like they were designed 20yrs ago, some that look like bike helmets and some that appear to be a hybrid of the two.
The bike helmet look-alikes were the first breed of lightweight helmets, they have no cradle but sit directly on your head. The Petzl Meteor is a classic version of this although Petzl no longer manufacture that helmet. This type of helmet excells at side/rear/front impacts similar to those you may see if you hit the ground whilst single pitch cragging or hit a ledge. However it's not as effective as a traditional hemlet at top down or pentration impacts. The pentration issue is caused by the small gap between the inside of the helmet and the head. Summary : great for cragging rather than mountains.
The traditional cradle design, ie. Petzl Ecrin Roc, as we said is great at top and penetration tests. The cradle dissipates most of the force from a top down impact and the gap at the top of the helmet between you head and the cradle gives plenty of leeway in pentration test. However this format is not as good at side/front/rear impact. Summary: great for mountains not so good for cragging.
The hybrid design, ie. BD Half Dome or Petzl Elios take a closed cell foam section (bike stlye) for the top/inside of the helmet and add a cradle thus giving a lightweight helmet with the benfits of traditional hemlets. This is still a compromise so isn't the absolute answer. Summary: good at both but excell at neither.
Just wear a helmet!
SAying all of the above the ket issue is in any accident a helmet is better than bone.
Any helmet is better than none.
Check out these links for more indepth information:
Helmets 101
Look in the Helmets section and pick the 3 articles to download.
As a result helmets and the subsequent standards were designed to give as much protection from top down impact, transmit as little force to the wearers head and neck as possible and to protect against penetration from falling objects. H
posted by patrick at 2:43:00 pm
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