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General Climbing Discussion

Topic Date User

Helmets in an era of laissez-faire haute couture 28-Aug-2006 At 2:06:01 PM JamesMc

Message

Helmete used to be fashionable, then went out of fashion, then came back in. When I started climbing about 25 years ago, it was virtually unknown for anyone other than school or instructional groups to use helmets. (Well Sedgie might hae been an exception.)

The days of helmets being unfashionable are long past, but they might come back again.

However, hemets are still hot, not particularly comfortable, bulky, and cost money. In short, they diminish the enjoyment of climbing. We all make compromises between safety and enjoyment.

The most obvious compromises are:

Going climbing in the first place

Leading instead of top roping

Climbing at places like Werribee Gorge

Doing climbs that we might fall off

Not wearing knee pads and elbow pads

etc etc etc

Why can't the helmet fascists leave the rest of us alone?

JamesMc

PS Having said all that, I wear a helmet about 80% of the time.