RRC Archives

Why trad, but not sport? Maybe you should learn to place gear if you have no faith in it....

I have been getting used to wearing one myself. Of course most of the stuff I have been climbing on are choss piles that could crumble to the ground any minute or Seneca...where many peoply have no second thoughts about trundling shit down on you.

I am thinking about getting one "of dem dar fancy new helmutts"...I have the Eccrin Rock and it is quite bulky and hot.

512OW wrote:Why trad, but not sport? Maybe you should learn to place gear if you have no faith in it....

Everyone should probably wear helmets when climbing or at the crag, all the time. We were at fortress a while back and somebdy, just passing by us, was hit in the head with a small rock. Luckily he was wearing a helmet.

As for me, I'm definitely in need of faith in my gear. I'm working in it. But I'll probably wear a helmet anyway. It's not totally a rational decision to only wear it on trad. I guess I do it because of potential rockfall and the frequent ledges and large features that I get into.

But I'll admit that wearing a helmet on sport is a good idea. If I were getting on a long, multipitch bolted climb I would wear one.

well I'm glad we got that out of our system. As for me, I always wear a helmet at places like Seneca but only to protect me from rock fall. Maybe we should all wear bike helmets while sport climbing since we need to protect our heads from hitting the wall. Yet I have been sport climbing for over 10 years and have only witnessed maybe five people fall upside down and maybe 1 hit their head - no serious injuries. Truth is its very rare and usually happens to people who are less experienced.

I would never dream of not wearing a helmet while riding my mt bike. Last summer I fell off a teeter-tooter and landed on my head and broke my helmet - saved me from a good head injury.

I was belaying at midnight surf the other day and my friend yelled "rock!" I of course, looked up (bad idea) to see a rock about to hit me right between the eyes. I ducked and it hit me in the shoulder.

You'd think that the next thing I would say is that I now wear a helmet while sport climbing/belaying, but I am way too worried about my image to do anything like that. I would rather die of a head injury than look uncool at the crag.

is coolness based on doing what everyone else does or doing what everyone else doesn't? i guess it depends on your perspective, but it seems that generally speaking the rebels who do what the majority don't get the reputation of being cool. in this case that makes the helmet wearers the cool ones. of course we all really know that the cool ones are the ones who don't give a crap one way or the other what other people think. therefore, the helmet wearers and "some" non-helmet wearers alike are cool in my book! too bad i'm generallly not cool at the crag although i've thought about it a time or two. i am however super cool when i'm snowboarding as my helmet even matches all my other gear!

Wearing helmets on sport routes, cleaning sport routes by rappeling, anchoring into the ground to lead belay, Mythos, butt floss daisy chain, matching draws, hexes, tri-cams. All these things are suppose to help you climb safely. Ironically, I have learned that all these thing seem to indicate *sketchy folks.


*Just because you are sketchy doesn't mean you are uncool or anything. It just means you are new. Everybody here was new at some point. We(climbers) can spot new people a mile away. There is really nothing you can do to disguise this fact. So go ahead. Wear a helmet. Rap off anchors. Nobody is going to think you are something you're not.

JR this is not the gumby thread...geesh what a gumby.

I can be a gumby. But I can't be new.

I loved your post Brentucky.

I am sure you are super cool when you snowboard in your matching outfit.