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I doesn't seem that a helmet would help much if you hit your head after a 30 ft fall - mainly because your brain will be jarred around quite a bit and the helmet can't stop that from happening with really significant impacts. Thus, massive head trauma can happen with or without the helmet. You can get a concussion from a car accident simply from the jolt of the impact and without cracking your head on anything in the car.

But, that said, I'd rather have the helmet in the event I fall than not. They are designed to protect during falls and from falling objects according the the Petzl brochures that come with the helmets.

Take a look at a motorcycle helmit at the same price and you will see what I'm getting at. For 80 bucks we should be getting way better than just a cheapo shell.

Right on, ynot. I was over in Asia traveling and they sold motorcylce helmets that were made similarly and probably as well as well as the petzl helmets for like $6... given they were probably made in a sweat shop somewhere... but still how much does a little plasitc cost?

To put the kind of protection in a motorcycle helmet in a climbing helmet would propably be hard to do. Motorcycle helmets use a different type of plastic shell. I suspect the weight of a helmet would increase noticeably and make it harder to wear when climbing if you used motorcycle helmet materials.

I would not want to take a 30 ft fall and hit my head wearing a climbing helmet or a motorcycle helmet. You still have a big danger of internal head injuries with both.

Unsure about the cam theories here, but the head injuries from a 30 foot fall while wearing a helmet are primarily internal. While the proper helmet could prevent penetrating head injuries, closed head injuries, or CHIs occur when the head decelerates suddenly as in a fall. The continued motion of the brain can result in a coup injury at the site of impact, and contrecoup injury at the site of the brain opposite the coup injury. Essentially what happens is a shearing or tearing of the brain away from the skull at those sites. The brain essentially bounces with a whiplash effect. Ruptured veins result in hemorrhage, and consequently other effects of the trauma result including swelling of the brain, infections, and lack of necessary oxygen to mention a few. If a person survives this type of injury, you can bet your bippy he or she is coming to see me.

Whew! I feel like I just took comps and orals and the ASHA Board exam all over! So, it is true that it isn't the fall that kills you, it's the sudden stop!

Thanks dipsi - you explained what I meant perfectly.

I got a concussion from falling off a bicycle onto asphault (I was going really slow and a car jumped a stop sign without looking both ways and tossed me into the street). I barely bumped my head from a distance of 3' off the ground (I kind of rolled into the fall but not well enough to get my chin pulled in) and had trouble for a couple of weeks. No helmet.

The problem with the helmet argument is that the expensive part is the styrofoam-esque lining which is designed to compress evenly. The shell on the motorcycle helmet is probably only slightly more expensive than on a climbing helmet while if you peak under the cloth lining you'll find foam very similar to what's in a climbing or bicycle helmet.

My problem with climbing helmets is they look stupid. Bicycle helmets look far less geeky and, who knows, an aerodynamic shape might be a good thing when caught in a storm on a big wall.

Yeah, that's about right. Motorcycle helmets are designed to keep your squash inside your skull and to keep your skin on your face, not prevent brain damage. The forces that we're talking about in either a climbing fall or motorcycle accident are so large that even if you're wearing a helmet you're still applying major forces between your brain and the inside of your skull like dipsi was talking about.

just browsing through this topic.

does anyone know the exact history of this failed cam?

had it ever been dropped from a route? if so, was it ever xrayed for fractures?

a fellow climber dropped one of my #2's from the top of a 100ft route. it hit the side of the cliff halfway down and then landed in the dirt. it seems fine to me, but now i'm thinking about getting it checked out.

Tean jedi droped one from the top of Synergy.It bounced off a rock. Dipsi had it xrayed and the patient is still living and catching me.
I wore my brain bucket today.It was hot and uncomfy but somehow reasuring.