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Wearing a helmet has somehow become a contentious issue in climbing. If you wear one you’re either a gumby or an old timer. If you don’t you’re a cocky idiot—at least according to any comment thread ever on Reddit/Facebook/Instagram. I belonged to the latter category up until about four years ago, when I started working at Climbing. I would frequently ditch my helmet when climbing hard sport projects. (To save weight? To leave open the possibility of an impromptu rose move? I honestly have no idea.)
But when I started writing the beloved Weekend Whipper column—and was forced to analyze clips of seemingly solid cracks explode, huge flakes rip off of well-traveled sport routes, and even pro climbers with their impeccable footwork get wrapped up in the rope and careen headfirst into stone—I realized there is a frighteningly high level of randomness in our sport. As a result, I now almost never leave the ground without wearing a helmet. I even think there’s a strong argument to be made for belaying with one.
If you think you can’t bear the extra weight of carrying a helmet up your limit project, consider this: I am without a doubt more nit-picky about weight than you. I have worn unpadded ski harnesses on redpoint attempts. I have trimmed the excess shoelace off my climbing shoes to shave grams. I frequently ask my girlfriend to cut my hair before a big alpine route. I have specific “send-day” undies that are 40 grams lighter than my daily-driver “projecting” undies. Yeah, I’m that guy.
Seriously. If I can justify the weight of a helmet, so can you.
Aside from the weight complaint, I also often hear that helmets are simply too hot or uncomfortable to wear for more than a pitch or two. Anyone with this argument is just plain lazy. There are roughly 100 climbing helmets on the market today—there is, without a doubt, at least one helmet that fits your head comfortably and has your preferred amount of ventilation. I would know. I have a giant head—so big, in fact, that most large or extra-large helmets literally do not fit over my skull. And even I found not one but two helmets which fit me perfectly and provide plenty of ventilation when climbing in the stifling 90s. Believe me, if I can do it, you can too.