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Yana
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Yana
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PostMon Sep 19, 2016 3:02 am 
I love reading trip reports and seeing cool photos of different places, and people enjoying the outdoors in those places. Many of these are places I'll never personally experience, so it's great to live through the experiences of those that do experience them. But I don't love seeing photos of people in places where there is either potential for rockfall or potential for falling, and people not wearing helmets. I get that it's a personal choice, but I'm tired of seeing people suffering injuries (sometimes fatal) that could have been greatly reduced or entirely avoided by wearing helmets. So please wear your helmet. That is all.

PLAY SAFE! SKI ONLY IN CLOCKWISE DIRECTION! LET'S ALL HAVE FUN TOGETHER!
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Jim Dockery
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Jim Dockery
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PostMon Sep 19, 2016 9:07 am 
Good point Yana up.gif which I tried to hammer home to my P.E. students for their bike/scooter/motorcycle riding (with the further admonision to fit it properly and strap it on!). Back in the day I only wore a helmet alpine or ice climbing, not normally on good granite while cragging. Now I always wear one climbing. Modern light helmets are so comfortable they don't really get in the way, and make leaning your head back against the wall easier while belaying and looking up at your partner cool.gif I'm guilty though of not usually wearing one while back-country skiing, where it could be esp. important on the final descent on crap snow through the trees shakehead.gif

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cascadeclimber
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PostMon Sep 19, 2016 11:34 am 
Yana wrote:
places where there is either potential for rockfall or potential for falling
This covers the majority of the Cascades. I understand your point, and at the same time, it's not worth twisting in the wind about. Any trail that switchbacks up a steep slope has a risk of party-triggered rockfall from above. Any talus slope crossed by a trail got there from copious rockfall. Trees fall down suddenly. I just want people to make informed, accountable choices: If you choose to eschew a helmet, rope, the ten essentials, whatever, from an informed place, don't blame the trail, trail maintenance, land managers or anyone/anything else if you clonked. If you go forth ignorantly, don't blame the same group for failing to provide a complete educational kiosk at the trailhead.

If not now, when?
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Brucester
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PostMon Sep 19, 2016 11:35 am 
I've seen riders without helmets passing through intersections like the wind passing through rocks that shall never fall from above.

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wolffie
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wolffie
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PostMon Sep 19, 2016 3:25 pm 
I often talk to kids & parents when I see them wearing bike helmets so loose they're just kidding themselves. I show them how easily I can just slide it off their head. Then I tell how I, when I was a kid back in the day when there were no helmets, woke up looking at a strange ceiling. Somehow I figured I was in a hospital. I'd been in a coma for 12 hours. [Those who know me may be thinking, "Ah. This may explain some things...."] (:

Some people have better things to do with their lives than walking the dog. Some don't.
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cartman
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PostMon Sep 19, 2016 3:37 pm 
wolffie wrote:
I see them wearing bike helmets so loose they're just kidding themselves
Or wearing bike or climbing helmets back on the head so the forehead is exposed. Helmets are meant to be worn level on the head, with the front of the helmet just above the eyebrows.

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Kim Brown
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PostMon Sep 19, 2016 4:55 pm 
I always though that Jesus Christ's middle name is "Helmut." We all know it starts with an "H." Sorry for the thread drift. Well not really. A little, though.

"..living on the east side of the Sierra world be ideal - except for harsher winters and the chance of apocalyptic fires burning the whole area." Bosterson, NWHiker's marketing expert
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thunderhead
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PostMon Sep 19, 2016 5:10 pm 
I wear a helmet: Skiing Biking Outdoor rock belaying Ice climbing!!! Ice belaying!!! Sometimes outdoor rock climbing Major alpine routes Helmet not worn: Indoor rock climbing sometimes outdoor rock climbing(theres often nothing moving above you) easy alpine routes scrambling Figure thats pretty safe.

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Schroder
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PostMon Sep 19, 2016 6:01 pm 
My brother and two friends were climbing Ingalls Peak many years ago. The Stuart Range was pretty safe for rockfall so helmets were seldom worn by anyone. On this occasion one of them wore a helmet and as they were climbing a fist-sized rock silently came through the air and hit the helmet hard enough to drive him to his knees and crack the (fiberglass) helmet. They decided to turn around. Not long after this, two friends of mine were climbing Stuart and had several tons of rock come down on them, killing one of them.

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zephyr
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zephyr
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PostMon Sep 19, 2016 8:53 pm 
I am sorry for the loss of your friend, Schroder. This must have been a terrible shock for you and everyone concerned. ~z

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gray matter
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gray matter
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PostMon Sep 19, 2016 9:25 pm 
<-------------- Hides my bald head! up.gif

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wolffie
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wolffie
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PostWed Sep 21, 2016 9:48 pm 
OK Yana you just cost me $100. And I don't even use my head.

Some people have better things to do with their lives than walking the dog. Some don't.
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Yana
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Yana
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PostWed Aug 15, 2018 4:34 pm 
wolffie wrote:
OK Yana you just cost me $100. And I don't even use my head.
lol.gif You're welcome! To add to my original post, I'm even more bothered by seeing people climbing/scrambling sketchy loose stuff (many, many examples of this both in photos and in person)... with a helmet firmly strapped to the outside of their pack. It's one thing to make a conscious choice not to use a helmet in certain terrain, but I'm really curious about the reasoning behind bringing a helmet and not using it even in the chossiest of places. Anyone?

PLAY SAFE! SKI ONLY IN CLOCKWISE DIRECTION! LET'S ALL HAVE FUN TOGETHER!
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boot up
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boot up
Old Not Bold Hiker
PostFri Aug 17, 2018 1:28 pm 
I worked in a bike shop before helmets were invented (ignoring the leather hair nets) and had a scary large number of customers that ironically could not drive and could only bicycle due to brain damage, e.g. seizure issues, that were caused by minor falls from bicycles. Needless to say, I was an early adopter of the "marshmallow helmets", and took a lot of flack for that. Asking a nurse in Amsterdam how the populace gets away with universally ignoring helmets, her reply was, "They don't". Apparently head injuries from bike crashes are a major problem in Holland. I trained my kids to slap on a helmet anytime they got on wheels. Interesting that the biggest helmet "save" was my oldest daughter doing a major crash on her tiny tricycle, speeding down a hill. It was just a part of getting around on wheels for them, no big deal. I have never been a rock climber, but a few decades ago I was rock hounding with a novice group up Rock Hound Gulch at Denny Creek. I knew the terrain and brought my bicycle helmet. I was wearing it when we were down climbing a steep section, with strong directions for each person to wait until the next person was clear before descending. Sure enough the guy above me couldn't wait, and of course kicked loose a sizeable rock that hit my helmet hard enough to make my head literally spin. I let him know what a bad move that was, but figure I would have been knocked out and over, or worse, with lots of blood without the improvised helmet. Helmets are a good thing. Compared to the early days of helmets the new ones are extremely comfortable and lightweight. Not much of an excuse left to avoid them. And on bikes or climbing.....I just don't get the people that bring one but strap it to their handlebars or pack. And then there are the people that wear bike helmets unstrapped, high above forehead, or likely even worse....backwards. Yes, backwards is a thing.

friluftsliv
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lookout bob
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lookout bob
WTA proponent.....
PostFri Aug 17, 2018 4:31 pm 
What I don't understand is that we have a helmet law for bicyclists in Seattle, but the bike rental places don't seem to have understood and rent bikes without them. Whatsthatallabout? confused.gif

"Altitude is its own reward" John Jerome ( from "On Mountains")
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