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General Climbing Discussion

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The Swiss Machine 19-Nov-2010 At 10:33:38 AM dmnz

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On 18/11/2010 Doug Bruce wrote:
>On 18/11/2010 MattyB wrote:
>... every time
>>I see Ueli Steck on film pushing like he does, it is completely jaw dropping.
>You can say that again ...
>>And just as an aside on the endless semantics in the helmet debate going
>>on elsewhere in the murky depths, has anybody mentioned that Ueli ...
>still chooses to wear a dome? Curious.
>Not curious at all. But have a look at what he is doing and where he is
>doing it: climbing the north face of the Eiger, in the middle of winter,
>notorious for dropping stuff on suspecting and unsuspecting climbers alike.
>Conversely, and check me if I'm wrong, but I believe he WASN'T wearing
>a helmet in his speed ascent on the Nose with Alex Hunnold. Hmm. Is THAT
>curious?

Not curious at all. Likke you say winter climbing a big mountain face (ice tends to fracture/plate/drop stuff on you when you swing at it, that's why some folk even wear a visor ala welders) so not the same as The Nose where cleaner rock less likely to drop on you and you're still more likely to survive an unroped fall if you dont get serious head/neck injury. On steep rock, which is steeper than steep climbable ice as ice can only get so steep before it falls off except for super weird cases where the average climber is not going to encounter, you prob wont hit anything on the way down until you get to a ledge or the ground and just die helmet or no.

Still, I'd put a helmet on before a rope regardless, be it at a crag or in the mountains