Gear Myths: The Helmet Question—When Should You Wear a Helmet and Why?

In this Gear Myths, we’re opening the lid (pun intended) on the topic of helmets—more specifically, how climbers decide when to wear helmets and a few predictions on the future of the brain bucket.

For belaying, Carlo thinks a helmet is almost “more important.”

“This is due to the climber breaking rock above you and also getting pulled off the ground when catching large falls,” he explains.

Solid advice. But as someone who’s established a plethora of boulder problems up to V15, how about the bouldering conundrum? Helmet or nada?

“I've seen a lot more people using a helmet while bouldering than ever before, and I think it's a good idea in some situations but not all the time,” says Carlo. “Highballs with uneven landings and roofs where you can fall on your back are great examples of places a helmet could be really useful.”

But he adds a point on how helmets could be a potential hazard while pebble wrestling.

“Using a helmet all the time while bouldering seems possibly dangerous if the edge of the helmet catches a natural hazard or the spotter on the way down. This could potentially lead to the neck being twisted in a dangerous manner.”

Good point.

“I would consider it more on specific problems, and I guess I’m just looking at the fall potential and the type of fall I might take,” says Timmy.

For the highball specialist, US National Team member, and all-around crusher Timmy Kang, a helmet is only considered while bouldering after he evaluates the fall potential.

“I would consider it more on specific problems, and I guess I’m just looking at the fall potential and the type of fall I might take,” says Timmy.

For the younger generation of climbers like Timmy, the helmet is more prevalent on trad routes or multi-pitch outings.

We chatted with Erica Dombro—Product Design and Development Engineer—about the process of creating helmets at BD. According to her, the most crucial factor for development is simple: making sure the helmet can pass the impact standards.

“None of the other features matter if the helmet does not pass impact or retention system effectiveness testing,” she explains.

But once that’s dialed, they work on the fun stuff, which involves the climber’s perspective.

“We consider durability, weight, usability, and protection,” she says. Plus, the team even considers when a helmet isn’t on your head.

“We have a test to emulate the squish your helmet might experience when it is being carried, for example, in a checked bag.”

As for the style of climbing a helmet is used for, Erica says sport and trad demand similar requirements so one helmet serves both. But the team does customize our Vision helmet for the winter climber.

She elaborates:

“If you are using your helmet for ice climbing, you might take the fit pads out of your helmet so you can wear a thin hat under it,” she says.

For that reason, our Vision helmet has the hook side of the Velcro on the fit pads so that the “snaggy” part of the Velcro comes out when the fit pads are removed.

That way, you can wear a hat under your helmet without the fit pads snagging your hat.”

Now that’s cool.

But there’s one other crucial factor that BD considers when designing and developing helmets.

“NOT looking like a dork!” as KP says bluntly.

And Erica attributes this to our hardworking industrial design team.

“Here at BD, we like good looking helmets, so profile and style are important. Shoutout to our industrial design team for making sure we don’t release helmets that make you look like a mushroom!”