Reader Reviews

Rating: 4 / 5

This is the lightest helmet that I know of. It fits a large range of head sizes but is just barely large enough for my head with no more than a lightweight polyester balaclava underneath. It weighs 235grams (my measurement). I like it but I prefer the competing Black Diamond Tracer Helmet weighing in at just a little more. I think the Black Diamon Helmet is more comfortable.

Edited by craig_shelley on 06/19/2007 12:15:28 MDT.

Rating: 5 / 5

At 232 grams/8.2oz this is the lightest helmet I've seen. Foam helmets such as this are not the most rugged. It would be crushed before it made it to base camp in the Himalaya.

For me, chin strap, headlamp attachment, sizing (fits with or w/o fleece hat) and weight are the best of any helmet I've tried. I did glue some foam pads in to customize fit. At $100 it is pricey.

Aside from light weight, the foam construction makes it better for protection from blunt trauma than from falling rock (which is a mountaineer's first concern).

Fortunately for me I was wearing it when I took a 40 foot whipper on Charlotte Dome last June and decked out on a ledge after the rope absorbed the lion's share of the KNs.

Neither the helmet nor I survived unscathed, but I my cervical vertebrae and brain would have likely been much worse off if I had been wearing a conventional hard shelled climbing helmet with webbing suspension.

Rating: 5 / 5

This thing looks like its not going to last long for those who climb really head bangerlike routes. Luckily have yet to test its strength, but what I like most is its fit. I haven't gone and tried too many helmets, but this fits muuuuuuuch better for me than any other helmet (I usually have trouble with hats, must be a strange skull) I barely need the strap while I'm wearing it because the fit is so great. Reminds me of the Seinfeld bit about skydiving helmets "wearing" their user for protection rather than the other way around. I can wear a smartwool beanie, R1 hoody and R1 balaclava comfortably under it.

Edited by hotrhoddudeguy on 12/08/2008 00:30:41 MST.