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Whip Hard? Wear A Helmet.

Rock and Ice is known for its coverage of all things climbing. From gear reviews to trip reports, they cover all the bases - including weekly safety lessons in the form of the "Weekend Whipper". In Friday's Whipper, climber Steve Ward learned the value of helmets on 5.10c Jungle Gym at the Red River Gorge in Kentucky. 

He takes a whip, gets caught in the rope, gets flipped over and nearly decks head-first. In the words of the R&I crew, "another few inches and he would have been eating from a tube for the rest of his life."

RELATED: Whip Hard? Better Wear a Helmet.

Most of the fall can be chalked up to luck- there aren't many technical mistakes to learn from in the video, besides maybe adjusting his last draw and reducing the slack in the system on the belayer's part. But Steve has a bigger takeaway from this:

“I was damn fortunate to come out of that fall with nothing more than a bit of rope burn on my leg. Better believe this made me reconsider not wearing a helmet while sport climbing.”

Amen to that. Talk about a puckering warning.

Lucky basterd - it could have ended sooo much worse had he hit his head in the rock. One has to truly not be thinking if one decides to climbe without a properly attached helmet. Good thing for him, great thing that the video is here - maybe it will save some lives.

About The Author

stash member Oz

Jackson transplant from the Deep South by way of Canada. Stoked on powder and bluebird days.