Get a helmet that fits without a hat.
I like a headband I can stuff in my jacket breast pocket. Most helmet carry systems suck. Mammut had a good one. See if you can rig up one that works for you. You need to deal with skins anyway. A helmet should be NBD.
For my non-Mammut packs, I clip mine to a shoulder strap and have a bungee’d hook on the other side. For short skins I don’t bother with the bungee hook and can skin while I attach the helmet to the pack.
Last edited by Lindahl; 11-15-2019 at 02:48 PM.
I use a ball cap, trucker hat, or most often a floppy brim hat on the way up. Cold days like Wednesday in Northern Vt the helmet stays on after the first ski just for simplicity. Some days a knit hat works better. I always have a thin balaclava with me that can go under the helmet plus a buff.
I bought a helmet with MIPS, but I think the tech is better suited to a bike fall. Still it might help and I want to encourage companies to make better helmets. I like most of what Lou says, but his disdain for helmets really pisses me off because I think he has influence and helmets can be a hell of a lot better. Fortunately the bike world is making progress.
We all know the old saw helmets have limitations in preventing brain injuries particularly concussions. Just look at the physics of it, but what I think the physics miss is most of the time I am not dead falling at a tree or rock, It is not just a watermelon inside a helmet dropped from a height; my arms and body are working to minimize the head strike. I am sure all would agree they are at least slightly beneficial in preventing concussions relative to hats.
There are two areas where helmets are particularly effective versus hats as safety gear, skull fracture and skull laceration.
Personally I have had two instances where I feel a helmet prevented injury. Skiing along a connecting trail when my ski caught something and I hit my head directly on the fall that I think likely would have caused a concussion without one. Second time skiing under a fallen tree on a stream bed I caught a broken branch that dented the POC aramid shell. Pretty sure it would have been a scalp peeler without the helmet. As it was other than bouncing, scraping helmet off the limb I skied on fine.
Good skimo has regulated out mountaineering helmets as the needs of a ski helmet are different. I chose the extra weight of the POC bc helmet for the convenience of dialed in fit, adjustable ventilation and the tough aramid shell. I would definitely be influenced in my purchasing decisions by better helmet certifications.
I have toured with folk who don't use one. Their choice and it is an obvious choice they make not like the color of the jacket which they got because it was 65% off. So like politics not a place I butt my opinions into if I don't know them and always happy to be out touring with folks. But my personal opinion is a helmet is as important a piece of safety kit as a beacon. My guess is there are three primary reasons folks don't bring one: they ski in an area relatively free of rocks and trees; pack does not have good helmet carry and they don't want to mess with it; they don't like how it looks or feels.
edit: end rant, just an opinion been holding and this was a place to let it out and not hold it any more
For long tours with lower risk, I actually started using this: https://www.ribcap.com/collections/w...e-helmet-lenny
Absolutely not a replacement for a good helmet, but better than nothing.
Nice this looks like something you can wear on a tour and in the bar after for all day protection.
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How does this thread have so many posts? I never realized there was so much to debate about head protection and warmth.
The real question is what helmet makes your head look like an orange dick the most?
Surely I can't be the only person that has seen this before
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