This is why we wear helmets:

Ok I really get along well with my new climbing partner and we are almost exactly the skill level (he is 9 yrs younger; maybe a little stronger but I won't tell him so)

However, he still hasn't bought a helmet.   I think he will now and this is why:

We were climbing a route called Arterial Bypass and I was leading this single pitch affair.  I was, as always, wearing my helmet.  While reaching into a halleluja bucket I scraped a handfull of what felt like dust and gravel out of it that I couldn't see.  I called out the hazard like you are supposed to and climbed on.  While clipping into the top anchors my partner told me that his head was bleeding from the rock I sent him from about thirty-ish feet above. 

The rock that cut him was no bigger than a book of matches but it was enough to send a little trickle of blood down his forehead.  He took the blow about an inch into his hairline; a helmet would have covered that spot.

He is tough, this wont be the first scar on his dome but I think the lesson was learned.  Two days earlier we watched a lunchbox-sized rock fall onto a team's hummus and tofu.  The tofu did not survive.  If a matchbook-sized rock will cut you what would the lunchbox-sized one do? 

 If the idea of an unconsious belayer concerns you, get him a helmet. 

Mine is ording one right now.

Jeff

Belaying without a helmet is about like running out into traffic shouting "Hit me! Hit me!"

Glad he's wised up. 

Helmuts are a good idea, but a lunch bucket sized rock falling a decent distance will kill you outright if it struck your head, with or without a helmet.

Ed

This is why I don't climb rocks.

Ed Wrote:

a lunch bucket sized rock falling a decent distance will kill you outright if it struck your head, with or without a helmet

True, but at least the funeral could still be open casket. 

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