Advice on helmets

The two main questions about helmets concern the type of terrain you should be wearing them on and the type of helmet to buy.

The free download - The BMC Helmet Guidebook  includes everything you’d ever need to know about climbing helmets.

The BMC Helmet Campaign

As part of its safety and good practice work, the BMC is running a campaign to raise awareness about climbing helmets. The campaign is supported by Mountaineering Scotland.

The aim of the campaign is to challenge views on helmets, and to encourage you to re-examine your reasons for wearing one or not. Don’t be fooled into thinking these sort of decisions are just for rock climbers; if you head out into the Scottish mountains in winter, or into scrambling terrain in summer, this information is vital to YOU.

Deciding on which risks are personally acceptable is at the fundamental core of mountaineering. Whether to wear a helmet or not is one of those choices only the individual can make.

The BMC campaign aims to make that choice an informed one, by giving the latest advice and information on how helmets work and what risks they can help protect against.

We encourage you to think carefully, weigh up the risks, and make your own decisions.

In the campaign video, climbers at England's most popular crag, Stanage Edge, are interviewed and asked about their attitudes and thoughts about wearing helmets.