Helmets when tramping?

It might seem odd. If you’re not going on a climbing, mountaineering, canyoning, or caving trip, then why would you take a helmet?

by Rob Frost

I know people who’ve been airlifted out of the hills on a tramping trip because they’ve been following a river for hours and hours on slippery boulders. They’ve fallen over and hit their head against a rock and unfortunately sustained a head injury. It happens easily.

Many adventurous tramping trips involve other types of sustained rocky terrain, or confined scree gullies with rockfall. Just because you’re “only tramping”, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t consider a helmet.

So, I highly encourage you to take one of these if you’re considering such a trip. Many helmets out there weigh so little that you practically forget that you’re wearing one. I particularly like the Petzl Sirocco but there are similar helmets by other brands, too. Try different brands to see which one suits the shape of your head best.

Please don’t misconstrue this advice as though I’m advocating wearing helmets all the time. Chucking them on everywhere just to be “safe” leads you into the trap of not properly considering where areas of heightened risk really are.

Make sure that you carry your helmet inside your pack if you’re not wearing it. Attaching it to the outside is just asking for it to be damaged.