Page 8 - 2009 AMA Winter

Devil’s Advocate
M
Whilst serving with the United Nations Roulemont Regiment’s Adventure Training Team, or UNRATT as it is affectionately known to those who have served with the UN in Cyprus, we were amply supplied with the latest AMA Journals, many thanks Helen.
The subject came up for discussion one sunny day, ‘Do we wear helmets or not when climbing?’ This turned out to be a controversial and provocative subject for many sitting in one camp or the other. Most instructors would agree that when working with groups outside it’s a no boner, helmets most definitely on. However working indoors it’s very much optional depending on the wall’s regulations on the subject, and so the discussion went.....
Some would say that while we are instruct- ing we have to be nanny state safety con- scious and to a certain degree most of us would agree we have the responsibility in giving a group a good day out and that in my book means going home relatively
unscathed, less minor cuts and grazes.
Now came the twist, do we wear helmets when we go climbing ourselves as equals? Now obviously we are leading and second- ing at a higher grade than we normally take groups to, but does this mean the hazard of falling rock has gone......nooo.....so when we climb privately on E4+ (I wish VD and S) we are so superhuman that a falling rock just would not dare to try and hit us....nooooo......so if we climb without a helmet are we just plain stupid....very much YES!!!!!
So let’s take out last month’s journal and see how many incidents of people are actually climbing without that, as most people would agree is our most important piece of equipment, the helmet....and unless the editor re-writes the whole jour- nal what about this copy?
Writing in a magazine such as this brings me full circle to the question ‘What and why?’ That is, ‘What are we trying to
achieve by having an association maga- zine?’ I would hope that educating towards best practise is somewhere high up there; we therefore have to ask ourselves if, by showing pictures of ourselves climbing and mountaineering without helmets are we supporting such an ethos? Before anyone thinks I’m jumping on a bandwagon or on a witch-hunt, I too can occasionally be found climbing without a helmet, but only when I feel it appropriate to do so. In any case, the purpose of this article is not impose my values upon you, rather, as the title suggests, to get you to consider your own. There is after all one thing that moun- taineers like more than being in the hills and climbing – talking about being in the hills and climbing!
I’m sure this will cause some discussion amongst the membership, and I am sure others, would like to see people’s opinions on this subject in future journals, not the terrible and unthinkable alternative conse- quences of the helmet debate.
Happy and safe head injury free climbing
Marc Reynolds
Editors note:
For more information on the helmet debate, take a look at the Lotus Flower Tower article in this edition.
6 ARMY MOUNTAINEER
The Editor completing the second ascent of The Scamp at Symonds
Yat - most definitely helmet territory. (Photo by Mark Davies)