The old JB's were indeed monsters! Heavier then an old Buick and with no ventilation which would make your head drown in sweat...Thankfully newer technology has made these old helmets a relic of the past.

I'm glad to hear your opinion here. Especially because the rope I chose for my daughter was an Edelrid Eagle Pro (yep, they are still in business!) To be sure, I had my "marching orders" ... 70 meters, 9.8mm, dry coat, easy to see middle marker, etc. ... but after finding all the ropes that matched the required specs, I chose the Edelrid based on how it felt in my hand and the sales persons recommendation that it was his favorite rope (due to its not kinking and pigtailing as bad as other ropes).

p.s. - Sorry for the thread hijack. I didn't mean for this to get into climbing ropes. I started off intending to talk about climbing HELMETS, but got carried away.

@Arney, sorry I didn't respond sooner. Yeah I totally agree with what we understand with TBI, (traumatic brain injury) has gotten much better only b/c of the problems we are having with our military returning with them. Prior to that TBI was a very small and more organic aspect of medicine. Organic as that once you were discharged, your long term care was through local brain injury groups meeting in homes or hospitals.

My massive injury in 1986 which included losing my entire life of memories to amnesia (with no return) had some sort term care but nothing like today. I was lucky my cognitive therapist had just got this really cool new home computer from a company called Apple, and she set my new brain functions for memory to act like folders and files rather than using true memories or emotional connections to images in my mind (for what I had lost-part of my recovery was getting oral historys from my friends).

When I had my last one a couple years ago, they were just finding that those like me that suffered massive TBI 20+ years ago (and ongoing concussions) needed to see doctors to get, for lack of a better term, 'updated' training from the things they just now discovering about TBI and people like me never got.

"I'm glad to hear your opinion here. Especially because the rope I chose for my daughter was an Edelrid Eagle Pro (yep, they are still in business!)"

Tell her to VALUE that rope :-)
Like I said ... best rope I ever owned.
I think I bought the Edelrid back when I was getting ready to do the traverse on the Lost Arrow Spire in Yosemite.
hair raising. makes you appreciate a rope :-)
Hahahaha !

Second best was a rope made by Chouinard, back before they ever re-named themselves Black Diamond. And Blue Water ropes weren't too bad. But that Eedelrid rope was a beautiful piece of work ... it's nice to see people who still value old-fashioned craftsmanship :-)

Pete2

Very slight correction Pete.

(From Wikipedia) In 1989, Chouinard Equipment, Ltd. filed for bankruptcy protection in order to protect it from liability lawsuits. The hard assets of Chouinard Equipment, Ltd. were acquired by its employees through the Chapter 11 process, and the company was reestablished as Black Diamond Equipment, Ltd.

For those who are not familiar, Yvon Chouinard is a legend in the climbing world and perhaps best known for his improved piton design then later, aluminum chockstones (hexes) that changed climbing forever.

My Favorite Chouinard quote:

"The reason it was so scary was that there was only one climber capable of rescuing us, and that was Layton Kor, and he was in Colorado."
Yvon Chouinard, on the first ascent of North American Wall

(North American Wall is in the Yosemite Valley, California)

@comms: Sorry to hear of your terrible head injury. It must have been tremendously debilitating, not to mention painful. I'm sure it took a lot of hard work and persistence to get back on the horse of life, not to mention courage. I hope you've been able to return to a full and fulfilling life!

I was lucky, I am lucky, there are so many other people who hit their head and become low functioning humans or they die. Liem Neesons wife, actress Natasha Richardson, died from a head injury she received falling on a beginning ski slope. Our injuries and lucid moments prior to full term of injury were very similar.

I have to have a daily routines to keep track of things. Its not like I can't improvise and live a normal (ish) life but I have to be more aware about my surrounding, where I put things.

I won't ever play a pick up game of basketball or football due to the fact I just don't know if I would get a hit to the head, pushed, dropped, tackled, elbowed by someone. When I was in the military I got a few more concussions just going CQB and once just walked into a tank turret. You never know!

Teslinhiker ... yeah good point.
Wow it's been a long time :-)
those were the good old days.

yeah it comes back to me now - there was a crazy incident. some well known climber (who was that??) was guiding some folks. i think it was over on the Tetons. they were doing a multi-pitch climb. And one of the clients took off his harness so he could go and take a leak. when he came back, he didn't tie the harness on correctly. then he fell later while climbing, the harness came off and I think he was killed. the guide was blamed and Chouinard was faced with a lawsuit. As usual, it was a ridiculous charge filed against a really good company. And I think that's when they changed their name and did the filing you referred to.

Anyway ... did not mean to hijack this thread.
we obviously need a separate thread to talk about climbing gear and old, old stories!

Someone pointed out that protective helmets have come a long way. YES they have. We mostly didn't use them because they were cumbersome and far too bulky. But the modern ones look much better. And so do the Pro Tec helmets and skateboard helmets. I would think that any of these would be great for tornado purposes.

Pete2

We're glad you're still around to join the fun here at ETS, comms! Hang in there. I guess when you really think about it, all we can do is appreciate what we have on a daily basis because you never know when your number is up.