Wearing a helmet in a wide variety of outdoor sports is an obvious choice for many people. For Petzl, offering more than simple protection for your head is one of our primary concerns!
Whether mountaineering, rock climbing, backcountry skiing, travelling over a glacier, canyoning, scrambling, or caving, those of you who enjoy adventures in the vertical world can find a helmet in the Petzl range.
When choosing a helmet it's important to consider several aspects:
Fit - A well fitting helmet is essential, try on several models.
Protection - Our Top & Side label guarantees Petzl helmets provide industry leading levels of top, front, side and rear protection.
Adjustment - A well designed adjustment system will help with comfort and allow your helmet to be used in summer and winter conditions.
Ventilation - Higher intensity activity or warmer conditions will require a more vented helmet
For maximum comfort and protection, a helmet should always be properly adjusted. Vivian Bruchez provides tips on how to adjust your helmet so that it fits your head perfectly.
Petzl Helmets
Comments
Given the re-design of the Sirocco and its apparent suitability for the same things as the Meteor, not to mention the difference in weight, it's hard to see what the point of the Meteor is in the Petzl range now
Well, the Meteor is cheaper, has a more normal adjustment system and is arguably more durable. Those seem like enough differentiating factors to me. I've certainly seen people choose the Meteor over the new Sirocco.
Can anyone explain why Petzl took an amazing helmet in the Scirocco, and replaced the highest wear area with a brittle and generally more fragile material? The whole point of the Scirocco was that the EPP was flexible and robust so could potentially take multiple hits (or people sitting on it in your rucksack). EPP has blown me away as a helmet material, it actually bounces off impacts, if I had the newer version I would have totalled it several times.
Although this totally anecdotal, I still use the new Sirocco that I was given to review (2 years ago) every time I go route climbing. It might not have had any major impacts but it's had a few loose rocks fall on it and has rolled down the hill at the bottom of a crag or two. I also regularly attach it to the outside of my bag and it gets knocked around. It's still totally functional and in one piece bar a few scratches.
This doesn't address your point about EPP but although the new Sirocco is and looks seriously lightweight it's actually pretty durable!
I'm sure it's still a good helmet, but the biggest impacts I personally encounter with my helmet is standing/moving up and banging the top of my head into the rock/fencepost/tree etc. Whenever I do that in my version, you can literally feel the helmet absorb the impact and bounce off (and I've done it pretty damn hard once or twice). My helmet barely has a scratch on it. EPS absorbs impact by permanently deforming, so I doubt it would have survived similar impacts.