UKC

Helmets have come a long way in recent years, and what was formerly lightweight is now midweight. Here we look at two different options from Black Diamond - the Vapor, perhaps the lightest climbing helmet on the market, and the Capitan, a knockabout workhorse at a more competitive price.

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The BD helmets in M/L are a good choice if you've a large head.

Fits is personal, on trying on I didn't find the new Vapor as comfortable as the older model and extremely expensive. 

Capitan is  great personal fit, unlike the Vision, which surprised me.

Used old Vapor and Capitan for ski touring, though not indicated unlike Petzl Meteor.

On the new model, has the cord replaced the plastic ratchet system at the back?

I find it so annoying when you look up and the ratchet touches your clothing at the back of your neck and releases.

E

Yes. This isn’t a problem the new one has.

The cradle is my least favourite part of the helmet, but it no longer catches your pack / clothing.

I really like my Vapor.

Nice review but no mention of any EN or ISO standards that these helemets conform to. Mention of these will give purchasers an idea of impact resistance and shock absorbency.

That they can be bought (from reputable sources) implies they meet the required standards - EN 12-something-or-other

Yep, indeed they can't be sold in the EU and UK unless they pass the relevant test I've always presumed?

They need to comply with the requirements of EN12492 to enable the CE mark to be applied which is mandatory for certain products to be sold within the EU. The UK system is complicated by the hash the government has made of the UKCA mark process, CE mark is sufficient in the UK, but they want to phase it out at some point in favour of the UKCA mark.

Was there any experience of this during testing? My understanding of EPP - and certainly my anecdotal evidence gleaned from two Siroccos to date - is that it's notably more forgiving than EPS, and the warnings about rough treatment in bags and such are somewhat over-exaggerated

I'm glad it's not just me. Aside from that it's pretty much perfect. Just seems like a strange decision within the design process, but I'm sure they had their reasons.

As per the other comments, given that every helmet available within the UK market passes these tests our focus was within the real world differences. 

I haven't had an issue yet, but as is often the case whilst you're reviewing things - you always want more time to test them. In addition to that, there's the question as to whether I should have proactively gone out of my way to treat it badly - just to see how it reacts. I didn't, as I wanted to take good care of it, but maybe I should have taken a different approach. 

Having owned two original Vapors I treat my new one with kid gloves! That said I’ve used my new version for 12 months now and it’s virtually unmarked. Those old ones were pretty snappy and I think the new version will last a lot longer.

That said it’s still foam so not as robust as “old skool” shell type helmets, so I’ll keep being careful with mine!

The old ones were all polystyrene, weren't they? Or were they also EPP?

The foam part was EPS I think.

Out of curiosity, any ideas what the Meteor 4 was made of? The blue/silver model. I am finding conflicting reports online, some sites state EPS, other EPP, and the latest model is definitely EPS.

The reason I'm asking is that mine smashed to bits in less time than any other helmet I've ever had and I can't say I was abusing it particularly. That makes me suspicious of similarly constructed helmets made from whatever that was made of, so it'd be interesting to know. I can't find it on Petzl's website anymore and I doubt I have the box anywhere.

I don't know why they moved away from the wheel adjustment. 

I replaced my 10 year old BD half dome with a Capitan MIPS last year and whilst it looks nice it's pretty disappointing for the money. I find it hard to adjust whilst on my head and the headtorch clips at the front don't really work with my head torch and seem quite flimsy. The old style had a wheel adjuster at the back which was easy to adjust one handed, the new style has a ratchet slider on each side which you need both hands for and is a PITA to adjust with gloves on. The mechanism also digs into the back of my head if I don't have a hat on, but I probably wouldn't feel it as much if I had hair and it's not unbearable, just a bit painful after a few hours. 

I really liked the old half dome - robust, no high side vents for ice and debris to fall in, solid headtorch attachment, comfortable, easy to adjust, light weight. I still wear it sometimes for ground work even though it's really too old now, it's just a great helmet. Not really sure how they managed to take something that worked fine and just make it a little bit shitter for twice the price. The new range looks nice though.

I'm pretty sure it was EPS - I think the full shell covering would be the giveaway, which seems not to be necessary on EPP ones

(Plus Petzl made much of the Sirocco being EPP, and presumably would have done the same for the Meteor if it had been re-engineered)

Hmm. Nor me, but maybe this thread will force me to adjust my faith in the EPP helmets somewhat:

https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/gear/helmet_damage-771315