Friday 13 May 2011

Petzl Meteor III ....what's all the fuss about?

The Petzl Meteor III is a helmet that seems to have become synomymous with hardcore climbers and mountaineering instructors, but why? What makes this helmet better that the others? And more importantly why is it £70; much more than other high end helmets. Well luckily a friend still hasn't picked his up from my house where it's sat for ages, so in order to discover why it's so good, I thought I would leave my trusty Grivel salamander in the locker and spend my 4 hour climbing session today wearing the Meteor.
The helmet itself is very ventilated; perhaps one of the reasons it's so popular with world class climbers and instructors. The helmet comes in one size (53-61cm),
and is easily adjusted via the clips at the back. Personally I found these buckles dig into the bag of my head a little bit when first putting the helmet on, however it's fine after that. The shape of the helmet is odd, it comes down very low on the forehead (lower than I would normally have my helmet). The thing with this helmet is that when you are wearing it you feel cool, you feel like a real pro. Perhaps it's because of the helmets reputation for being used by the pro's, or perhaps it's because is does actually look pretty cool when it's on. I did also find it keeps my head nice and cool. In the past I had found other Petzl helmets make my head sweat because of the daft foam they insist in padding out the front of the helmet with. The Meteor III however has foam inside more like cycle helmet foam, and at 235g it's incredibly light. I wore it the whole 4 hours with no problems, and barely noticed I had it on!

So in summary.....yeah its cool, and if you can pick it up on offer, definately worth getting, £70 is a bit steep, but it will keep your head nice and cool - a rarity in climbing helmets!

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