Alpine Shield - The advantage is clear and so is the concept

The Alpine Shield concept: more protection at the turn of a screw..The Alpine Shield has been designed to extend the range of EPS style helmets, to provide improved stone and icefall protection and extend their climbability.
To make it clearer how and why the Shield works, and why it’s so valuable, it’s necessary to understand a bit more about how climbing helmets work...

At present the climbing helmet market splits into two camps: tougher, heavier, ‘mountain’ helmets on one side and lighter, but less strong, EPS helmets on the other.

In the first drawing - Fig 1 - we can see a sharp chunk of ice striking a standard EPS helmet.

Expanded PolyStyrene climbing helmets have been around for many years now, are very popular, and have proved themselves for general rock climbing. Mainly worn (and advertised) on the basis of light weight and comfort, EPS helmets are easily identified, as the foam inner (covered by a light ‘plastic’ shell) sits directly against the head with little gap between this protection and the skull.

A relevant point to note is that EPS style helmets were derived from cycle helmets.

Safetywise the major attribute of these EPS helmets (known in the trade as ‘bumpers’) is their ability to stop injury in a fall when the head will bang or ‘bump’ the rock. What is less known (although passing the same CE test) - is why ‘bumper’ helmets often don’t deal with falling objects, such as rocks or ice, as well as ‘mountain’ helmets, a fact which can make them unsuitable for less stable environments.

The sharp ice striking at speed - Fig 2 - may penetrate a standard EPS and go through into the head.

The EPS’s difficulty is that it must combat two types of impact that are so different: e.g. a slower ‘bump’ in a fall contrasts markedly to high velocity narrow radius stone fall. And there’s a simple explanation for the difficulty of doing both well - material choice. EPS itself, basically the same material a domestic appliance arrives packed in, is solid if dropped or banged (when crushing can disperse impact) but is much less effective against an errant knifeblade.

Thus when hit with a sharper falling object (SEE FIG 1), the thinner ‘shell’, EPS material and lack of a gap between the foam and the head can lead to a higher chance of an object ‘piercing’ the foam and contacting the skull. (SEE FIG 2).

Here we see the same impact (Fig 3) with the unique and exclusive Alpine Shield cover in place.

This ‘falling object’ problem is countered in ‘mountain’ helmets, partly by use of a thicker outer shell, but crucially by use of a wider gap between the protective material and the head giving more depth to absorb impacts.

Yet although stronger, ‘mountain’ helmets often feel heavier, less connected, less comfortable and are less popular for harder rock climbing. So all of the above seems to be leading one way - to the fact that to climb hard in summer and have a safe winter, it seems you have to buy two helmets!

And this is exactly where the Alpine Shield concept comes in - to bridge this obvious gap!

Uniquely, cleverly and simply the Alpine Shield idea replicates, by placing a light outer shell above the EPS inner, the crucial extra depth of the mountain helmet - providing extra stone stopping power other EPS helmets can’t supply.

In Fig 4 we can see that the extra stopping power of the Alpine Shield helps save from a head strike!

And although damage will still occur from stonefall, (SEE FIG 3) the extra resistance of the shell and the overall depth of the helmet gives a better chance of avoiding head injury (SEE FIG 4).

It is this difference, the ability to buy one helmet and to then to choose and alter the level of protection to suit the terrain, that makes the Alpine Shield a true original and a breakthrough for those who like to mix it up.

Suddenly, a safe switch from hard rock to thin ice is quick, simple and very cost effective!

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