Black Diamond  Vision Climbing Helmet

The Black Diamond Vision Helmet truly goes the distance. I have an oval shaped head, medium size, and wanted a very comfortable, lightweight helmet that met the current safety standards. Sure, I climb the local crags, but I wanted a helmet that I could wear for 10+ hours on big objectives like the Tetons Cathedral Traverse or the Cirque of Towers Traverse. I’ve put this helmet through both, wore it for 15+ hours at a stretch and never thought about it. It’s that Comfortable!

EPP is superior to EPS in several ways, but it has been a very slow evolution to making an optimal EPP helmet. The BD Vision is an upgrade as it uses a plastic strap in back to adjust the circumference of the helmet. This is much easier than previous EPP helmets, most of which have thin webbing straps that tangle/flip easily. But the Vision chin strap is sewn to the side straps (rather than having an adjustable Y-shaped plastic piece) and is not adjustable front to back. When I adjust the circumference, the chin strap is too far forward on my jaw and not secure. (Similar problem with the Boreo, where the chin strap is sewn too far back and cuts into my neck.) Size S/M is very small circumference, not an option.

This helmet is lite and comfortable. II can fit the helmet snug so there is zero wiggle or shifting and wear this helmet all day. I do not get hot or sore spots. Also for you parents, I got the S/M and they fit my 6 yr old daughter and 7 yr old son. They wear them all day around the crag with zero complaints.

Haven't gotten a ton of use out of this thing yet, and have had no significant head impacts, so can only comment on how it wears. It's ridiculously light, so much so that I forget I am wearing it. The adjustment is easy to use without gloves and with warm hands, but if I was ice climbing or skiing, it might be hard to adjust in the field. Helmet friendly hoods fit over it super easily and the bungee/hook headlamp/goggle system has worked well so far. All in all, I'd say this is a great light and fast helmet for climbing or skimo, it fits comfortably and has all the features that I could want from a featherlight brain bucket.

Tore the hard outer foam on the approach when the helmet was caught on heavy brush. That shouldn’t happen to a helmet of this caliber that easily. Wasted my money and will not by anything with hard foam design again.

I'm very pleased with the fit and feel of this helmet. I bought it to be used mainly on more technical scramble sections while peak bagging. It fits well over my light balaclava on colder days and the headlamp clips are nice for those alpine starts.

As some with a very large head (25.5 inch / 64.5 cm circumference), this is the best fitting climbing-specific helmet I've found so far. Even though all of BD's M/L helmets are marked as going up to 63cm, there seem to be slight differences between models. The Vision is slightly larger and wider temple-to-temple (but ~50g heavier) than the BD Vapor helmet I have, which means the Vision fits my head better. The BD Half Dome also fits reasonably well, but looks ridiculous on big heads because of the shape and is a lot heavier. I would also avoid the MIPS version of the Vision as the MIPS insert takes up space and reduces the effective maximum head size. Make sure to release the retaining plastic clips in the back to the loosest setting and move it down the straps towards your neck so that it's not getting stuck inside the helmet and taking up valuable space. You can also remove the little bits of foam padding inside to create more space as it seems comfortable enough without the padding.

Up until recently was only using my BD Vapor which is an incredibly light helmet but extremely soft and dents easily. Was starting to look like an old avocado so decided to upgrade. This one take dings like a champ and has a bungee on the back to hold goggles if needed. Has become my standard winter climbing helmet.

This helmet is very light, comfortable, and finds a good ballance between lightweight & durability. Just enough hard protection for some falling rocks and me tossing it around, but lightweight construction to let you forget you have it on.

I love this helmet, fits my noggin p It so comfy and light, I hardly notice I’m wearing it.