From: "Frank Stock" <ftstock@Tradgirlemail.msn.com>
Subject: Should I retire my helmet?
Date: 1999/04/06

Last fall I had the pleasure of spending a lovely unprepared night
descending in the wrong gully after being unable to find a rap anchor at the
top of Black Orpheous.    In preparation for last weekends Red Rocks weekend
climb I duct taped a box of matches inside the top of my helmet.
Unfortunately the box of matches was not quite full, and they got to
jingling around inside the box.  Apparently the sudden stop on the end of a
rope when I fell while posing on a was enough to create ample friction
between the heads of the matches causing them to ignite.  At first I thought
I must have hurt myself falling as the party next to me was waving at me and
screaming and pointing at me.  Eventually I regained my senses and realized
that I wasn't bleeding but burning, and removed the smoldering helmet from
my head and pitched it to the ground.  After stomping out the resulting
brush fire, my partner lowered me and we examined the helmet.  The fire
mostly just blackened the helmet a bit on the inside, although there is a
small swirl of melted plastic about the size of a small matchbox.

My questions are 1) should I retire the helmet and 2) does anyone have a
good hair ointment they could recommend?

Cheers,

Frank

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