[Closed] wearing a helmet on the slopes...

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I have you now Skywalkaaa

Cool thing you see in France is parents writing their mobile numbers on the tops of their kid's helmets

Good idea that.
GPS tracking is also useful!

Legend - no inside edges, quite easy to do and get high sided. Also running slalom gates easy enough to catch a tip.

We used to specifically train not wearing slalom helmets as you had to learn correct technique.

A top world class downhiller died a few years back because she was wearing a full face helmet, it snapped her neck. Hence now why racers don't use full face helmets.

The front piece clips off really easily (one finger each side and push) and I have drilled a tiny hole in mine and have a thin bit of chord through it that's attached that I attach so it doesn't fall when I unclip it.

You drilled a hole in your helmet?

We used to specifically train not wearing slalom helmets as you had to learn correct technique.

One of the coaches in Austria used to teach that, a few fat lips and black eyes soon teach good technique 🙂

A top world class downhiller died a few years back because she was wearing a full face helmet, it snapped her neck. Hence now why racers don't use full face helmets.

Who was that ?

You drilled a hole in your helmet?

Yes. As I said, I drilled a 2mm hole in the face part of the helmet.

Do you have safety concerns ?

(I don't)

fourbanger is just being lewd.

All this thread demonstrates in that humans are crap at judging relative risk.

They are warm, comfy and you don't have to trudge 30 yards back up the hill to fetch them and 30 yards across for your goggles. What's not to like?

Not being lewd. Your personal safety is up to you nealglover, I wouldn't comment. Just nipping out to cut some holes in my seatbelts as they can get a bit sweaty in warm weather.

Going off on a tangent regarding slope safety......... as has been highlighted above, many of the concerns are not due to 'personal failures' but the risk of being hit by an out of control or incompetent skier/boarder. Certainly most of the nasty injuries I've seen are due to someone colliding with someone else.

There aren't many hazardous sports or activities where you can quite legitimately go straight to the most challenging area on your first day. How many people do you see side-slipping or even snowploughing down a black before the inevitable loss of control and crash?

Instead of compulsory helmets (not far off I fear) how feasible is a competency test for relative newbies prior to getting a lift pass? Initially greens and blues, then if they want to go to more difficult slopes, a quick test, or ski instructor/ski school ok and the ticket then authorised for more difficult terrain. Difficult to police, of course but the deterrent of lift pass forfeiture if caught, might make some think twice.

Weird thing is compulsory helmets on the slopes wouldn't bother me at all - whereas on the bike, I'd be dead against it.

FunkyDunc - Member
Legend - no inside edges, quite easy to do and get high sided. Also running slalom gates easy enough to catch a tip.

Neither of which whip your head off the ground in the same way catching a heel edge at speed does - just trust my experience on this one please

EDIT: that's not to say you can't have big edge-related crashes in skis, it's just the whipping motion that's absent.

Sorry completely disagree 🙂

You should watch me board then. On a board at 5 mph I can easily hit the ground harder than I can at 50 mph on skis 😉

Helemets are compulsary at work, I always one on the bike so going outside without one sometimes feels weird.

I wear mine when I'm snowboarding about 50% of the time. I just wear a BMX lid - much cheaper - less sweaty - and if they're good enough for the vert ramp...

Neither of which whip your head off the ground in the same way catching a heel edge at speed does

Not being lewd. Your personal safety is up to you nealglover, I wouldn't comment. Just nipping out to cut some holes in my seatbelts as they can get a bit sweaty in warm weather.

I'm not being funny here, but you haven't a bloody clue what you are talking about.

Would I be right in presuming you have never seen this helmet ?
And You don't know what the construction is or where the hole is drilled ?
Or what the face guard is designed to do ?

But hey, this is STW, it's ok for you to pretend be an expert in something you clearly have no knowledge of.

So you crack on.

I wear one now. Was thankful for it after taking misjudging a turn in Verbier last Feb and sliding down the slope head-first.

Each to their own though.

We had an incident last year in Switzerland - one trainee in queue for lift, one barreled in too fast racing with a couple of others and smashed into queue-ee.
Skull cracked just at helmet brow and broken nose, no memory for a week. Docs reckon that without the helmet she would not have survived. 😕
Like biking, you can get away with out one, but why not reduce the risks.

There aren't many hazardous sports or activities where you can quite legitimately go straight to the most challenging area on your first day.

Mountain biking.

Like [s]biking[/s] driving, walking, showering, you can get away with out one, but why not reduce the risks.

Mountain biking.

Two reasons I wear a helmt while skiing now.

1. They're really warm.
2. I watched two guys cannon into each other, their heads banged together. One of them lay on the ground not moving, the other spent a lot of time screaming. Both had to be coptored off the mountain.

Was standing on a piste 10 years ago when a boarder jumped out of the trees blind, went over my head by the best part of an inch. I shat myself, skied to the bottom and bought a lid there and then. A few inches lower we would have literally sliced the top off my head.

The amount of bangs/scratches in my lid also makes me very glad I have one. I also find it very warm and comfy.

Most back bowl skiing in the states requires a helmet and avalanche kit these days.

I realised that I used to go twice as fast on my board than my bike and probably ten times higher over kickers... so wearing a lid was obvious for the slopes if I was wearing one on the bike.

But it still took and knock to my head and being flown off the hill in a Huey for me to finally wear one.

That was getting on for 15 years ago when I was young and bouncy. Now if I think my kids heads are important enough to protect surely thier dad's should be too ?

Helmets can be hot and sweaty and not always comfy but I can't see why you wouldn't wear one skiing or boarding

Is that not sort of answering your own question!

I started wearing a helmet after cracking my head on a rock hard, icy piste. When I sat up I didn't have a clue where I was or what day of the week it was. Bought a helmet after that.....

which lasted 3 days before I gashed the back of the helmet open with the edge of my ski (think head plant to avoid running into the back of someone in the off piste). The ski put a 2 inch dent that was about 3/4 of an inch deep, not sure what the damage would have been without the lid but at the least it would have been a nasty scalp laceration and possibly a fractured skull.