There is always the aftercare 🙂

I had a couple of guys staying with me once (one a MTB mag editor) & one of them managed a fall at the top of a piste & went all the way down on his face, narrowly missing a few trees, he thought his time had come.

It took about 6 beers to stop him shakeing the night went down hill from there 🙂

I’m not trying to dismiss helmets – I’m just trying to make the point that staying within your limits is the best way to reduce your risk.

Agreed! And for me it’s probably the number of skiers and boarders on busy slopes that don’t appear to know what there limits are make wearing one an easy choice for me (that and those hard spring morning pistes). The worst falls I’ve had have usually been someone elses fault 😉

But I’m used to wearing helmets for riding (and in past for other activities – eg climbing and kayaking) so it doesn’t feel odd or out of place for me. I certainly wouldn’t want people being put off going up mountains because they felt unsafe without a helmet because, as you point out with the stats, they’re really not.

And re the original post… I know that area quite well… very lucky boys… and idiots 😉

Sorry GrahamS, drop me a mail at darcyciaran [at] mac [dot] com…I can give you the gen on Whistler…couple of interesting things to let you know about it…

FWIW, I’m a snowboarder and now wear a helmet all the time. Its warm, dry and means I’m not so worried about catching a heel edge on an icy day.

Graham S – this blog is worth reading, daily conditions at Whistler from a local (intead of the Intrawest marketing machine) http://whistlerblackcombsnowreport.com

Not a great season so far in my inexperienced opinion: unseasonally cold December, followed by too much snow over Xmas (avalanches galore), followed by a dry & hot January. Forecast looks a bit better from now on, so fingers crossed for some steady snow.

dd: cool, will mail you later tonight

Burts: thanks. Already stumbled on that blog. Sounds like it has been a weird season so far. I’ve been a bit worried, But it’s got a fortnight to dump before we get there.

Sorry to butt in but I’m also heading to Whistler in mid March and would love some info too, mind if I mail you too DD? Or can send to bruce.waddell at hotmail . co . uk

As a mixed group of skiers/boarders I’d say we boarders started with helmey thing but last year in particular the skiers biought into the whole thing. I also wear a back protector after 1 nasty windmill episode left me unable to partake in apres ski for a day or two.

To be honest I am dumbstruck at the amount of MTBers who advocate not wearing a helmet while skiing/boarding. Would you attempt coming down Fort Bill’s DH run on a bike without at least a helmet? The pistes have become more dangerous in recent years because of the sheer numbers of people now skiing compared to 10 years ago. There has been a lot of whoo-haa recently here in Germany after the Minister President of Thuringia collided with a lady form Slovenia over the Xmas period in Austria. He survived after being being in an artificial coma for a week she died. Guess which one was wearing a helmet and which one wasn’t.

Well I spent 4 years working on ski patrols in NZ, US and Scotland. During that period I saw a lot of random injuries including head injuries. I was also helicoptered to hospital courtesy of a small japenese man who came round a snow fence at Mt Hutt at 60kmh thinking he was Franz F ucking Klammer and hit me as I was tending to a injured child – after i (apparently) had stopped kicking him up and down the slope i collapsed and was helicpotered to ChCh hospital with a fractured skull. Anyway…
Historically helmets were quite uncomfortable, hot and not very nice and they were also seen as something you wore if you were racing. I never wore one for work but did if i was doing gates or GS or other race training. Now, I am (was) an alright skiier and most damage i have done to myself was totally self inflicted. But a lot of what we treated were collision injuries etc and most of these resulted in head injuries.
Helmet technologies and costs have also dropped and theres a greater sense of ‘personal safety’ hence helmet use is increasing as I see it. Saying that, having dug 4 dead people out of avalanches not one of them would have survived with a helmet on – so there actual ‘use’ in preventing deaths could be questioned. On balance though I’d advocate helmet use as they don’t limit your vision, they keep your head warm and if you fall over then they will give you some protection on the hard surfaces. iPods and the line = don;t get me started on that, people that go off piste with no knowledge, limited skills, no ability to read snow pack, no Pieps/shovel/probe and TESTED skills – also please, don;t start me on that. I once had to dig out a ****-tard who had triggered an avalanche on his mate, buried him then boarded down a different line, started his own tasty sluff and then buried himself and double buried his mate. Out of bounds, no gear, no idea, his mate amazingly got out but they were both so arrogant and unrepentent that it was the last straw for me and I have not been on snow ever since that season.

Helmets are more common in Canada I find than say europe ( based on a number of seasons living the dream ) – I wear one and have benefitted a couple of times – most seriously when i was hit from the side by a young brit seasonaire firing out of trees onto a hard and fast piste…

Oh for the record ITS SNOWBOARDING not ‘ boarding ‘ okay !!! It really upsets snowboarders being referred to ‘ boarders ‘ thats what londoncity living types call it when being ‘rad’…. 🙂

paul

Also – I paddle and stragely wear a helmet in whitewater (in short and multisport boats) but never when i am just ‘out’ paddling in the sea etc. Last night I got it all wrong and fell off my ski and smacked my head on my paddle and then my ski – which gave me a timely remonder that I should maybe either fall off less or wear my helmet. But no-one else does – vanity stops me – weird…

No probs guys, whoever wants to e-mail about Whistler…fire away

Where i worked i referred to them as “annoying pretentious skilless b astards” which translates as boarders to me. But then, i taught it too so what did I know 😳
You know, if they get upset being called ‘boarders’ and wish to be referred to as ‘snowboarders’ then maybe i should never ever go no snow again. Its obviously all about what your called not having fun any more. Oh well.

dd: YGM.

He survived after being being in an artificial coma for a week she died. Guess which one was wearing a helmet and which one wasn’t.

From the account I read they were both very badly injured because he was skiing outside of his limits and he is being investigated for manslaughter. The fact that he was wearing a helmet didn’t prevent them colliding, but riding sensibly would have.

The fact he was wearing a helmet may have contributed to her injuries.

Oh for the record ITS SNOWBOARDING not ‘ boarding ‘ okay !!! It really upsets snowboarders being referred to ‘ boarders ‘ thats what londoncity living types call it when being ‘rad’

No idea what you’re on about there. I’m definitely not a “londoncity living type” (I’m from Glasgow) and I’ve always said boarding. I’m also a member of the Snowboard Club UK and the terms boarder and boarding are used all the time on their forums.

Do you also consider yourself a Mountain Bicyclist? 😛

yes but if both were wearing a helmet she may have survived. if neither were wearing helmets they both could have died.

wearing a lid shouldn’t mean you can be reckless with no regard for others. it does mean that your head is better protected against falls onto ice and, for me more importantly, against other idiots.

Who gets upset about the term ‘boarders’ – jesus some people are uptight.

And is it ‘Snowboarder X’ or ‘Boarder X’ then snowpaul?

yes but if both were wearing a helmet she may have survived. if neither were wearing helmets they both could have died.

Well there are four possibilities here. For H is Helmet and N is NoHelmet we can have { (H,H), (H,N), (N,H)……

..*bibble*…

😉

I “ride” my board so when i head out with my buddys we are off riding. but iv been called so many things whilst doing this that being called a “boarder” is quite a compliment!

I was kinda joking re ‘snowboarding’ – see the smiley – there was a big debate on SCUK about it years ago and was funny… I was being a tool for a joke…

If people go off piste ( a la this pic ) without the holy trinity of shovel / probe / beacon and the knowledge on how to use it then its their own stupid fault and I agree with NZcol – it does kinda get you down. Notice guys in pic had no gear ( no backpacks etc ) and probably no idea / no map etc – tignes is an unforgiving place.

Since parabolic skies were brought out in the 1990’s, skiing (imo) has become so much easier. Consequently there are alot of peeps that maybe have a days tuition and think they’re Body Miller. Taking no notice of the rules and regulations and safety of other piste users. I have been run into a couple of times in the last 2 years from behind. Each time I was very pleased to be wearing a helmet.
Also I feel the pistes are far more crowded now than 15 years ago.
Also its’ obvious that many of the small bumps to the head aren’t reported.

Ive sat at the top of the goat track and alladins in schnechda waiting to get the balls up to go in alone with no helmet.unstrapping and walking very slowly back up alladins on my first attempt because i thought i took the wrong route was probably the scariest moment of my life.

no helmets though. whiplash once a week with a sore bonce was part of it all!

I’ve reaced competitively from about the age of 10 to 25, and skied off piste extensively for about 15 years. Not once have I seen or heard of an accident where a helmet would make a difference, although I do know of one accident where the skier died directly because they were wearing a full face helmet.

In my opinion its more about if you ski/board within your ability. I think people who wear helmets and other protective equipment suddenly beleive they turn in to some kind of skiing/boarding god. 99% of them are intermediate/low advanced boarder/skiers. A helemt boosts their ego becuase it makes them look more professional and ‘rad’ like the pro’s, they then stupidly beleive that wearing a helmet means they can push themselves beyond their ability, and thats ok.

You can see it in lift ques. The helemt clad people swagger along thinking they look cool, and theyre the dogs. You even get looks off them thinking ahh I’m better than you, I wear a helmet so I’m more cool, and obviously my skills are better than yours.

These are exactly the type of people who have accidents and, hence I avoid them like the plague on or off piste.

Just read the article…

“Relaxing in his chalet yesterday Mr Pell, an experienced snowboarder, admitted he was still shaken up by what happened.”

Erm no he wasn’t an experienced snowboarder, if he was he wouldn’t have ended up falling down a cliff!

I guess he has watched one too many off piste vids and thinks its just a case of finding an empty slope and skiing down. When the videos are made they spend ages finding the slope, checking the route and checking the snow pack first.

Oh and wearing a helmet would have made **** all difference! If he has started boucing off the cliff he would have died. He was just lucky that there was lots of snow at the bottom, and lucky that he didnt suffocate in the snow.

I think people who wear helmets and other protective equipment suddenly beleive they turn in to some kind of skiing/boarding god.

Dude, that is such bollocks. I just wear one to feel a little safer…someone said to me “Would you go out on the trails without a helmet?”…and for me a helmet is less itchy than a hat and works really well with goggles. I haven’t done a survey like innit, but I imagine most people wear them to feel a little safer…not to look rad dude…

You can see it in lift ques. The helemt clad people swagger along thinking they look cool, and theyre the dogs.

I really must work on reducing my swagger in lift queues…I never realised I was doing it so much. Is it an effect if wearing a helmet do you think? It never said “Walk like a disco dancer” on the box…

thinking ahh I’m better than you

That’s a fair comment, I probably am better than you.

Funkydunc: How many pro snowboarders do you think wear helmets? I can think of two (and one of them has only just started after one of the longest careers in snowboarding).

It’s actually one of the more common reasons not to wear a helmet – they’re not cool, ‘cos the pros don’t wear them.