Ski helmets: to wear or not to wear?

Regular blog readers may have noticed a lack of news from our quarters of late and the truth is it’s been a busy few weeks at Alpine Ethos HQ. Three friends’ weddings, one 30th birthday (Andy), a camping trip and a house sale (well, subject to contract) has meant little time to download our thoughts. We have however, just about sold all of the peak weeks of the season. We will be welcoming some new and some returning guests and the enquiries are starting to gain real momentum with early January looking like the next few weeks to sell.

Apart from all of the above, our attention has been recently caught by an upsurge in interest in the subject of helmet wearing for skiing and snowboarding. An MSc student at the University of Surrey is currently undertaking a survey of attitudes towards helmet wearing, causing many of the various ski and snowboard interest groups and websites to wade in on the debate so we thought we’d put our two penn’rth in too!

According to the student conducting the survey, helmets “may reduce the risk of serious head injuries by as much as 50%”. In some resorts, notably in Italy and Austria, there are laws mandating the wearing of helmets for children aged under 14. But after the death of Natasha Richardson in the 2008-9 season, wouldn’t it make sense for everyone to wear them?

Andy and I have been wearing helmets since 2006 following a scary moment when I crashed on my own on an icy patch of snow and used my head to break the fall. It hurt and I briefly lost consciousness. I needed no more convincing that a helmet was a necessary piece of kit and promptly walked straight into the nearest shop to make my purchase. Now, I’m not saying it was the most stylish piece of kit (it really wasn’t) but it did the job and finally, this season I got around to replacing it for something a bit more lightweight and acceptable amongst my peers. Many of the seasonnaires we know wear helmets and will claim good reason for doing so. It seems to us, that this inexpensive piece of kit doesn’t restrict your ability to ski or snowboard, keeps your head warm in place of the beanie you might have been wearing and just might help save you from ruining your holiday or season through serious injury.

Whilst we are clearly advocates of the wearing of ski & snowboard helmets we do understand it is a personal choice, it’s just that personally we don’t ride our bikes without bike helmets, nor drive our car without wearing seatbelts. Anyway, boarding without a helmet actually feels pretty weird these days causing us to be doubly careful which is not much fun with a board strapped to your feet and a snowy mountain or two at your disposal. We’ll be wearing our helmets next season, the question is will you?