Helmets Facts 

• The two biggest causes of head trauma on skis / snowboards are #1, air (as in getting big…) and #2, lack of ability which, separately or in combination, increase the likelihood of the slider’s head making abrupt and unplanned contact with the ground. Take away these two factors and you eliminate 80-90% of reported head injuries. Other widely held concerns such as collisions with stationary objects or other skiers account for tiny percentages of reported incidents.
• Of the top two causes, getting air of any variety is by far the biggest contributor. Interestingly, we have seen a proliferation of terrain parks at ski areas over the past decade presenting a virtual fiesta of head trauma-inducing rails, jumps, half-pipes etc. These “park features” most often attract the young and there is a strong positive correlation between youth and lack of ability (i.e. double jeopardy). Not that our public officials don’t have a zillion higher priority things that they should be concerned about but, any governmental body that is serious about combating head injuries among the winter sports loving members of the population should first ban terrain parks and second make getting air elsewhere on the mountain against the law.
• Nobody seems to focus on the behavior behind the injuries. Michael Kennedy was skiing backwards. Sonny Bono was an intermediate and almost certainly high on prescription painkillers when he headed into the glades alone. Forcing people to wear helmets while simultaneously allowing new terrain parks and ignoring the behavior that causes head injuries is like enforcing seatbelt laws while allowing people to drink and drive. I would like to see people try to focus on controlling the behavior behind the problem rather than on trying to simply cushion the impact of unconstrained, dangerous behavior.
• Young kids and novices of all ages would be well advised to wear helmets. In the case of kids this is pretty straightforward and you won’t see any argument in the literature. In fact, last time I looked, the American Medical Association’s Policy on this topic was to “support the voluntary use of helmets and protective headgear for children and adolescents during recreational skiing and snowboarding.” However the AMA’s Council of Scientific Affairs goes on to say that “as of the date of the report on its findings (September 1997), there was insufficient scientific evidence to support a policy of mandatory helmet use.” A fairly lukewarm endorsement from a body not renowned for its recklessness but basically one based on the improved but limited protection helmets can offer to skiers & snowboarders moving at the lower speeds typical of small kids or middle aged British actresses.
• Helmets won’t save your life. As your article states, the cause of most ski / snowboard related deaths is massive trauma. Vermont’s medical examiner looked at over 50 ski / snowboard fatalities in the state during the 80’s and 90’s and concluded that a helmet would not have changed the outcome in a single case. Helmets can certainly mitigate head trauma in certain kinds of falls. However as my 11 year old daughter found in a face-first beater while racing NASTAR last winter or my friend’s helmeted son discovered following a terrain park concussion a few weeks later, helmets offer limited protection at best. If you ski fast like I often do you can simply forget it. The only fatality at our mountain in recent memory involved a helmeted Masters racer losing it at high speed while free skiing. You got it, massive internal trauma.
• The frequency of head injuries among strong skiers who remain at ground level is miniscule. In fact such people face a risk of head injury that is at least 100 times greater every time they step into their tub for a shower. Check the numbers – this is a statistical fact. How many celebrities are going to have to die needlessly from falls in their tubs before our governments step in and mandate the wearing of protective gear while bathing?
• There is almost no talk about the safety drawbacks of helmets. It’s almost as if it’s blasphemy to suggest such a thing but there are two drawbacks that I am aware of. The first problem refers to a Canadian study that found that the wearing of helmets could exacerbate the severity of ski & snowboard related neck injuries. Makes sense…put a couple of extra pounds on your head and the strain on your neck is necessarily increased in an accident. The second issue is that compared to just a plain old fashioned hat, one’s hearing is impaired by most helmets, especially the ones worn by racers which offer the highest degree of protection. Few people think of hearing acuity as being part of safe skiing but I personally want to hear people coming up behind me and I definitely want people I am overtaking able to hear me coming…on a narrow cat track for example…on your right Dude!. 

The bottom line is that the suppliers of ski equipment did a fantastic job of leaping on the public’s awareness of a couple of well publicized celebrity ski deaths to transform a tiny niche product into a category worth perhaps a half billion dollars per year. Never mind that helmets almost certainly wouldn’t have saved either Michael Kennedy or Cher’s Ex. Along with the switch to shaped skis it is arguably the greatest success story in the industry over the past 10 years. Bravo, that’s free enterprise but just because some slick marketing tells you need to spend $200 or more on a helmet doesn’t necessarily mean the facts substantiate the marketers’ claims. Natasha Richardson's story is sad – she a great human being by all accounts – but in her case again, nobody can be sure that she didn’t have some preexisting weakness in a cerebral artery that was a ticking time bomb whether she was on the Bunny Hill at Tremblant or on a Broadway stage. But, no matter, you once again can hear the insistent beat of the marketers’ war drums telling us to ski in fear if we dare to go without a helmet. And this time idiot politicians are taking up the hypnotic beat. Scary!

Finally, there is the emotional side of it. Skiing for many is about freedom. Can you imagine Stein with a helmet on a bright sunny morning at Deer Valley? I’m all for people choosing what’s right for them and if I lived out west and skied in the trees or out of bounds all the time I would probably do the prudent thing and buy a helmet (with big ear holes). On the other hand, the notion of some government bureaucrats and/or ski area executives swallowing all this marketing crap and forcing me to wear a helmet is repugnant in the extreme. No, I want to be like Stein when I’m 82 reveling in the sheer joy of it all with the cold wind whistling through my grey hair. And if somewhere along the way I catch an edge and meet my end because I don’t have a helmet then I will have died a happy and free man.