Can They Make You Wear A Ski Helmet?

A bad head injury is (arguably) worse than death and frighteningly easy to suffer. As a trauma nurse I deal with them every day at work. They profoundly change lives, not just of the person who suffers them, but their family and loved ones as well. In my personal opinion, if you have dependents you owe it to them to wear a helmet. What we do is dangerous enough, why not minimize consequences wherever possible? I'm not above wearing the helmet for the drive up and back if the conditions are squirrely enough, but then, I'm also a dork... 

As a side note, if you are on coumadin or other anti-coagulant, you could suffer a severe brain injury from impacts that non-anti-coagulated individuals could shake off. If you're on blood thinners, you should really wear a helmet all the time, not just skiing. I'm not exaggerating, much. Good ol' ground-level falls cause a frightening number of debilitating head injuries among the anti-coagulated.

Helmets seem to have a pretty compelling return for a minimal cost.

Do you have helmet stations at the top and bottom of your stairways at home? As far as anti coagulants, you are talking about sub dural/arachnoid bleeds which are not always associated with TBI, right? Lots of people suffer TBI with helmets too from concussions and deceleration. I'm not saying they are bad, just not a panacea for TBI, and may not reduce your chances of suffering severe TBI at all. Look at pro football players, the damage is cumulative.

Simple test for skeptics. Have a friend (or enemy) apply a stout piece of oak to your head, first with and then without helmet. Trying in reverse order makes it hard to complete the test.

I skied for close to 40 years without a helmet.  In my view helmets were for ski racers.  While working in the city (not skiing) I fell 8 feet off a ladder and smacked my skull on a cement walkway.  The result was a Traumatic Brain Injury.

I was lucky enough that after 16 months I could return to skiing.  In the months prior to snowfall I thought about the terrain I liked to ski.  Trees and rocks/cliffs were usually part of skiing.  I bought a helmet in the summer and I've used it ever since then.  Primarily for descent, but sometimes on the uptrack.

I don't know about laws, but even short falls can cause some very serious problems.  You do not want to go through the long recovery process post TBI patients have to. Never skiing again was one possible outcome I avoided.

Kurt,

Your thoughts strike close to home. A close friend of ours suffered a TBI as the result of a very short fall two years ago. He spent 7 days at Harbor View, lost all hearing in one ear, a significant loss of balance and coordination and a similar lengthy recovery. It was difficult to watch a very talented athlete slowly work his way back from this injury. He. like you, has made excellent progress and has rejoined us in the mountains.

We have used ski helmets for inbounds skiing for many years, we enjoy the warmth and extra protection. Our friend's accident convinced us to carry them into the backcountry too. Jan wears hers both climbing and descending, I normally only use mine on descents, although I'm not opposed to wearing it on the uptrack if conditions warrant.

Gary and Jan

Lots of good reasons to wear a lid. Lots of good reasons to let people make their own decisions.

Whenever I'm told I have to do something I pretty much do the opposite.

I only used a helmet for rails, stairs and such on my inlines. I was hitting the same + vert sans helmet on skateboard. This was not smart, but I guess I was lucky.

Riding tight trees, I have been knocked unconscious. I'd still do trees without a helmet, but absolutely refuse to hit rails and boxes without one.

For this reason, I did not do rails and boxes for a long time (7 years). Since I want to try them again, I just purchased a helmet. Wore it yesterday for the first time. Wasn't as bad as I expected, plan to wear most of the time. I do make the kids wear theirs all the time.

I feel sad for my super-cool Wapiti Woolies hat, which earned me compliments left and right. I still plan to wear it as much as I can...

Cheers
Ivo

Only you can make you wear a helmet.

It is really a very good idea tho.
I skied 20 years without a lid- this was when I was immortal and hucking off of 50-footers seemed like a good idea- and now that I'm mortal and have kids, I rock the lid from the parking lot. That I only knocked myself out once out of all that time seems unreal. It was a doozy tho.

It's strange to me now that we didn't all wear helmets back then.
I welcome the new normal in this respect.