If you like it then you should put a lid on it
It’s time to dust of the board or planks and head out to your favourite hill to see what the Rockies have to offer this
Photo by Cody Stuart. Wearing a helmet may reduce the risk of a head injury by up to 56 per cent according to a study done by the UofA.
season. What you don’t want to do is have a bad fall resulting in a major injury because you weren’t wearing a helmet.
In October, the Calgary Sun reported that the Mount Tremblant ski resort in Quebec was announcing helmet requirements for all its North American resorts six months after the ski-injury death of actress Natasha Richardson.
On Oct. 1, Intrawest, the ski resort that owns Mount Tremblant as well as several other resorts in North America, stated in a press release that they would be increasing helmet awareness at all their resorts as well as instituting a mandatory helmet rule for children.
In the same release, chief executive officer at Intrawest, Bill Jensen said, “We have established a new baseline for helmet use at our resorts that has received strong support from the NSAA [National Ski Areas Association] and CWSAA [Canadian West Ski Areas Association]. We will continue to work with all of the ski industry association in the United States and Canada to raise awareness of this important initiative and the obligation of everyone to ski and ride in a controlled and responsible manner.”
Matt Mosteller, V.P marketing for Resorts of the Canadian Rockies said that RCR has been promoting helmet safety for the last five years.
“We’ve been very proactive in helmet safety,” he said.
Mosteller said that helmets are not mandatory but “99 per cent of our staff now wear helmets,” and that “every child 12 and under in our programs [are] required to wear helmets.”
In a five year study published this June by the School of Public Health Alberta Centre for Injury Control and Research at the U of A reported 11 ski/board related deaths in Alberta occurring between 2004 and 2008.
Two of those deaths were head trauma with one victim wearing a helmet and the other not. The report found that “in five of the eleven cases use or non-use of a helmet was not specified on the medical record,” and that “two deaths were related to snowboarding while the remaining nine cases were related to downhill skiing.”
The report concluded that “wearing a helmet while skiing or snowboarding may reduce the risk of head injury by 29% to 56%.”
Steve Robson,32, has been skiing since he was a kid and took up snowboarding in 2001.
He’d had concussions from different activities like biking and had “fung his bell” pretty good when he caught an edge snowboarding so started wearing a helmet after that.
“It’s the best toque I ever had,” Robson said adding that helmets are also great for keeping things together like your goggles and built in earphones.
Mosteller said that RCR encourages and educates guests on the importance of wearing helmets while on the mountain adding, “we highly recommend that everyone wear helmets while skiing and riding.”
