Riding with a Helmet

D.B.Cooper wrote

About motorcycle helmet laws, a comedian once said, "if a head is functioning that poorly to begin with, it doesn't warrant protecting." That said, I don't wear a helmet either. I don't equate not wearing a helmet skiing with not wearing one on a motorcycle.

I get what your saying. There is significantly higher level of risk on the road as opposed to at the mountain. The variables associated with people piloting cars are far more complex than those associated with people piloting boards on snow.

It just seems like a logical choice. I wouldn't ride a bike without one... it seems to make sense that I shouldn't ride my skis or snowboard without one. We have some interesting natural features in my neck of the woods. Lots of exposed basalt. Bomber Cliffs at Mission give a good idea of our rocks...

The area is littered with basalt spires which One could easily bounce your melon off of if your not paying attention . Even a grazing blow with a piece of exposed basalt can get ugly quick.

I almost always wear a helmet while skiing (since 98/99 or so) and make my kids wear them. If it's really warm in the spring I might make an exception and ski in a baseball hat. My motivation to start wearing one came from the two seasons I worked at mountains. I saw a lot of stupid lift-related or crowded-blue-trail sorts of accidents . I am pretty careful myself but the person that got the worst of a collision was often not the person who made the bad decision.  Even being the best, most careful skier (as with automobiles) doesn't protect you 100%. The arguments against ski helmets sound to me like the old "I'd rather be thrown clear" argument against seat belts.

That being said, it's still a free country so have at it. Pretty soon there'll probably be a law requiring them and the contrarian in me will be pissed off.

Here is me without a helmet. I generally ride with a helmet but from time to time I'll not wear one when I will be skiing groomers exclusively.

After I had an accident on my road bike where my front wheel came off and I slammed my face into the pavement, only being saved and not seriously injured because I was wearing a helmet, I will always wear one for that. On that note, the snow is a bit more forgiving than the pavement which is why I will allow it from time to time. When I go ski glades I always have my helmet on because I had a friend lose his life hitting his head on a tree flying off the road on a downhill skateboard, he even had a helmet on but the speed in which he was going nothing could have really saved him.

It's definitely in best interest to wear one because you never know what will happen. Sometimes they may look dorky but get yourself one of those bitchin paint jobs hockey goalies have on their masks and you'll be the talk of the mountain!

About 4 or 5 yrs ago I started wearing a helmet, but primarily for the tunes. I don't feel any safer by wearing one, the tunes are just that much better. Blue tooth speakers, etc etc. There are so many reasons to wear a helmet and none to not wear one.

i am all for wearing a helmet while skiing. it took me a long time to give in. once I put it on and realized you could take more aggressive lines in the woods I was sold. an occasional branch to the head was not a big deal.

as far as wearing one on your motor cycle , its the difference between and open and closed casket. you are dead either way.  I rode for 7 years.

East coast snow is not forgiving. It's all a matter of where it falls on the hardness scale.

I'm hoping that I won't get drawn too deep into this thread, but I'll say that every situation requires the individual in that situation to make a choice.

Driving a car? I don't wear a helmet
Racing a car? I'd wear a helmet.

Skiing a normal day? I don't usually wear a helmet
Trying tricks in the park, skiing rowdy terrain, racing? I wear a helmet
Springtime BC session at a NELSAP area? No helmet
Springtime Tuckerman ravine session? Bring the helmet, wear it if snow gets hard or if I'm sending

Mountain biking? Always wear a helmet
Bike Path? Mostly don't wear a helmet
DH Mountain biking? Full face helmet, shin, knee, & elbow pads

Riding a horse? Never done it, but I'd wear a helmet
Rock climbing? Helmet
Bouldering? No helmet
Ice climbing? Helmet

It's a personal preference. Let people do what they want to do.

MC
You should  learn to ride a horse some time. Galloping full speed on a nice smooth beach is the closest thing to natural flight you can find.

Helmets help most in unexpected circumstances and help least when people think they would help most. If you get tripped up and you're going 40mph off a groomer into the trees, a helmet probably isn't going to help. But I can't tell you how many times I've been bonked on the helmet but a so called "safety" bar which would have really hurt or could have knocked me out without a helmet. I think helmets are also good insurance if you go down and slam your head into typical New England hard pack. I can't say that helps much if ever for me but I feel like that would be where a helmet would pay off. And crashing through the tress face first into branches and having them bounce off the armor is nice, I can take more aggressive lines. Can't tell you how many times I've smacked decent sized branches with my helmet and didn't care. Might hurt a bit more without the dome.

Bottom line is I need to have headwear to keep warm no matter what so it might as well be protective headwear. Though I can understand folks wanting to go without in the spring when the snow is soft and the weather is warm. I just get used to it and can't see a reason not to wear one regardless. It certainly doesn't hurt and can, in the right circumstances, help substantially.

See, now you drew me in.

As I said, I spend a lot of time with both Helmet & hat, and I get bonked on the head by lift bars all the time with a helmet, never with a hat. It's that head radius thing.

One of the main problems for me with helmets us that I have a hard time hearing people (both people talking to me, and people around me). It's kind of important for my job that I'm able to hear.

Natasha Richardson

‘Nuff said?

Did I just hear someone think....’yeah, but’?

NR should be ‘nuff said, but even for me it always isn’t.  Beginner lesson on a green slope, seemingly non-threatening situation.  It isn’t the things that we think are likely to get us that are likely to actually get us.  

Yeah, yeah....experienced skier isn’t likely to take that fall, blah, blah, blah.  But even good skiers catch an edge on rare occasion, or have to deal with other skiers, or who knows what?  Point there being, we don’t always know what.

Studies have shown that helmets can reduce the risk of significant head injury by as much as 35%.  Yeah, yeah....we don’t know the circumstances and parameters of such studies, blah, blah.  And define the risk, right?  Who the heck knows what the risk numbers are, or if they can truly be calculated, and one size never fits all, blah, blah.  

For Richardson maybe her risk without a helmet was 1 in 1,000, but with a helmet it could have been 1 in 1,500?  Oh, and with a helmet she undoubtedly would have survived that seemingly benign fall.  Take an experienced skier like Matt and maybe the risk is 1 in 10,000?  Wouldn’t you rather it be one in 15,000?  Guess what.....people who get struck by lightning aren’t statistically likely to get struck by lightning.  It actually happens out of the blue (sky) sometimes.

The smart thing to do, a simple thing that might not be likely to come into use as a life saver but could very well save your life, is to wear a helmet at all times.

But humans from the dawn of time have been risk takers.  Every one among us doesn’t at all times do that which is smartest.  We humans have free will, and I don’t think anyone wants that taken away from them.

So, right or wrong in our assessments, we evaluate our perceived risk and make choices.  Life is an everyday gamble and we hope the choices we make turn out ok.  The extreme vast majority of the time they actually do, even if we don’t realize we may not have as much of a clue as we think we do about what our actual risks are.  While things may seemingly always turn out ok......it comes back to that ‘who knows what?’ that we just don’t know, and are unlikely to anticipate.

As for me personally.....now that I’ve climbed down from my high horse, helmet-less,  without sustaining a head injury.......I try to always wear a helmet when I’m with the kids, lead by example.  Sometimes on soft spring snow I fail at that.  Beyond that I, too, have my own justifications when skiing without the kids, telling myself that in powder and on soft surfaces a Natasha Richardson head bump on a hard surface is not going to be a consideration, and under certain circumstances I go without the helmet.  Like others, I perceive the risk of skiing glades, chutes, and avalanche terrain (always wear) to be greater than skiing resort groomers (don’t always wear)......and in a myriad of ways it it......but in the back of my mind there is that nagging reality that what is most likely to do us in is often not the thing we are worried about doing us in.

Right now, especially after putting the words down, I’ll say I’m going to try and wear a helmet at all time this season.  Simple, prudent thing to do.  However, given my human nature I may not.  I’ll likely roll the dice now and again and hope the odds work in my favor.....

MC2 5678F589 wrote

Driving a car? I don't wear a helmet
Racing a car? I'd wear a helmet.

Skiing a normal day? I don't usually wear a helmet
Trying tricks in the park, skiing rowdy terrain, racing? I wear a helmet
Springtime BC session at a NELSAP area? No helmet
Springtime Tuckerman ravine session? Bring the helmet, wear it if snow gets hard or if I'm sending

Mountain biking? Always wear a helmet
Bike Path? Mostly don't wear a helmet
DH Mountain biking? Full face helmet, shin, knee, & elbow pads

Riding a horse? Never done it, but I'd wear a helmet
Rock climbing? Helmet
Bouldering? No helmet
Ice climbing? Helmet

What about high school?
Playing soccer?
While at Starbucks?

There is no getting pulled in. You simply state I know I am safer with a helmet on and I choose to be less safe.  Easy peesy.   I could care a less what you do as long as you don't get  blood stains on a trail that I am skiing.

I always wear one. My family has to as well.

Wow.
I never read the details of Natasha Richardson's death before. That's pretty scary. No collision, just a fall during a beginner lesson on a green slope.

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/Movies/story?id=7119825&page=1

Maybe consider wearing a helmet during lessons, MC. I'm sure you could find one that minimizes interference with your hearing. Seems like you've got quite the collection; one more won't hurt. Even though you're an expert, shit happens. I'm imagining a beginner stepping on your foot while loading the chair for instance.

MC2 5678F589 wrote

See, now you drew me in.

As I said, I spend a lot of time with both Helmet & hat, and I get bonked on the head by lift bars all the time with a helmet, never with a hat. It's that head radius thing.

One of the main problems for me with helmets us that I have a hard time hearing people (both people talking to me, and people around me). It's kind of important for my job that I'm able to hear.

Here you go:

MC2 5678F589 wrote

Driving a car? I don't wear a helmet

I typically drive to the mountain geared up and ready to go... driving in ski boots can be a bit risky, so I need as much protection as I can get!  Pow day at the Ridge!!

Wearing a helmet no doubt saved me from a serious head injury skiing a few weeks ago. I was doing some early season skiing at a local mountain and the trail literally collapsed underneath me.  I suspect that the ground wasn’t yet frozen and a hole opened up underneath me throwing me forward onto my head. I almost never fall, but this one knocked me out for about 10 seconds. I saw stars and am convinced that without the helmet, that I would have done some serious damage.  I will never ski without a helmet again

nepa wrote

MC2 5678F589 wrote

Driving a car? I don't wear a helmet

I typically drive to the mountain geared up and ready to go... driving in ski boots can be a bit risky, so I need as much protection as I can get!  Pow day at the Ridge!!

That's core AF right there, bro

Brownski wrote

Maybe consider wearing a helmet during lessons, MC.

Don't tell me what to do.

This is why I hate Helmet threads. They always turn into a bunch of people whining and trying to police the behavior of others through shaming and storytime.

Everyone go back on this page and replace all uses of the term "helmet" with the term "spine protector". All of your arguments are still valid, yet none of you uses a spine protector.

Here, I'll start:

"You simply state I know I am safer with a spine protector on and I choose to be less safe."

Stop it. These arguments are so dumb. We've had them all before. Must. Resist. Posting. Again.