Pikes Peak Region Trail Finder

Sarah Burke reacts to her score during the women's skiing superpipe finals of the Winter X Games on Jan. 27.  Christian Murdock, The Gazette

BY R. SCOTT RAPPOLD
THE GAZETTE

In Vail, kids call Kim Greene the “helmet lady.”

The Vail Valley Medical Center may treat more ski injuries than anywhere else in Colorado, and as injury prevention coordinator, part of Greene’s job is to convince children to wear helmets when they ski and snowboard.

Students once scoffed when she came to schools to talk about helmets, but now the young skiers and riders are happy to wear them.

“Several years ago, I think there was some resistance, and I think there’s been some definite change,” Greene said.

In Colorado and across the skiing world, young skiers have become the focus of helmet efforts, but more snow riders of all ages are embracing helmets. According to the National Ski Areas Association, 61 percent wore helmets on the slopes last season, up from 25 percent nine years before.

Here's why 4 Out There readers say they wear helmets (yep, some of the tales involve close calls!).

Many resorts require helmets for working employees and ski-school students. Some lawmakers see mandatory use as the next logical step.

This season, New Jersey became the first state to enact a helmet law, requiring them for skiers under age 18. California’s Legislature last year passed a similar law, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed it because of a connected bill. Nova Scotia in Canada, home to four small ski areas, is poised to pass the first law in the world mandating helmets for all skiers.

Colorado is the heart of American ski country, but nobody has proposed a law here.

According to the National Ski Areas Association, research shows that skiers are 30 to 50 percent less likely to suffer a head injury when wearing a helmet. But that only applies to less-severe injuries, and there has been no corresponding drop in skiing fatalities over the past nine years.

Physician assistant Jason Moore helps treat many of the 300 or so injured skiers who come into the emergency department at the Vail hospital each season. Orthopedic — muscular-skeletal — injuries to the legs for skiers and arms for snowboarders are still the most common injuries.

But some of his patients definitely benefited from wearing a helmet when they crashed, he said.

“Are helmets a good thing? Yes,” he said. Ski resorts can be crowded, with harder snow than found in the backcountry, so he recommends helmets even for expert skiers.

Shaun White's red hair curls out from under his helmet as he soars above the SuperPipe at the Winter X Games on Jan. 30. Christian Murdock, The Gazette

Greene also attributes the increase in helmet use to high-profile deaths, such as that of actress Natasha Richardson, who hit her head while taking a beginner ski lesson in Quebec in 2009 and later died. She was not wearing a helmet.

Resort operators are setting the tone. Three years ago, Vail Resorts began requiring helmets for ski-school students ages 13 and younger. Two years ago, its four ski areas became the first in Colorado to require helmets for employees while working, if their job involves skiing or snowboarding.

“We had been hearing from a lot of our customers, particularly parents, that our ski instructors and ski patrollers are role models in many ways,” said Vail Resorts Co-president Blaise Carrig. “If parents are trying to get their kids thinking they should wear a helmet and they look up and see the people that are role models in the sport not wearing helmets, that was kind of a rough deal.”

Vail Resorts, which also operates Heavenly Ski Resort in California, supported that state’s helmet law because it did not rely on ski patrollers, ticket-checkers or lift attendants for enforcement. Police would have been able to issue $25 tickets to parents.

“It put the responsibility of putting the kids into a helmet on the parents,” Carrig said. And ski-resort employees wouldn’t have to check ages to see if skiers and boarders were complying with the law.

The New Jersey law also relieves ski areas of the responsibility, allowing police to write $25 tickets to parents whose kids aren’t wearing helmets. In Nova Scotia, local officials have pledged to have “helmet cops” patroling the slopes and writing $250 tickets.

While no Colorado lawmaker has proposed a helmet law, it would have to be similar to California and New Jersey to get the support of the industry, said Troy Hawks, spokesman for the National Ski Areas Association.

“They don’t have that type of authority. Really, only local law enforcement has the authority to enforce such a law,” he said.

With little prospect for a law on the books here — past efforts to require helmets for bicycle and motorcycle operators have proved controversial — Greene will continue to educate young skiers on the benefits of helmets, as the program has for 11 years.

Along with understanding the safety benefits, she sees improvements in helmet technology and design paving the way. Helmets are lighter, sleeker and warmer, and some even come equipped with speakers to listen to music while you ski.

“People are finding, ‘They’re keeping my head warm, so why not wear it?’”

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Stewart Sciulli, left, Sarah Martin and Jordan Arp, of Colorado Springs, play in the wind atop Peak 8 at Breckenridge a year ago. Christian Murdock, The Gazette

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