To Helmet or not to helmet (that's an easy question).

[Gary]

Jim...I hear what you're saying and let me say first I and we as a nation if I may boldly speak for them...appreciate your service in Vietman and we cumulatively appreciate you are still with us.

One could say that when it's your time...it's your time....but....at least try a do something to protect your self when you have the good sensability to do so.

We've all have had close calls....but there's a big loud statement in this last head injury death....govern yourself accordingly!
If you believe in helmets and put one on your child.....Wear one yourself....set the right example....one mans opinion!

Phil...I can say with certainty, in a group lesson with Harold, he is always conscious of where he stops and other people skiing by fast or slow. I hope that no ill befalls him especially with all the time he and his instructors spend on the mountain. I do think as you said, leading by example and choosing to be safer and take advantage of the best protection available is wise....to say the least!
Best,
Gary

[Ron]

I agree on the personal preference to some degree on snow. Cycling is a different story. I am on the bike 5-6 days a week and still race a little bit. I am always shocked when I see people cycling witout a helmet. That is just insanity. Concrete and asphalt are hard and in most falls on a bike the head hits the pavement.

Getting back to helmets for snowsports, I think the statistics are pretty clear that you are always better off with a helmet. Still I see many great skiers that will just never wear one (unless racing). Harald Harb is one. Now Harald actually falls about once every 2-3 years so I can undrstand why he sees no need to wear a helmet. Most mortals are better off with one on.

Lastly, now that I have a bluetooth helmet (deeply discounted on sale) and this year I will be able to answer my phone by pressing a button on my ear piece, there is absolutely nothing lsot wearing a helmet!!

Harald is more apt to being hit on the slopes than falling (and I don't mean attacked )> He stands still, a lot, on trails that people ski at higher speeds, white teaching and explaining in doing so, he is not paying attention to wayward skiers coming down the slopes at hight rates of speed. He is a sitting duck.

Harald is a perfect example of a figure head of the sport, and should an example of proper safety too,, as all instructors and patrollers.?

Phils point is dead-on, all should be wearing them. If nothing else, it's a good example but if you are teaching a class you can't be paying attention to the extent you or I do while chatting or talking or Skiing for that matter. It only takes a second for someone to get out of control or pop out of the woods or fall and slide into you.

[gregmerz]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/03/19/ski.safety/index.html

Good article and it highlights a point I always make.  Watch it in the afternoon when you start to get tired...

[Svend]

That is a good article, Greg.  Well written, good on them to highlight the afternoons as being the nasty period.

Here's an article about what the autopsy found on Richardson:  http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=1406461

Pretty clear that it was the fall that did the damage.  Must have been some ice there, for it to have caused that much internal injury.

Ya gotta feel bad for the patrol folks, who seem to have really wanted to help, and even had the paramedics there right after the fall.  What must they be thinking and feeling like now?

[midwif]

Greg
Excellent article. And I agree wholeheartedly about the afternoon danger rising. I often feel it myself. And try to make the last run a "cool down" instead of a challenge.
And do one run less than I feel like doing.
Most of the time.?

The randomness of this is what is hard to take in. I am sure that all of us have had head bumps that were pretty hard. Whether smacking it on a kitchen cabinet, rough housing it with kids/friends, during sports.

For her to die so quickly from something that probably seemed? like "no big deal" at the time. It could have been any of us.

Makes me feel REALLY foolish going skiing 7 years while on blood thinners.

[gregmerz]

Late afternoons are better spent watching Gary drink beer from a pitcher than taking late chances on the slope.

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[Ron]

 

My vote!

[Gary]

There is no mercy on this web site......thank you Greg for reminding me why I only drink one beer!

Ok..read this this morning in the paper....interestin g statistic....I may be off a bit on the percentages cause my steel trap memory had been slightly diminished by the site of the above posted picture but here goes:

SKiers that wear helmets:  24% of beginners, 38% of intermediates and 55% of experts....printed in USA Today.

Great article you posted Greg.....I like to make those last runs of the day some calm carves in soft snow. For me....it's always "DON'T EVER LET YOUR GUARD DOWN, STAY FOCUSED ON YOUR SKIING AND THE PEOPLE IN FRONT, SIDE AND BEHIND YOU". Think about everything else when you're having that cold one!

Best,
G

[Perry]

is there anything we can learn from this?

There are three things I believe!? Life is more fragile than we want to accept and we should cherish the days and experiences we are given, tomorrow isn't guaranteed, and there is a God.

Amen to all three, and I too thank you for your service to our country.

Svend - I have been busy, but here is my take based on 14 years of seeing trauma in the ER.? She had an epidural bleed.? These are very tricky and can fool even experienced MDs.? Usual scenario - person falls and hits head and has a brief loss of consciousness (LOC).? They seem ok for 15 - 60 minutes and then rapidly go down the toilet right in front of you.? At that point they need to be in the operating room with a neurosurgeon ASAP, like 5 minutes ago.? If they are not in a hospital already the result is usually pretty grim, permanent brain injury or death.?

Helmets are like seatbelts.? They guarantee nothing.? You still have to have it properly fit, you need to drive carefully, and in very rare cases, they hold you in a car that gets crushed or blows up.? But for every time that happens, there are 100 times that people live because they were held inside the car.

I have seen a young women who had a fender bender, fall out of her car and hit the pavement with her head.? This was a very low speed accident, a couple of hundred dollars of damage to the car.? Her injury was probably very much like the actress with contact with ice (this is my strong suspicion)? She came in and was already in trouble.? We called the helicopter from Wake Forest University and did all we could to get her ready for surgery, 20min later they swooped in and swooped out.? I told her family to be prepared to be asked for organ donation and told them to pray - that she would need more help than I or the folks at WFU could really give.? AMAZINGLY - she walked in to thank us several weeks later.? Just in case anyone thinks I'm bragging - I quoted Jim for a reason, I think it had more to do with Grace than anything else, even though our resuscitation went amazingly smoothly (more grace).? Sometimes things go great and people live, sometimes they die.? Other times nothing goes right and people still live.....and sometimes they die and you ask of yourself and your staff hard questions.?

Sorry for the long tangent - here's the quirky human part.? When my family started skiing, I had my kids wear helmets and I wore a really great Mountain Hardware hat.? As a bald man, I had wonderful appreciation for that hat.? After experiencing what is above, I wore a hat for a little over a year, before switching to a helmet because I suspected that my head would be cold.? Sometimes we just aren't very consistent!!!!!!!!!? I wouldn't ski without a helmet now.

[Svend]

Hey Perry -- thanks for the input.  Very insightful, and certainly makes me feel lucky to still have all my marbles after a couple of falls that I have had (see beginning of this thread).  The fall last year definitely had an element of L.O.C. to it, as I remember nothing of the event or the seconds preceding it -- just waking up and looking at the sky.  (BTW, I was wearing a helmet)  A nice dull headache followed.  As it was, I just sat in the lodge for an hour, relaxed and had a cup of tea until I felt better, then skied for a few more hours.  Probably not the smart thing to do -- had I known all this about epidural bleeds, I would have called an ambulance. 

So, here's what I take from this ..... if you fall and thump your noggin, and have any of the following symptoms, seek medical help, and fast:

Loss of consciousness
Headache
Nausea
Blurry vision
Dizziness

Correct me if I'm off track on any of this.

[jim-ratliff]

Hey Svend.  Did you replace your helmet after that fall?  I believe that they recommend replacing a bike helmet (or ski helmet) anytime it absorbs a significant fall whether it shows any signs of impact or not. 

I was thinking about this last night, and after consulting with my personal trainer she concurred that my impact at Powder Mountain sounded loud enough that I should start watching Steep and Cheap for a new helmet.  On the one hand seems a bit much, on the other hand I was a bit woozy when I first got up and it felt like a pretty hard hit.

[Svend]

No, I didn't actually.  I checked it out thoroughly, and it showed no signs of damage - no cracks, compressed liner, separated liner.  All seemed well, so I've just kept using it.  To be honest, I've been a bit skeptical about that assertion to replace the helmet after an impact.  They're a pretty simple construction -- hard shell, expanded polystyrene liner glued into that, foam padding and fabric over that for comfort.  I've never read or heard of a good, solid, technical reason why a helmet needs to be replaced after an impact -- notwithstanding the obvious, that is, as mentioned above -- **** shell, compressed or separated liner.  Motorcycle helmets are an exception, I think, due to the speeds involved -- I replaced one of those when my bike fell over in a parking lot, and my helmet was dangling from the handlebar....the 500 pound bike fell on the helmet and **** the shell.

But, you have given me reason for pause and second thought -- thanks for the reality check.  I will look into this further and see if replacement is justified.  If so, then there's more shopping to be done....groan.....

[Glenn]

I don't know much about ski helments due to personal choices. However, I can tell you about offroad helmets used by ATVers and dirtbike riders. The popular school of thought there is to replace after an inpact. The logic there is that even a minor impact can result in damage you can't see. I took a nasty spill off my machine a few years back. The helmet was pretty scratched up, but not **** or damaged in any way. I replaced it.

[Ron]

all manufacturers will allow you to send any helmet in for evaluation at no cost. If it's damaged or too old (most will only warrenty for 5 years) they usually give you a replacement or some kind of discount

[Svend]

Ron -- I didn't know that the manufacturers did that.? Good tip! I'll check with K2 here and see if they can do that.

In the meantime, I've done a little bit of checking and calling around about helmet construction, and there appear to be two kinds of builds:

Type 1) The first type has a thin layer of light polycarbonate material that gets vacuum formed over, and bonded to, a thicker layer of expanded polystyrene beads (EPS), which is the shock absorbing layer.? This construction is used because it is light weight and has a slim profile.? However, because the outer layer is not overly rigid or strong, it is very susceptible to damage from impact, even moderate ones.? The outer polycarbonate shell and will buckle in on impact, compressing the EPS beneath.? These type of helmets probably need to be replaced after a moderate or worse impact.

Type 2) The second type has a rigid, hard outer shell made of injection molded ABS, to which the EPS liner is glued.? This construction is much stronger, as the ABS is much less susceptible to deforming on impact -- it' hard stuff, so your head will probably just bounce without the helmet compressing.? The downside is that these helmets are heavier and look bulkier.? According to my local shop, these do not necessarily have to be replaced after every impact, unless it's a really hard one on ice or against a tree or branch.? The hard shell will prevent the EPS liner from compressing.? However, if in doubt, toss it and replace it, or get it checked out like Ron suggested.

This is by no means an exhaustive review, and there is a lot that I don't know yet.? So take the above as just a quick overview.

FYI, I have the second type of helmet -- with the ABS hard shell.? It's a K2, and is about the only one I could find that fit my cranial shape (no squarehead jokes, please!).? It's, well, pretty darn unattractive, but so comfortable that I can wear it all day and not even know it's there.? Jim -- it also has the click wheel in the back to adjust -- great feature.  If I have to replace it, I'd buy another just like it, it fits so well.