Personally I always wear a helmet no matter where or how I'm skiing. Last year a friend of mine (a good skiier) was gliding, at low speed, into one of the main lifts in Verbier. He wasn't really focusing and caught an edge and fell over. He was on a completely flat piece of piste. As he landed his head hit a rock that the piste basher must have churned up (or all the other skiers had uncovered). Luckily he was wearing a helmet so no real damage was done to his head - but you could certainly see where the impact was on said helmet.
 
Don't forget - just because you're not travelling fast doesn't mean that someone else who is - and is out of control - won't collide with you. Just the other week a mother was killed in a collision over in Austria. The person who hit her was wearing a helmet. He's very ill, but still alive.
 
Some people don't like helmets, but if you're going to take up skiing on a more regular basis it's a good habit to get into.
 
Oh - and if you throw yourself in to skiing (and it certainly sounds like you are) it won't be long until you pick up a decent amount of speed.
 
Enjoy skiing - it's a fantastic sport. But it is a sport, and there are risks - so I do everything I can to make sure I'm safe.
 
Hope you have a great week in Meribel.

I would concur. Especially with the bit about being hit by other skiers. The risk of a serious head injury is not great but it is possible and so the helmet makes sense. Also they are very warm so there's is no real downside. (Except leaving them upside down in the restaurant and having a pint spilt into them-a tragedy which I once witnessed)

Hasn't the terrible news about Natasha Richardson closed the debate now?

Well, you say that Yeti01, but most people still don't wear one - even lots of ski instructors don't wear them, which sets a terrible example to their clients.
 
I've been wearing one for eight years, and on almost every trip it's made a difference. Not necessarily in a life-saving way, but with lots of little knocks and niggles during the course of the skiing day it's saved me no end of trouble. And now, in the light of Richardson's death, I can't help wondering - maybe one of those could have turned out to be more serious if I hadn't had one on.
 
Of course, helmets won't save me if I ski into a tree at 30mph, or fall off a cliff, or get buried by an avalanche - but all the same, I'll never take mine off.

Same here, now I wear one I feel under dressed without it on. Bit like trying to drive without a seat belt- it just doesn't feel right.
Worth keeping an eye out at Lidl's during the Autumn. They do skiing helmets for, from memory, £10 to £15 each. I've compared the quality to my Giro G10 at over £100 and there is very little difference in construction or materials used. The wife and three kids have each got one.

We can't know that a helmet would have saved her but I accept it may have. It is horrible and tragic but these things happen. While I now wear one I didn't for years and would be firmly against making them compulsory.
 
They need to be easily hired though, if you ski a week a year why would you spend £100 on a helmet? I take Redbricks point but if you get to resort and want one there are no Lidl options available.

I have worn a helmet for about six years. It started when my oldest child questioned why he and his brother and sister had to wear helmets but how come Mum and Dad weren't wearing them? I couldn't think of a good reason and have been wearing one ever since. A friend of mine fell on piste while not wearing a helmet and she got concussion - luckily not fatal. She hadn't been going that fast and wasn't involved in a collision. She now wears a helmet too.

They even make a difference when you get on a chair lift and someone pulls the handrail down too quickly and the bar comes up at the back and - biff - that's the back of your head. I get that at least once or twice a season.
 
Perhaps they should be made compulsory. I hate the idea of being told what to do on the mountains. Skiing is the very opposite of that. But c'mon - Richardson would very likely still be here if they were. It's a relatively simple step. Once everyone has got one on we'll wonder what all the fuss was about. Just like seatbelts.

I've also been hit - quite hard - on the head by the skis of the person in front of me while walking up the steps inside a gondola station.

Most people wear one on a bike, my daughter has a GPS data logger, which I borrowed, don't consider myself a fast skier my daughter would agree! but managed to clock 36MPH, which surprised me, I now wear a helmet

i have been skiing for 20 years, and like most people i"ve had my fair share of falls, and i have never worn a helmet. i"m sure there have been more broken arms and legs than life threatening head injuries, just because one famous actress has been unfortunate theres no need to panic. if it makes you feel more confident then wear a helmet, and while your at it put on your knee braces, your elbow protectors, cricket pads and whatever else you need to protect yourself. for me, i just enjoy the freedom of the mountains and the feel of the wind in my hair, skiing can be a dangerous sport, and if you feel the need to over protect yourself, maybe its not the sport for you.

It is the law to wear a helmet on a bike on the road. However, when ridimg trials I have often taken my helmet off when leaving the road and entering the observed sections. Though I have broken ribs, bruised my bottom (badly) and ruptured a cruciate ligament my head has stayed perfectly intact.

I didn't know it was 'the law' to wear a helmet on the road on a bike. Are you sure?

Bike is the usual shorthand for Motorcycle and has been the law IIRC for over 30 years.

Sorry, I read it as bicycle not motorbike.

I think the argument 'I haven't hurt myself in a certain way yet, so never will' is poor at best.
 
Limbs might be the more vulnerable part of your body - but you can live with a shattered heel bone - not always with a shattered skull.
 
As people have said - it won't protect you against a really heavy impact (the deceleration of your skull in relation to the internal brain will cause most of the damage) - but I have seen helmets save people from concussion. It's as simple as that. I would have no problem with it being made law. There are very few activities I can think of where you travel at such speed and not wear a helmet. I hope that the current generation of children who usually (if they have responsible parents) will grow up comfortable with wearing a helmet as they've known no other way.
 
Oh - and on the subject of cost - it currently costs just 5 CHF a day to rent a helmet here in Verbier. Around £3. So less than that beer you crave at the end of the day...
 
And lastly, I 100% agree that instructors should wear helmets in lessons. I've had kids ask why the instructors aren't wearing a helmet if they're not during a lesson. Certainly we should lead by example.
 

I agree that the argument that I have never had such and such an injury, therefore I will never have one is wrong. Just as the argument that they would have had concussion if they were not wearing a helmet is wrong. Unless of course you took the same person and inflicted exactly same accident on them: once with a helmet and once without.
 
So we have to look at the statistics and there I am afraid the "make helmets compulsory" lobby really falls down - well at least for europe anyway. See the article by Mike Langran http://www.ski-injury.com/prevention/helmet where the actual research is presented. It appears the only discussion that is presented with real facts and figures rather than simple opinions.

It appears that there is some eveidence that wearing a helmet would prevent minor damage to the face and head in low speed accidents, but according to the cheif medical examiner of Vermont 'Dr Morrow was of the opinion that of 54 deaths at commercial ski areas in Vermont from 1979/80 to 1997/98, helmets would not have been of any particular value in saving any of the lives lost - as the degree of trauma simply overwhelmed any benefits that the helmet might convey in an impact. To quote Shealy et al again - a team of highly respected ski injury researchers - "On the basis of results to date, there is no clear evidence that helmets have been shown to be an effective means of reducing fatalities in alpine sports". '

Please read the full article to understand the context and meaning.
 
The trouble is taht to many people wearing of helmets and body armour gives them a false sense of security and makes them act more reclessly to the detriment of everyone on the piste.

Hi John, I really don't agree that wearing a helmet (or back protector for that matter) makes you ski faster, and I accept that few - if any - reliable statistics show that helmets significantly reduce injury in serious accidents. No doubt it was the same with seat belts until the law was introduced in Britain in 1983. However, wearing a helmet really can prevent common injuries such as mild concussion from a fall on a hard piste but, because no injury is reported, there is no statistic.
 

Feliceski,
 
The evidence for wearing seatbelts was overwhelming before the legislation was passed, not just from the statistics but also from lots of simulated accidents. Such evidence does not exist for wearing helmets while skiing.
 
Incidently all ski injury accident statistics are collected in France and I imagine other countries as well. Mild concussion from a fall would definately be recorded - after all is that not the acress who died recently reported?

Are these the first tour operators to offer free helmets for adults and children? Let's hope more will do the same so people won't have to go out and buy them. Read on....
 
Following the tragic death of Natasha Richardson last week, Ski Dream and Made To Measure are offering free Head helmets to anyone who books before June 10. The Ski Dream team feels that it will get keen skiers thinking about safety on the slopes and encourage more people to wear helmets next season.
 
The process is simple: once you have made your booking, give the booking consultant your head measurements and Head will then get working on producing the perfect helmet for you. The helmet(s) will be then delivered to you at home or in the office. The helmets provided would normally retail at £50 and the offer applies to all members of the party.
 
Whilst there are mixed views about whether wearing a helmet actually makes skiing a safer sport, Ski Dream and Made to Measure are in strong agreement with Peter Hardy, ski writer for the Daily Telegraph and editor of welove2ski.com, who said: "A recent test I carried out using satnav equipment showed that the average competent skier can cruise down a red run at 40mph and easily reach 60mph or more on a steep Schuss. It amazes me that the once-a-year skier who wouldn't contemplate sitting on a horse or riding a bike down a country lane without wearing a helmet, is prepared to whizz around crowded runs in Méribel or St Anton with just a headband, hat or beanie for brain protection."