Maine Outdoor Journal

OK, so I finally broke down and bought a ski helmet. A fancy-schmancy Giro brand something or other, all shiny and silver, from the folks at L.L. Bean. Bike & Ski. Nope, wait now, the tag says "titanium" not silver.

How 'bout that eh, me in a titanium helmet, ripping down the slopes at breakneck (ooops, better not say that) speed. Who knew?!

I've resisted a ski helmet for quite awhile now, even as more and more of my ski friends, never mind half the people in every lift line it seemed, went to helmets.



Did the safety factor finally get to me? No, not really. OK, maybe it did. But I still figure there's a pretty good chance that a helmet isn't going to save me or anybody else in a bad collision with a tree or lift tower or some other solidly immobile object on the slopes.

According to info at Ski-Injury.com: It's a sobering fact that more than half of the people involved in fatal accidents last season at ski areas in the USA were wearing helmets at the time of the incident (Source: NSAA)..."[E]ven though the prevalence of helmet utilization is rising by 4 to 5 percent per year in the U.S., there has been no statistically significant observable effect on the incident of fatality."

So you see, wearing a helmet isn't going to save you every time, and it might even give some skiers and riders a false sense of security, and maybe even encourage more risk taking. (I'm pretty good at picking those types out of a crowd and I steer way clear. You wanna die crazy-like, you do that, but I don't want you taking me with you).

I went through this same debate a few years back when I was a regular climber, logging lots of time on the vertical rock and ice. But then a few close calls from stones and chunks of ice falling from above at high velocity changed my mind. Quickly. But I still knew and accepted that one day a rock or ice block too big for my brain bucket to handle could spell doom. Climbing is like that though - any adrenalin-charged adventure is - and you go with it, or you don't go. It's that fine line that is an essential part of the allure of such endeavors. Skiing is no different.

But I digress...

So again, what if that one time the helmet does save your butt, er, your head, from serious injury or worse, a trip to the morgue? Well, isn't that worth it then? Um, uh, in the final analysis, YES, it really is, no way around it.

And so, for me, and my wife, we get the ski helmets.

And for once in my life I figure I've embraced a safety feature before the government has felt a need to mandate it. (It probably will, if ski areas don't do it first on their own). Go figure.

Will we look cool? I don't think so. But - bonus! - our heads will surely be a lot warmer. Especially on those balmy January days at the Loaf, at Saddleback, the River, or wherever there's not much between you and that Canadian cold front barreling down from the Great White North. At least that's what my helmet-wearing ski pals tell me. They swear by it, for the warmth. I guess I can see that now. And I expect to feel that as well, too, come the icy days of the soon-to-be-here Maine winter.

Ski helmets... Safe at any speed? No. Safer than no helmet? Yes. Fashionable? You be the judge...

You wear a ski helmet? For how long now? You feel more secure? Head warmer??