Should Helmets Be Mandatory at Ski Resorts?

It wasn’t very long ago that ski helmets were more of an obscurity then the norm like they are today. Though ski helmets were initially invented in the 1950s with the use of technology from World War II, they didn’t really began to see wide spread use until the early to mid 2000’s. A study from ScholarBlogs found that in the 2002-2003 season, only 25% of skiers wore helmets, while by the 2021-2022 season, 90% did. 

Another staple safety feature, the seatbelt,  also started out as a rarity but is required by law in most states as of 2025. The first seat belt law was a federal law, Title 49 of the United States Code, Chapter 301, Motor Safety Standard, which took effect on January 1, 1968, that required all vehicles (except buses) to be fitted with seat belts in all designated seating positions. So should ski helmets follow the same history as the seatbelt?

Skiing and snowboarding are popular winter sports in the United States with over 13 million people participating each season for a total of over 50 million visits to ski areas. In a study conducted by Human Kinetics Journal,  research found over 100,000 nonfatal snow sport injuries occur each year, and of those, head injuries account for approximately 15% of all injuries in adults and 22% in children ≤15 years old. Although head injuries make up only a fraction of all snow sport injures, they account for 50%–80% of adult slope fatalities. Suffering a traumatic brain injury is the leading cause of serious injury and death in skiers and snowboarders. From 2002 to 2012, there were 41.5 fatal accidents in skiing and snowboarding per season on average, and approximately 87% of those individuals were wearing a helmet at the time of their accident. Other past research has found that 11 fatalities per season in snow sports could be avoided with the use of helmets, and the risk of head injuries overall can be reduced by 44%.

While obviously effective in reducing the number of fatalities on the mountain, the type of accident one could be involved in is also a contributing factor to there effectiveness. Human Factors Engineer Jasper Shealy, a researcher in the field for over 50 years, weighed in with his take in an interview with Skimag. “My position on helmets is that if you are in the typical fatality scenario of impact with a fixed object such as a tree, a helmet is not likely to have any benefit. The forces involved will simply overwhelm the helmet’s protective abilities,” he stated. “On the other hand, if you are involved in the more typical head injury scenario; a fall to the snow surface, the helmet can offer significant protection and can convert what could be a serious concussion to either no injury or very minor injury.”

Some sources also hint that helmets can create a false sense of security, leading skiers and riders to taking more risks then they would if they were wearing one in an idea known as the risk compensation theory. This theory suggests that individuals may take more risks when they feel safer, such as when wearing a helmet. However, studies on skiing and snowboarding haven’t consistently supported this theory. 

Whether or not ski resorts should mandate helmets truly is a subject up for debate. Though the majority of evidence does point to their effectiveness in protecting one from common injuries, additional risk taking and ineffectiveness in catastrophic events is also a possible factor in why resorts haven’t already put the rule into practice. Regardless of the fact that their use has not been officially mandated in any U.S. states, the significant increase in use in recent years is promising. If the trend of helmet wearing continues to increase the way it has been, resorts will have no need to mandate them as most if not all will already be wearing them.