A new North American study that has looked at skiing and snowboarding fatalities in the USA over the past 15 years has found that there has been no measurable change to death rates, despite a huge jump in the number of helmet wearers.
However the number of non-fatal severe head injuries have decreased, the study found.
The findings of the study were laid out by Dr Irving Scher, speaking at the recent International Extreme Sports Medicine Annual Congress in Boulder, Colorado.
The report's author believes that the reason for this is that helmets provide inadequate protection in the commonest forms of death while skiing or snowboarding – hitting your head at speed on something hard like a rock or tree, or being buried in an avalanche.
Dr Schler said that while he was still in favour of people wearing helmets, he believed they were little help in an impact with a solid object, or made much difference in the case of a fall in soft snow.
"On hard, icy snow, a helmet helps; on soft snow, it may not be needed, but it's not a bad idea to use one," he said. "But for hitting a tree, a lift tower, a rock — something where you fall and come out of your skis and slide into a fixed object — it's not going to make too much of a difference."
He did not comment on another concern voiced over the years by people less keen on helmet wearing, that wearing helmets can make people feel 'invincible' and lead them to take dangerous risks.