J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by ir12daveor

More info about it here.

ise wrote:
I think that's got a lot to with the fact the health insurers here have been keen to encourage people to wear helmets, my insurer sends vouchers each year for money off helmets. I assume their actuaries have worked out it's cheaper for than treating the minor head injuries that make up the majority of accidents. They really ought to get more people on sledges to wear helmets in my opinion as well.

Yip, you are correct. SUVA have done the math and worked out that it is cheaper to encourage people to use helmets! Similar to the reasons why some of the health insurance policies here offer you a discount on Gym membership. I wonder what that means in terms of injuries? ) I totally agree about sledding. My personal perception is that sledding is more dangerous then skiing or snowboarding.

As I have stated previously, my decision to buy a helmet was not based on marketing or figures (though I did read some epidemiological studies on skiing injuries as part of my job after I started wearing a helmet. I've been wearing one since before there was any real movement to encourage people to wear one. I chose to for two reasons. One was I was given one and told to wear it on the first Avalanche course I did so I realised that they were not too bad to wear. Not long after that I and my girlfriend both smacked our heads pretty hard. I hit my head hard enough that I was seeing stars. At the time I hit my head I was not in the park, I was not off piste and I was not doing a stupid speed and I was well past the beginner stage of snowboarding. I just had a silly fall where I caught an edge and went down. Instantly for me all excuses went out the window. Banging your head was not something that happened to other people... It had happened to me.

I road bike and mountain bike a lot. I would never dream about not wearing a helmet on the bikes. In many cases I am travel at about the same speed on skis or a snowboard as on the bikes and very often in the same areas with the same things to hit your head on. Just because the ground is covered in a layer of snow doesn't mean all danger to your head magically disappears.

TBH, I wouldn't like to see helmet use compulsory either, after all in most places it is not a legal requirement to wear one on a bike, but very few people would argue against it. But I do think that on balance wearing a helmet is a sensible thing to do.

Ian Wickham wrote:

ir12daveor wrote:Risk is always going to be relative and open to perception. The reality is that banging your head does not only happen in the park, and no matter how small the risk is... it is still there.

I was having the helmet discussion with some friends on a lift in Davos (Jakobshorn) on Sunday. While we went up on that lift we did not see one person skiing or boarding below us not wearing a helmet!!! In the areas I ski (Central and Eastern Switzerland) helmets are now totally normal. People not wearing them are the exception.

But I wonder how much of that is publicity from the Natasha Richardson accident ????

Honestly, I'd say none. It got nowhere near as much publicity here as it did in the UK or Ireland and helmets have been in the majority over here for quite a few years now.

Risk is always going to be relative and open to perception. The reality is that banging your head does not only happen in the park, and no matter how small the risk is... it is still there.

I was having the helmet discussion with some friends on a lift in Davos (Jakobshorn) on Sunday. While we went up on that lift we did not see one person skiing or boarding below us not wearing a helmet!!! In the areas I ski (Central and Eastern Switzerland) helmets are now totally normal. People not wearing them are the exception.

Cheers Ise, that clears up a few things in my head.

Question for Ise.

Do you know what the regional Avalanche report was giving for Berner Oberland on Sunday. I know it was 3 on Saturday, and I seem to remember the National Danger card showing 3 for the majority of the main Alpine ridge for Snunday when I checked it on Saturday night. I only checked the regional bulletin for Graubunden on Sunday as thats where I was going. The reason I ask is that the media here is reporting that the risk for the Diemtigtal area was at level 2. This surprises me because I was under the impression that it was still 3 in Berner Oberland on Sunday.

ise wrote:
It's been -20'c one day and then hovering around freezing the next. It's snowing heavily now and burying yet another poor layer that, judging by what we saw yesterday, will possibly leave a depth hoar in places.

Up this side we had positive temperatures and rain to nearly 2000m last week. The snow was like spring snow. The week before had been down to close to -20 and it was -16 in the car park yesterday in Davos. Bloody great variations for sure. I've spent the weekend doing only controlled runs that had been blasted in advance. Even with this we still managed to get some really great runs over the last three days. I for sure ain't going into an uncontrolled area until it settles down a bit.

There have now been at least 5 people killed and 3 more still missing in Switzerland this weekend.

They've just found a 4th body from the Avalanche that Admin mentioned and the reports are saying that 3 more are still missing. The rescue worker who was killed was a doctor from the Rega rescue service.

In the other Avalanche in Wallis(Bruson) one person was killed and another person was brought to hospital with Hypothermia.

The media is also reporting a few other avalanches which buried people, but they were rescued by companions. There was also an incident in Zermat where two adults and three children set off an avalanche which went across an open piste in the resort.

I was in Berner Oberland on Saturday and there had been quite a bit of new snow with a lot of wind loading on certain slopes. I saw a few groups making their way up some pretty heavily loaded slopes. Be careful out there if you go off piste. The avalanche risk is still considerable for most of the Swiss Alps.

In the week up to 31st December the SLF are reporting 15 Avalanches with 22 people buried!!! All of these people luckily survived. If you understand French or German there is a weekly bulletin which is addition to the daily national and regional bulletins available from here.

SLF wrote:In der Wochenberichtsperiode wurden dem Lawinenwarndienst 15 Lawinen mit insgesamt etwa 22 (Unsicherheit in einer Meldung) erfassten Personen gemeldet. 10 Lawinen gingen an Steilhängen südlicher Expositionen ab. Die Höhen lagen zwischen 2100 und 3100 m. Lawinenabgänge mit Todesfolge ereigneten sich glücklicherweise keine.
In Anzère überführte am Sonntag, 27.12. eine durch Freerider ausgelöste Schneebrettlawine eine geöffnete Skipiste, was sehr selten vorkommt. Glücklicherweise wurde auf der Skipiste niemand verschüttet.