Intrawest follows Vail Resorts

I hate to even post this but someone has to.  I knew this coming despite what higher ups said.

http://tinyurl.com/yalqepv

http://www.boston.com/news/local/vermont/articles/2009/10/01/ski_operator_intrawest_phasing_in_new_helmet_rule/

 OMG, giant monster ski resort company to enforce common sense! This can not stand! What shall we do? OMG OMG OMG


(snore...)

"By the 2010 – 2011 season, helmets will also be mandatory for on-duty Intrawest employee"

Common sense? I guess that depends on were they draw the line, lifties, ticket sales, the lunch lady?

 Or you could have quoted the complete sentence from the other article - which presumably does frame this:

The full press release -
http://www.streetinsider.com/Press+Releases/Intrawest+to+recommend+that+all+resort+guests+wear+helmets/4983449.html

Doesn't look like ski patrol has to wear them.

Looks like all kids instructors have to wear them.

Kids and adults in freestyle programs have to wear them.

Adult program (non-freestyle) don't have to wear them.

I take that to mean that anyone who is just joyriding in the terrain park and has never had a lesson and isn't in a resort sponsored or promoted freestyle program doesn't have to wear one.

The slippery slope will get them eventually, shortly before it collects everybody else.

Intrawest is just trying to reduce the $ amount of the pending lawsuit from Natasha Richardson's family. 

I hear Intrawest will soon require all skiers/boarders wear one of these:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41AZHVGAVBL._SL110_.jpg

The initial report actually sounded as if it went futher than Vail Resorts did, by mandating helmets on those skiers/boarders using the freestyle terrain. That will be interesting to see how that could possibly be enforced.
Edited by vail snopro - 10/2/09 at 10:22am

Already a rule in some places. As is a helmet requirement for all racers in every area I know of.

But at this point, Vail Resorts does NOT mandate any head protection for visiting customers, other than for younger skiers in ski/snowboard lessons.

Suggested- YES, mandated- NO.

I'll find out all the details on Oct 17th from HR.

One does have to watch a safety video and buy an additional pass for the Dark Terrritory advanced terrain park already at Winter Park.  Some want to implement this out at Steamboat too.  I don't know about Copper.

Not to get all legal and all  but generally speaking, a "post accident remedial correction/repair/change" has little to no effect on the outcome a pending lawsuit.  There are exceptions ...

.

How exactly is this a bad thing? Anybody participating in alpine wintersports should be wearing a helmet. I won't even get on the lift without mine. It isn't even just about me when I'm freeskiing, it's about others on crowded slopes.

It is a bad thing because it is another step on the slippery slope of stripping of individual freedoms and transfer of responsibility to the state.

They had announced on TV here in the great white north, and corrected the announcement on the next day that Intrawest was going to require ALL skiers and boarders to wear helmets.   It's coming, maybe not this year, but it's coming. 

You should also wear a helmet on the drive to the slopes.  Hell wear a helmet whenever you drive.  Then there are those nasty extremely dangerous sidewalk cracks. Yup walking down the sidewalk will require helmet.  You know when I think about it we should not leave the house.  Lets all stay home and build our own little virtual world on the internet and interact with others through our computers.  Oh wait I am doing that now.  Good to be safe at home.

catskillls i wear mine helmut in the shower too, the old saying about most accidents happen in the home....... you're not safe anywhere.

The only Intrawest resort i am familiar with is Snowshoe WV. I ski there as little as possible but I can tell you that skiing Snowshoe without a helment is dumber than going into avy terrain without having and knowing how to use a shovel, beacon and probe. It should be MANDATORY there not just recommended. Good for intrawest, really good for Snowshoe.

You've got the anti-radiation screen on that laptop and are wearing the aluminum foil protection from the radio waves for the wireless, yes?

Just another reason to stay away from the Shoe.

But it's not the state that is taking the responsibility. It's a corporation setting the conditions by which people may utilize the services they offer. If you want to ride the roller coaster at Six Flags, you have to put down the safety bar. Frankly, I think this idea is a great one. Nobody on the slopes should be without a helmet. There's absolutely no reason not to wear one. They're safer, warmer, and these days they're not any heavier than a hat. The 'looking stupid' argument is out the window, as helmet designs fit the current style, and most of the upper level skiers on a mountains, aka the cool people, aka us, wear them.
The argument that 'I'm not going into the trees, I'm just skiing groomers with the family today' argument doesn't fly either. I had an incident once where had I not been wearing a helmet, I guarantee I would have had a serious head injury, maybe a cracked skull. The thing was, I was on an easy blue, leading a class of 5 and 6 year olds. I turned to ski switch for a couple dozen yards so I could count my kids. When I went to turn back around, my skis caught a snow snake, and I fell and smashed the back of my head (helmet) on a piece of hardpack. I hit the BACK of my head hard enough that I got a gushing double nostril nose bleed. Later I found out I had a mid grade concussion, and that was with the helmet on. Keep in mind, I was skiing slowly on a blue groomer, doing something I do (turning to count) at least ten times each and every run I lead a class. Without that helmet, I doubt I'd have the brain capacity to write this post.

You can find previous seasons' unused helmets on Google for as little as $25. They're federally certified, so they are all good. I just paid more to buy a backup diamond stone. Buy one, and use it.

Shrug. I have no problem with allowing the people the freedom to not wear a helmet...if they also accept the responsibility and consequences of not wearing one.

People want to have their cake, and eat it, too. They want the freedom to go helmetless (on a warm, sunny, spring day, hatless and helmetless is quite pleasant), but they want someone else to pay the bills and pick up the pieces when something happens.

If you want to be libertarian about it, be consistant. No helmet should mean you're also responsible for your own screw-ups. Not your insurance company. Not the ski area. Not the general public. You.

No complaining about the icy patches, the exposed or nearly exposed rocks, the bumps, the trees. You ski without a helmet, you accept the risk. That's part of the libertarian ideal, too.

I have nothing against lots of personal freedom, if people accept the responsibility that goes with it. Usually they don't, which is why we end up with more rules. Ghost is correct in that people give up freedoms in exchange for transferring responsibility somewhere else.

I used to live in a community which was much more libertarian than most. No roads, except those that we banded to together and built ourselves. No fire protection, except a volunteer department with only what support the community chose to give it. Law enforcement only visited on request. No water. No sewer. Everybody was responsible for their own.

If you wanted to keep junk cars or old bed springs in your front yard, no one said a thing. If your house didn't have running water (and many didn't), well, that's just the way you chose to live. I kept my firewood work area in the front yard, since my back yard was steep and inaccessible to a vehicle. Some people sighted in their rifles for deer season in their back yards. Some people took their deer on their own property. (No rules against the discharge of firearms.)

I liked it, but frankly, relatively few people would want to live there because of the lack of government services. Which is the way we liked it. Few people and few services.

Back to helmets. If you don't want to wear a helmet, fine. But you get the other side of the coin, too.

.  A good way for the corporation to make $$ renting helmets.

I've been skiing over 40 years, never had a ski helmet, never hit my head skiing (except when the liftee thought he should lower the bar for me before I sat down).  

How much safer is it with a helmet?  How much safer is it if I spend that money on better snow tires?

So long as I have a choice, it ain't so bad, but looking at the crystal ball, eventually there won't be any place left to ski with a lift that won't enforce a helmet rule.

BTW I'm buying a helmet this fall, just to keep my mother happy.  

Clever. I take it you ski at Windham some, being in the Catskills, no?  Well that's where I grew up skiing, and one day my friend and I about 15 years ago were skiing with his mother (a small in stature woman but a very strong skier) and were waiting for her at the bottom of Why Not where it enters Wingin It. She turns to enter the right side of Wingin It, looks up, and gets run over by an out of control skier. Gets sent flying 30-40 yards and lands on her head. We are fearing the worst when the Mercyflight has to take her to Kingston. She nearly died, and never really was the same after. After that I no longer skied without a helmet, and it saved me one time from a severe brain injury when a snowboarder crossed into a (closed trail) GS course I was training on and hit me. Just this past season one of my friends, one of the best racers I know, caught an edge and hit a lift tower head on. Broke his leg but hit his head and it could have been a lot worse had he not been wearing a helmet, also at Windham. It has nothing to do with "freedoms" or "machismo" and everything to do with protecting yourself from becoming a vegetable.


 I actually like Snowshoe but agree with you very much.

I like the place on weekdays (especially when it's a powder day) but avoid weekends at all costs.  The place is a nuthouse, and really unsafe when it's crowded.

You know, they would not have to mandate common sense if it was actually common.

I do take off my helmet sometimes when the temp goes over 50. I'd rather risk frying my brain than actually frying it.

You know, they would not have to mandate common sense if it was actually common.

I do take off my helmet sometimes when the temp goes over 50. I'd rather risk frying my brain than actually frying it.

But then again, if it's not common, how could it be common sense?

Hey philcski,  I went to HTC and played basketball against Windham when a guy by the name of Gibby Cook played for Windham.  Gibby was an awesome athlete and was the whole Windham basketball team. Doc Blaksely in Windham was my primary care doctor growing up.  I grew up on the west end of Hunter a place nick named poverty flats from years past. 

Sorry to hear about your friends mom.  Seriously,  I wear a helmet pretty much all the time now.  I also got hit from behind and received 3 small skull fractures about 15 years ago when I was not wearing a helmet.  I just think people get too focused on the helmet issue. Its not some silver bullet that is going to keep you completely safe.  Helmets help but not as much as everyone seems to think.  As far as preventing death on the slopes helmets IMHO are useless most of the time.  Trauma to the Thoracic area will kill you more times than a head injury. 

Over 40,000 Americans die on the roads every year.  While 35 to 40 people die on the slopes.  We spend countless hours talking about helmets on these ski forums.  If anything, its the automobile that is going to kill you. 

There's no debate.  You always have a choice.  You can choose to ski there and follow the rules they have set up or you can not ski there and find some place else.