ASPEN, Colo.—More skiers are wearing helmets on the slopes, and the youngest and oldest skiiers are taking the recommendation most to heart.
A study by the Colorado-based National Ski Areas Association shows that nearly half of all skiers wore helmets last season, 48 percent. That’s up from a 43 percent helmet rate during the 2007-2008 ski season.
But the study suggested that not everyone is taking to the helmets in equal measure.
Two-thirds of skiers and snowboarders between the ages of 10 and 14 said they wore helmets. But only about one in three skiers and boarders between the ages 18 and 24 wore helmets last season.
Older skiers like helmets, too. The usage rate was 63 percent for adults ages 65 and older.
“It’s really the middle demographic, the 30-somethings to 50-somethings, that have been slow” to embrace helmets, said Aspen Skiing Co. Senior Vice President David Perry.
Very young skiers had the highest helmet rates in the survey. About 77 percent of children 9 years old and younger wore helmets. Ski workers say most children learned to ski wearing helmets and don’t mind them.
Helmet use is still optional for most skiers, except those taking ski lessons from resorts.
Vail Resorts made helmets mandatory for employees this season, and resort owner Intrawest requires helmets for all youth in ski school and students of any age in freestyle terrain parks. Intrawest operates Copper Mountain, Winter Park and Steamboat resorts in Colorado.
Austria recently mandated that kids younger than 15 to wear protective lids on mountains there.
In Aspen last week, 51-year-old Charles Walsh of Osage, Iowa, arrived in the Aspen area for a ski trip and rented a helmet for the first time.
The frequent visitor to the Roaring Fork Valley said high-profile celebrity deaths from ski accidents over the years spurred him to consider a lid. Plus, he said, friends who live in the valley wear helmets.
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On the Net:
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