With the arrival of cold weather, people dig up their skis and snowboards and flock to the slopes. Unfortunately, skiing and boarding, like all sports, involve some risks and, inevitably, injuries.
The purpose of this article is to review what is known about injuries in both of these sports and to suggest ways to decrease the risk of returning home with an unfortunate story about that "last run."
Over the last 20 years, ski injury rates have dropped roughly 40-50%. This encouraging increase in the safety of the sport can be credited to several trends. Without question, skiers have become better trained and educated as ski schools have evolved. Also, as ski resorts gained experience, many changes were instituted in how trails are groomed, marked, and managed. Finally, there has been a tremendous improvement in the design and safety features of the equipment, especially ski bindings and brakes.
Currently, the injury rate is about 2-4 injuries/1,000 injury-days (that is, about 3 injuries/1,000 people skiing each day). There have been a few well-publicized deaths involving skiers recently, but the risk of meeting your Maker on the slopes at a modern-day ski resort is a comforting 1/10,000,000 skier-days. This places skiing squarely among most other common activities in terms of risk to life.
In contrast to skiing, snowboarding injuries can cause damage to the upper extremities or the ankles. From 4% to 8% of snowboarding accidents occur while the person is waiting in a ski lift line or getting on or off the ski lifts. These are frequently knee injuries. Major, life-threatening injuries are unusual; these types of injuries can occur from collision with trees.
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