Speed kills no matter what. Photo: Screenshot
Helmets are nearly ubiquitous now, and few people would argue that this isn’t a great trend within skiing and snowboarding around the world. But according to a new study conducted in Switzerland, head protection isn’t actually built to endure the speeds your everyday skier or snowboarder reaches.
The study was conducted by the Swiss public broadcasting channel, Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS). Researchers collected 16 models of helmets from various brands, including Oakley, Uvex, Atomic, Head, Salomon, Albright, Giro, POC, and Wedze, which all meet the European standards for protection against impacts of speeds up to 20 km/h (12.4 mph). An analysis of skiers and snowboarders carried out between 2019 and 2023, however, revealed that skiers and snowboarders typically travel far faster than that, with 75 percent of skiers descending slopes at more than 50 km/h (31 mph) at a given moment, while 18 percent of those people will go as fast as 75 km/h (46.6 mph).
“None of the helmets tested — models from Oakley, Uvex, Atomic, Head, Salomon, Albright, Giro, POC, and Wedze — can withstand these speeds,” RTA writes. Specifically, the models were tested for impacts against an obstacle or a collision between two skiers descending at 35 km/h. One researcher involved pointed out that a collision at 50 km/h, in which the brain reaches 2400 G, “could be lethal.”
One proposed solution coming out of the study is to revise the standards given to manufacturers, although it’s acknowledged there are limitations to what those manufacturers can accomplish when measured against the higher speeds everyday skiers and snowboarders are reaching.
“I don’t think we’ll be able to make helmets that are effective up to 50 km/h, but we could do much better than 20 km/h. I think the limit of what we could achieve would be around 40 km/h,” said Dominique Pioletti, a professor at the EPFL’s Laboratory of Biomechanics in Orthopedics. “The big problem with the standards is that they test linear accelerations (…) and that’s not the most dangerous for the brain. The most dangerous is an impact that induces head rotation.” In this regard, he downplays the usefulness of the MIPS rotational impact protection system, indicated by a sticker on many helmets: “Having the little yellow or orange sticker doesn’t mean the helmet is good.”
