Skiing Risk Management

[Mendieta]

It is a fact of life: everything we do carries some level of risk. So, how do we go about risk? If or when we are methodical, we calculate our risks, try to minimize them, and engage on activities where we are comfortable with the level of risk. This is what we refer to, as risk management.

I've been looking around in the literature (journalism and scientific) and there are dispersed bits here and there. What I'm thinking though, and proposing my deal Puggers, is that we brainstorm together, and see if we can come up with material for a nice Ski Risk Management for Pugski.com.



Here is what I've come up so far. First things first. How risky skiing really is? A lot less than the popular perception would seem to indicate. The rate of injuries has decreased about 50% over the last few decades, due to better equipment. The two important numbers are:

• The rate of injuries: it's about 1 per 1,000 ski days [1] [2]. That is a very low number. A typical skier visits a mountain 10 times a year, so it would take her 100 years to get injured, on average.
• The rate of casualties: this one is tiny, about 1 per 1,000,000 ski days [2] [3] [4]. However, it is much higher if you engage in risk behavior, of course. Ah, the beauty of conditional statistics.

[1] http://journals.lww.com/cjsportsmed...of_Modern_Ski_Equipment_on_the_Overall.8.aspx
[2] https://www.nsaa.org/media/68045/NSAA-Facts-About-Skiing-Snowboarding-Safety-10-1-12.pdf
[3] http://tra.sagepub.com/content/17/1/4.full (particularly Table 1)
[4] http://journals.lww.com/jtrauma/abs...ki_fatalities__the_vermont_experience.14.aspx

So, how do manage this risk? Let's start with the very bad stuff. A lot of the serious injuries seem to have two major sources: suffocation (avalanches and tree wells), and blunt trauma, particularly when hitting a hard object such as a tree or lift pole.

Suffocation risk is mostly an issue off piste. A beacon and other avalanche equipment is a must for venturing out in the wild, as much as always going in a group so the chances of getting rescued are ... larger than zero Blunt trauma can happen anywhere. Skiing in control is key to reduce that risk. Ski lessons and prudent choice of lines should help. Personally, I try to plan my ski lines to be far from those objects. Some good reading:

http://www.deepsnowsafety.org/index.php/what-sis
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/ski/advice/Ski-safety-avalanche-survival-tips/

Among the rest of injuries, one of the worst for skiers is a ligament tear, particularly ACL, which requires surgery and a long recovery. While this risk can't be eliminated, it can be reduced if you know what types of ski crashes tend to produce them. Certainly awkward positions should be avoided when falling, if possible:

http://www.vermontskisafety.com/kneefriendly.php

Generally speaking, for all sorts of injury prevention, the following article suggests a very basic rule, which seems common sense: get fit for skiing. Of course, the more you ski the better your fit, but you need to be decently fit in order to ski. This will reduce the potential for all sorts of injuries.

http://www.onthesnow.com/news/a/587...t-risk-for-a-ski-injury---what-to-do-about-it

Ok, this is it from my side. It's a result of lots of reading. This is a subject dear and near to me, since my kids ski. Enough said! Looking forward for risk management Tips and Tricks from our experts.

 

[Monique]

One tip I have: Be realistic. Realistically, we can't control all the variables. So if you want to ski, you have to accept that there are any number of variables out of your control. You may get injured badly. Of course, you may get injured badly by stepping off a curb badly (my mother broke her tibial plateau, I think it was, this way), but odds are much higher in skiing.

To me, risk calculation is likelihood x impact, and then the decision needs to be made - is the enjoyment worth the risk? That calculation is different for every human being. The impact of tearing an ACL was pretty huge to me - it felt huge - pain (which doesn't inherently bother me so much, as long as I know it's temporary), loss of work, loss of fun stuff, continuing loss of time due to PT. I am not doing my best at work simply because there aren't enough hours in the day. BUT the impact of tearing an ACL would be much bigger to someone with a physical job. Someone who couldn't work from a couch. Someone who doesn't have (good) medical insurance. Some people opt out of surgery, for a few years or permanently. That has its own impact.

And there's a paradox, in that hesitation in a gravity sport is dangerous, too. So you need to decide on your plan of action, determine your acceptable level of risk - and then put it out of your mind and just ski. Easier said than done. I'm really curious to see how I'll feel about skiing in general, skiing "expert" terrain, and skiing the exact run where I hurt myself (a blue, naturally) when I get there.

 

[pais alto]

Among the rest of injuries, one of the worst for skiers is a ligament tear, particularly ACL, which requires surgery and a long recovery.

Um, spinal injuries, large bone fractures (femur, tib-fib, humerus, pelvis, etc.), and concussions/skull fractures all seem worse than an ACL tear, to me anyway. I've dealt with all those and more on-slope with a certain amount of frequency.

Probably have to define 'serious injury' for your project.

 

[crgildart]

I still wonder what went on in the rooms where the first major resort debated opening up a full scale terrain park to the general public, basically anyone with the guts to head in there and go for it??? I get that once someone did everyone else had to follow suit or lose 99.99999% of the snowboarders and freestyle skiers. One win was it kept the kids from building their own jumps.. at least mostly.. There must be a formula regression some marketing and risk analysts worked up to calculate now many additional tickets need to be sold to offset the legal costs It still seems like a terrible idea to open up those features to EVERYONE. Some places do require kids to sit through a short do's and don'ts video to earn a "Park Pass", but nothing close to the days of requiring kids to have an adult coach supervising the big jumps.

 

[Mendieta]

Um, spinal injuries, large bone fractures (femur, tib-fib, humerus, pelvis, etc.), and concussions/skull fractures all seem worse than an ACL tear, to me anyway. I've dealt with all those and more on-slope with a certain amount of frequency.

Probably have to define 'serious injury' for your project.

Sure, good points. Any pointers? Perhaps trends you observed, as to what kind of thing leads to injury? Any low hanging fruit as to how to minimize the chances of getting injured? Or any pointers to a good study around this? Many thanks!

 

[pais alto]

Sure, good points. Any pointers? Perhaps trends you observed, as to what kind of thing leads to injury?

I've observed that falling down or running into things (or people) is a trend that leads to injuries. But seriously...

Any low hanging fruit as to how to minimize the chances of getting injured?

Well, there's the obvious stuff like really knowing your capabilities and limitations and not pushing it. (There's that saying that good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement gcool) Along with knowing what to do - and what not to do - in given conditions, being technically accomplished and strong seems to decrease injuries. Tired people get hurt more, as do people that are extending themselves.

Something that gets said sometimes where I work, and may be true, is that the locals don't get injured as often as people that don't ski as much, but when they do get hurt it's often worse. That's a generalization, but the better skiers tend to be doing advanced stuff like going fast or hucking when they wreck which leads to consequences. Less experienced skiers seem to come to grief by not having the skills or strength to handle the terrain or conditions that they find themselves in.

I haven't been involved in any serious injuries or deaths from tree wells or avys, but hard snow conditions have been a factor in a number of serious injuries and a few deaths.

Edit to add: Also, avoid skiing in crowds. That's dangerous.

 

[Monique]

One thing I can speak to is the danger of muscle memory. I took a month off to ski in Feb, at the end of which I skied 6 days in a row, averaging over 20k vert each day of steeps, hikes, trees, you name it. I was a beast. (My knees were also aching every night, but let's ignore that.) Fast forward a few months. I wasn't really doing much / anything to stay active. Then came May at the Basin. I will never know if I could have stayed in control if I had the muscles in May that I did in late February. I suspect I was writing checks that my February body could cash, but my May body couldn't. Of course, I'll never know.

I do know that people can hurt themselves when they remember being able to do something that they now can't do, which is common in a vacation sport like skiing. Fitness is one piece; recent experience is another.

And that makes it tricky to do as @pais alto wisely suggests - to know your limitations and not push it. (I would say, not push it *too* hard.)

 

[mdf]

There are tactics that can mitigate your risk, at least a little. The most important is to think about where your trajectory fan would go if you screw up.
Try not to ski fast aiming at the trees on the sides of the trail.

 

[hbear]

I would also suggest there are different tranches of risk we are speaking about. Risk of catastrophic injury is significantly higher if one were to take on something like the XXL jump line in the park vs say the small rails. However the strategic approach surrounding how one would minimize the probability of incident would be very similar.

This would also be the same in regards to speed. While one can get seriously hurt at most all speeds the consequences at 60mph have a larger probability effect than those at say 20mph.

 

[oldschoolskier]

Since you brought up ACL injuries, I almost did my ACL after just switching to shaped skis. Classical mistake for a very strong straight skier mistake, got caught in the back seat, hooked rear inside downhill ski edge and tried to power out (straight ski mistake), felt just enough pain to completely relax and ride it out until unhooked. Why did I relax, I had read everything I could find on he subject in the prior weeks, and it gave me just enough to prevent me from following thru with the mistake.

Back to your statement, knowledge, better yet fore-knowledge is a good way of preventing lots of injuries, the second is understanding the difference between crazy and stupid.

Stupid is not understanding, caring, giving a damn of the risk and doing it anyway. It also inlcudes not having the skill for said activity and doing it anyway.

Crazy is realizing and understanding the risks, having the skill set and knowing you are upping (or playing near) the limit on your action where failure as a serious consequence.

So one action may be crazy for one individual yet fully stupid for another. The smart individual very carefully moves the bar on crazy while not stepping into stupid (though it does happen on occasion). Injuries occur in both, but stupid usually uses the words "I didn't see that coming!"

Are you crazy or stupid?

For the record I am crazy and no longer stupid.

 

[fatbob]

Well one of the best things you can do to mitigate risk is to take a fall properly rather than attempting and failing at a recovery which puts you in a worse position. I'm very conscious of this having had knee injuries and take any number of hip checks over back seat recoveries. I know it's a liability issue and beginners tend to fall enough anyway but it has always surprised me that proper falling techniques are not on the syllabus for snowsports instruction.

The other thing is a pretty dangerous activity IMV is clocking high speeds on groomers, Not that hard over a certain speed to hook a ski and be directed into a tree and no B netting to catch you unlike those that can afford to push the limit. Add in traffic and localised grooming flaws and it always feels like a fast track to a blow up to me. And that's for people with control, once you add the maniacs standing on their heels to steer the death schuss that's another ballgame.

 

[Mendieta]

Thank you all. I can't reply individually at the time (on the train), but re-reading my OP, in iew of your posts, I see an obvious flaw. most of the serious injuries do not come from suffocation, but rather blunt trauma, typically from high speed skiing on groomers (and eventually hitting a tree or pole). I actually think one of the articles I read recently emphasized that aspect.

To @mdf 's point, when on the lift, I always point the kids to watch people skiing at the edge of a groomer, quite fast and very nicely, and I always say the same to them: one bad turn, one patch of ice and that person is on a tree. that's stupid (to paraphrase @oldschoolskier )

 

[ZionPow]

My experience on patrol suggests that many injuries occur late in the day when fatigue becomes a factor. Busy weekend days can be fairly quiet for injuries in the mornings but the "gravity bombs" start going off in the afternoon. We seem to have more injured quests to assist in the afternoon when they are tired and make mistakes. People come from sea level, out of shape and then try to "get their money worth" and ski all day. A lot of injuries could be avoided if people would realize when it is time to quit and hit the hot tub or bar early!

We also see injuries caused by people who are not familiar with the mountain getting into areas above their ability level. It would help if they would take the time to ask patrol, mountain hosts or lift operators before they venture into unfamiliar terrain. Patrol skis all inbounds terrain every morning and we have a good idea of the conditions in different areas of the mountain. We would prefer advising people to avoid difficult conditions vs. having to pull them out on a toboggan.

Finally: Wear a helmet!!!

 

[KingGrump]

I believe we can safely separate back country skiing from in bound resort skiing when it comes to risk management.

IMHO most skiers treads too close to the limits. They thrive on the adrenaline flow when pushing the limits. As @ZionPow eluded to those limits changes through out the ski day.

My personal risk mitigation is not to ski at the limits. I generally like to ski somewhere between 50-70% of my own personal limits. Whether it be physical, psychological.or otherwise. This way when something goes oops, I still have some reserve to call upon.

 

[Mendieta]

Patrol skis all inbounds terrain every morning and we have a good idea of the conditions in different areas of the mountain. We would prefer advising people to avoid difficult conditions vs. having to pull them out on a toboggan.

Yes! Deer Valley does this very well. They also have wonderful mountain hosts at the exit of every lift. Once I made the mistake of not asking them, while lugging my third grade princess to a double blue that was at the top of her abilities. And it got frozen because of a sudden change in wind. She had an epic fall, no injuries. She braved it up, followed me traversing to rebuild confidence, and at some point asked to go faster because "she was getting bored". Which made me super proud of her, and made me also fill guilty as hell. My son (four years older) was prepared for this and didn't sweat it. But a 15 second conversation with the mountain host would have avoided the whole ordeal (there was a green run available to come down).

 

[crgildart]

Up until I hit mid 40s most of my more serious injuries actually happened at slow to moderate speed and on more subtle terrain rather than big jumps or wicked steeps. It is because I was less vigilant and more casual on easy terrain at slower speeds than I am when pushing the envelope. Lately though with age and decay I can majorly hurt my back just bending over to buckle my boots in the parking lot these days or landing a jump same as I've done thousands of times but feel something POP! now that my body is no longer as reliable. And I do exercise and stretch out some before skiing these days. Still can pull or tear something doing practically nothing as easily as when doing something challenging.

The more experienced patrollers will tell you that most ski trail injuries happen near the end of daylight when folks are getting tired and the light is flat right before the night lights come on but the sun is setting. Not sure of park injuries also pick up at the end of the regular day session but I know I see folks biting it at the bottom on the rollers because they look like they ran out of gas while going too fast for that "one more run" when they should have taken a break instead.

 

[Monique]

It is because I was less vigilant and more casual on easy terrain at slower speeds than I am when pushing the envelope.

+1 QFT. I almost never fall when I am on scary terrain. It's always where I feel comfortable.

 

[Bill Talbot]

There are tactics that can mitigate your risk, at least a little. The most important is to think about where your trajectory fan would go if you screw up.
Try not to ski fast aiming at the trees on the sides of the trail.

But this is exactly where the best skiing is!!! (and where I can usually be found)

 

[Mendieta]

But this is exactly where the best skiing is!!! (and where I can usually be found)

Ha. But we are talking about minimizing risk, not maximizing fun

OTOH, a common trait I have heard over and over, and mentioned in this thread above, is that a lof of the injuries happen when people are passively skiing (gliding at the edge of a cat walk, etc)

 

[Monique]

Ha. But we are talking about minimizing risk, not maximizing fun

You said risk management. If you want to minimize risk, stay in bed ...