Is skiing that dangerous?!

S

[skier.]

Member
Sorry for bringing up a sad topic again but i wanna hear your opinion on this.

Lots of athletes died or got seriously injured in the last couple years.

Do I not hear these sad news of the other sports or is skiing really the only sport that has such a high rate of deaths?

I am now talking about the professionals. Other than that i am pretty sure skiing (together with base jumping) has the highest death rate of all sports.

I mean, yes, freeskiing is pretty dangerous, but climbing, biking, wingsuit flying etc. too?

Other than that, i'd say ski-pros are having an average amount of "normal" injuries (knee etc.) compared to professional athletes of other sports... (?)

 
It's an interesting topic to discuss. My stance is we assume the risks involved. We are okay with the fact that "hey, this turn could quite possibly be my last." I wouldn't say it's living on the edge. Yes, the risks in involved could be your demise but the outcome, that feeling you get from skiing a burly line or stomping something clean in the park out weighs the cons I feel like.
 
Risk of dying from various sporting activites:

BASE Jumping

1 in 2,317 jumps

Swimming

1 in 56,587

Cycling

1 in 92,325

Running

1 in 97,455

Skydiving

1 in 101,083 jumps

Sweden

1 in 125,189

Football

1 in 103,187

Hang-gliding

1 in 116,000 flights

Tennis

1 in 116,945

Sudden cardiac death whilst running a marathon

1 in 126,626 runners

Horse Riding

1 in 175,418

American Football

1 in 182,184

Scuba Diving

1 in 200,000 dives

Table Tennis

1 in 250,597

Rock Climbing

1 in 320,000 climbs

Canoeing

1 in 750,000 outings

Skiing

1 in 1,556,757 visits

(taken from http://www.medicine.ox.ac.uk/bandolier/booth/risk/sports.html)
 
I don't think this translates to freestyle skiing very well. The statistic is probably for all skiers, and most skiers play it pretty safe and just hit groomers all day
 
Any sport is dangerous and people always get injured. It's just that you focus more on skiing.

I regularly watch motocross and guys get injured all the time. People get surprised when I pro makes it through a season healthy.

Also, like 2 years ago a guy died from heat stroke while racing, he went in to seizures on the track. Last year a pro that I've talked to before died at an off road race when he took a footpeg to the back if the head after crashing. All sports come with that risk.
 
this. every sport has a risk that comes with it. nothing's safe and you can get hurt anywhere, basically
 
i mean you can die sleeping. if you thing about everything you so is risking death. getting in a car means yo have to accept you could get in an accident and die. this world is dangerous but people accept that. just like people accept skiing
 
I think we see so many deaths especially compared to snowboarding because the rise of touring. More and more skiers are now getting into the backcountry where avalanche danger is enormously high.
 
You have to keep in mind what a lot of these pros are doing when they get really badly injured.

McConkey was BASE jumping, which is a super high risk activity as it is.

CR was already really prone to head injuries because of his previous injury.

Coombs was attempting a backcountry rescue (don't know exact details), and fell to his death in the process.

Sarah Burke just got unlucky, and thats the scariest one. Doing a trick she had done so many times, over-rotates a tiny bit and hits her head. That can happen to anyone... But its not something you every really think about.

(RIP)

I always tell people that you can land on your head doing a backflip and get hurt, but you could also be crossing the street on a walk sign and get hit by an absent-minded driver and die. I just don't think its worth worrying yourself about such a random and uncontrollable thing. Shit happens... You just have to accept that the risk is there and not think about it.
 
Most of the people that have died while skiing that i know of have either not been wearing a helmet while the accident happened or they where beginners trying some terrain much to advanced for their skill level. But the ones that do know what they are doing and are wearing a helmet and still died knew the risks of their level and type of skiing and wear all willing to take the chance and go big.
 
This really puts into perspective how much more dangerous BASE jumping is than just about any other sport. And I would venture to say that 1-in-2,317 is a bit too high.

Perhaps for the safest and most diligent jumpers it is 1 in 2,317 but if you take a look at the BASE Fatality list you will see that most people die with much less jumps, many less than 100 because they don't objectively measure their skill level and what they can handle.

http://www.blincmagazine.com/forum/wiki/BASE_Fatality_List

 
This. Helmets are so important. I was skiing in the trees bullshitting around and high sided a mogul and fell into a tree with the back of my head. I smashed my helmet and was out for over 4 minutes. Patrol thought I was dead when they first showed up. If it weren't for my helmet I would be dead. I probably still should have died from that.
 
This is a very wrong statement. Splitboarding is the largest growing area of the industry. The amount of splitboarders out there is huge, and it's getting bigger everyday.

It's not just skiers in the backcountry. It's not even close.
 
Most ski related deaths come from your normal skiers and snowboarders. Impact trauma. Deaths happen. Are not widely publicized. Really what it comes down to is no one cares Joe Blow smoked a tree and died. When big names get hurt or die, like we have seen in years past, they get way more attention.

Backcountry accidents happen. Tend to hear about them a bit more as well. News likes to cover those.
 
Explain to me how more people die in table tennis than skiing..or actually how anyone dies in skiing other than some horny girl deciding to put the ball in her mouth and then choking..
 
i don't think anyone at all has died skiing from a horny girl putting the ball in their mouth.

most likely people die from slipping and obtaining head injuries, or having heart attacks and the like. i really don't know, but the source has no reason to lie, so i have no problem believing it.
 
It's only dangerous if you are skiing somewhere other than your home mountain. The paper cuts you get when you have to peal a ticket are brutal, and those wickets can put an eye out.
 
you don't need a source to dispute the fact that 1 in 116,945 people die from playing tennis. I don't know how you would even die from playing tennis, heart attack is pretty much the only way i can think of
 
Pro skiers get hurt because they are pushing things that have never been done before. Everyone else (us) has a pretty good chance of getting hurt if we are pushing it too hard. Being in good shape will help you to not get injured as easily
 
this is my way of thinking about it. if i'm ever going to try anything big or do any jumps, i'm wearing my helmet. yes i occasionally cruise around without one, but I am confident enough (YES I KNOW "ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN") but i'm careful. and no way in hell would i ski trees or anything steep without one... it's only rarely I don't go with one
 
This so much. The greatness of that feeling can beat anything. If you've never had that feeling then yea you might be scared as shit. But once you get it there's no going back
 
Apparently it's deadly.

1-s2.0-S0022346808004600-gr2.jpg
 
I almost died this year skiing, I had a doctor call my family from the er to tell them to get to NH because they didnt know if I'd make it. Best part is I fell on a 15 foot jump.
4F4B1AC5-E511-4727-BE0F-73214E39A76E-345-0000001B8F5FBC7C.jpg
so shit happens I guess.
 
^Yes. I wanna hear what happened to make things go so wrong on a small jump and what kind of injuries you sustained.
 
from Nickleback_4eva$ who saw it and was there don't actually know him though.

"So we were on the lift coming up at the top of Nitro, and we watched you send it off the very top jump. It looked like you were going for either a nose butter five or seven, but you did something in between, landed, and flew right onto your head/shoulder; I was worried for your collarbone. Then you slid a bit and weren't moving and I did a double take. Soon after, you started shaking, and I was like "oh fuck, that kid's having a seizure" so I flagged down the liftie at the top, had him call ski patrol, and then we went down to the jump. Some other snowboarders were already there blocking it off. You weren't convulsing too much but some still. One of them was holding your head. Ski patrol came, and they were talking to you. You responded some, generally with grunts, and you kept trying to take your helmet off. Eventually ski patrol just wanted to clear the crowd so they had us leave." as for what happened i had a epidural hematoma which is a Extra axial lesions that is hemorrhagic in nature. which means it was epidural and subdural, which is a lot of big words for saying i had a lot of bleeding in a few layers of my skull. for more and to read the whole adventure of that 48 hours go to https://www.newschoolers.com/ns/forums/readthread/thread_id/725880/

or go to your local library
 
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