“Skiing is a dangerous sport,” says Jake Shealy, who partners with Bob Johnson and Carl Ettlinger in the highly respected Sugarbush project to study skiing and riding injuries. He’s just stating the obvious, though: a sport involving sliding downhill has inherent risks. That makes the gradual decline in many types of injuries all the more impressive.

The silver lining is that, while people still get hurt visiting winter resorts, injury trends appear to be moving in generally good directions. Additionally, skiing and riding, despite inherent risks, don’t rank particularly high among sports and recreational activities when it comes to getting hurt. Your chances of becoming injured as, say, a horseback rider or cheerleader are far greater.

A survey of experts in this field—researchers, lawyers, and insurance specialists—suggests that several injury trends are moving downward, and that anticipated rises have failed to materialize. That said, tracking injury trends can often be imprecise, since the basic metrics aren’t necessarily comprehensive.

Ski patrol reports, legal claims or suits, and insurance claims—common means of tracking what is happening on the injury front—do not cover every injury at every resort. Many injuries go unreported; Shealy cites as an example thumb injuries that often don’t involve ski-patrol attention but might call for follow-up surgery or treatment, sometimes months later.

In addition, lawyers and insurance claims adjustors aren’t always eager to share information that might impact cases or claims in their portfolios.

Yet the data from the Sugarbush project (which catalogs and analyzes every injury that’s reported through the resort’s clinic) and the trickle of info that can be squeezed from lawyers and claims adjustors suggests something akin to “no news is good news.”

According to Mistica Walker, a specialty claims adjustor for Wells Fargo, which insures roughly half of the winter resorts in the U.S., injury-related claims break down into three categories: injuries from skiing and riding on the mountain, lift-related injuries, and injuries off the mountain, which mostly include “slip and fall” injuries.

Regarding the first category, the influence of the landmark case of Sunday v. Stratton in the 1970s still seems to hold great sway, not only in legal decisions but in the decision by potential litigants to forgo legal action. “I would say the trends are down,” says Tom Aicher, a Vermont lawyer who defends resorts in injury claims. “The jury results for people who have filed claims is poor.” Law firms for potential plaintiffs simply don’t want to invest the money and time in accepting cases they are almost certain to lose.

Exactly what constitutes a skiing- or riding-related injury, however, can be (pun intended) a slippery slope, and the definition varies from state to state, says Mary Bozack, claims adjustor for Willis Mountainguard, the other major winter-resort insurer. “Some define it as the minute you get out of your car, you’re a skier,” says Bozack. “In Utah, you have to have your skis (or board) on.” Whether a claim is skiing-related or not can have great influence on the way courts and insurers treat it, and the chances of a potential suit or claim succeeding.


Good, Downward Trends
Regardless of how any injuries might be defined, however, the no-news-is-good-news is that the rate of injuries, skiing-related and otherwise, is seen as flat at worst, and in some cases trending downward. According to Walker, Wells Fargo had seen “quite a few slip-and-fall claims,” due largely, she says, to the savvy of claimants in working the insurance process to their advantage. As a result, “we thought we might see a trend of more and more,” says Walker. “But when we looked at it, there was really no trend.”

When it comes to studying skiing- and riding-related injuries, no one does it better than Shealy, Johnson and Ettlinger. The Sugarbush project, now 40 years old, is, says Shealy, “the longest case-control study anywhere in the world,” having analyzed roughly 20,000 skiing- and riding-related injuries. Every 10 years, the Sugarbush team prepares a study for the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA), with the 2010 edition due out soon. According to Shealy, “a preliminary look at the 2010 study (indicates) a continuing downward trend in overall injuries from ski-patrol incident reports.”

Shealy goes on: “The major thing we’ve seen is a decline in ACL injuries,” attributing that largely to “shorter and more controllable skis that have become more forgiving and are easier to skid in a turn.” With the advent of deep-sidecut skis, the Sugarbush team had anticipated the possibility of a spike in knee injuries, with skis getting locked into turns, but that fear has not been borne out over time—perhaps because skis also became shorter, with less leverage on the knee.

Shealy also says that it might have been anticipated that injuries would rise as the skiing population has aged. But the Sugarbush findings indicate that isn’t so, except for tibial plateau fractures, which Shealy calls “not high-frequency injuries.”

In the bigger picture, Shealy reports, “There was no change in (the number of) fatalities or catastrophic injuries. The nature of injuries now is different, but not the severity. I’m kind of surprised by that.”


Helmets and Terrain Parks
Two changes in the last decade that would seem to have the greatest impact on injury trends—the development of terrain parks and the adoption of helmets—could be expected, at first glance, to have an impact on injury trends. But the effects of each have been less than some might have anticipated.

While it might intuitively seem that the growth and popularity of terrain parks would result in an increase in injuries, the opposite appears to be the case. “I think terrain-park injuries are down significantly over the last 10 years,” says Aicher, an assessment that the insurance adjustors share. Bozack thinks the downward trend is at least in part due to improvements in park design. Aicher also points to a usership characterized by “more knowledge, etiquette, and courtesy.”

Shealy believes that while jumping—the main activity in terrain parks—is inherently risky, terrain parks are actually “an element of risk management.” Rather than having people building their own jumps in uncontrolled scenarios on open trails, terrain parks allow “a resort to have people jumping in a relatively safe way.”

Similarly, helmet use has expanded greatly in the last decade, particularly by adults. According to the most recent NSAA study on the subject, helmet use since the 2002-2003 season has increased by 171 percent. In 2002-2003, 25 percent of skiers and riders wore helmets. According to the NSAA’s 2012 National Demographic Study, 67 percent of skiers and riders are now helmet wearers.

Has that increase in helmet use helped to lessen injuries? Yes and no, says Shealy. For mild impacts and scalp lacerations, helmets definitely make the sport safer, Shealy says, adding that he would never consider going out on the slopes without a helmet. However, for injuries that involve blunt impact at higher speeds, a helmet offers inadequate protection.

One other change in the winter-sports industry over the last decade has been an increase in non-skiing activities—such stuff as tubing, Alpine coasters, and summer activities such as ziplining. But according to Walker, no real trends have emerged. “(Injuries) are sprinkled in every category across the board” in these activities, she says.


Proactive Steps
While the overall picture in injury trends seems optimistic, what measures can resorts take to continue to assure a safe skiing and riding experience and to protect themselves successfully should claims arise? A key area for vigilance, says Shealy, is a resort’s rental and retail operations. When it comes to testing and inspecting equipment, he says, “there can be no slacking off.” Historically, equipment testing has proven to be a significant factor in the downtrending of injuries. In addition, says Shealy, resorts should encourage guests to use helmets—whether buying or renting—and to make sure that helmets fit right.

On the claims side of the equation, Aicher stresses the importance of “post-loss documentation to help lawyers defend with accurate information.” Photos, ski-patrol reports, observations of onlookers, or anything else that can pinpoint the specifics of an incident are valuable, because, as Aicher says, “stories evolve” over time. What might have been a seemingly innocuous slip on loose snow in the parking lot may morph into a near-fatal fall on glare ice by the time the plaintiff presents a case in court. Accurate info is a defense lawyer’s best ammo.

A dangerous sport? Maybe. But certainly, less dangerous than many other sports or recreational activities, including cheerleading. And apparently, if trends are to be believed, becoming less dangerous over time.