Topline data from National Ski Areas Association’s 10-Year Interval Injury  Study showed improvement over previous studies—a positive trend, especially considering 2022-23, data from which was used for the study, was a record season for skier visits (64.7 million). 

The study found that the rate of incidents at United States ski areas was 2.2 per 1,000 skier visits during the 2022-23 season, a 39 percent decline from 3.6 incidents per 1,000 visits reported in the previous study from the 2010-11 season. 

This was the fifth 10-Year Interval Injury study conducted since 1980, aimed at gaining estimates of the prevalence, incidence, and nature of snowsports injuries at U.S. ski areas. The study tracks on-hill, guest injuries that occurred while skiing or snowboarding, excluding incidents involving on-duty employees, racers on a racecourse, and medical events (e.g. a heart attack), sourced from ski patrol incident reports.

The most recent study sourced ski patrol incident reports from a representative sample of 32 ski areas—more than double that of the previous studies—diversified by size, region, and ownership structure. The sample reported 8.6 million total skier visits in 2022-23 and a total of 18,980 patrol reports were included compared to 13,145 reports and 4,618,194 visits from the 14 ski areas included in the 2010-11 study.   

The following is a selection of the data presented at the NSAA National Convention in May. At press time, the full study was being prepared to be submitted for peer review in the prestigious Journal of Sports Medicine. The 2010-11 study was published in ASTM’s Skiing Trauma and Safety: 20th Volume.

Snowboarders. Incidents involving snowboarders declined sharply to 3.3 per 1,000 visits, down 46 percent from 2010-11, but still roughly double the rate of skiers (1.7 per 1,000 visits, down from 2.5 in 2010-11). Beginner snowboarders were injured at more than twice the rate of beginner skiers. 

Terrain park related injuries for snowboarders continue to decline, too, from 0.96 per 1,000 visits in 2010-11 to 0.42 in 2022-23. The rate was 1.38 in the 2000-01 study.

Demographics. Somewhat unsurprisingly, the 18-24-year-old demographic accounted for an outsized share of on-hill injuries. This age group was at least 2.5 times more likely to be injured than any other age cohort. Ages 15-17 and 25-34 were the next highest, tied at around 3 incidents per 1,000 visits. The study found that females were less likely to be injured than males of the same ability, but overall results show females and males had a similar incident rate.

Causes. By far the most common cause of injury was loss of control/simple fall, accounting for 64 percent of all incidents, followed by terrain park (13 percent), and collision with another person (7 percent). These rates are relatively flat compared to 2010-11.

Roughly 5 percent of reported incidents were lift-related, a lion’s share of which happened during unloading, which occurred at more than 4.5 times the rate of chairlift loading incidents. 

Snowboarders were far more likely to be involved in a lift unloading incident than skiers, a trend that may be correlated to the decline in stomp pads being included on rental boards. 

The full report from NSAA, authored by researchers from Guidance Engineering, will include robust data and analysis once fully published.