Do You Wear a Ski Helmet? We Asked Over 8,000 Skiers for Their Opinion

It’s Sunday, and you know what that means—we’re back with the results of another POWDER Weekly Poll!

This time, we asked readers a classic question: Do you wear a ski helmet?

Here’s what 8,837 skiers had to say.

POWDER Weekly Poll Results

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Poll Highlights

• Total Votes: 8,837
• Number of Votes on Instagram: 2,350
• Number of Votes on Website: 6,487
• Most Popular Choice: Yes (7,164 votes, 81% of voters)
• Least Popular Choice: Rarely, Depending on the Type of Skiing (265 votes, 3% of voters)
• Other results:
  No: 961 votes, 11% of voters

  Usually, depending on the type of skiing: 447 votes, 5% of voters

Poll Observations

• Surprise! Most skiers, as you’ve probably noticed on the slopes, wear helmets. That’s a big change from the past, when going helmet-free was the standard. As the consequences of brain injuries have come into sharper focus, helmets have become more and more prevalent. A noggin, after all, is a terrible thing to waste.
• An actual surprise: the “usually, depending on the type of skiing” group didn’t prove to be a popular category. Anecdotally, some skiers tailor their helmet use to the kind of skiing they’re doing. For instance, if you’re going for a gentle backcountry tour, you might leave your helmet at home. That crowd, at least according to this poll, isn’t particularly large, though.
• If we were in Italy, this poll wouldn’t exist. There, you can now be fined €200 if you don’t wear a ski helmet. 

What We Could’ve Done Better

• Not to toot our own horn, but this poll went pretty well. Still, we think it could benefit from demographic questions. For instance, we would love to see the results of this poll if it flagged who are and aren’t park skiers. While plenty of freestyle fans wear helmets, their ranks seem to go helmet-free at higher rates than any other group in skiing. The same is true about professional skiers. 
• We could’ve made this poll more precise by swapping “Yes” with “Always” and “No” with “Never.”

About the POWDER Weekly Poll 

We launch our weekly polls at 3 p.m. Eastern Time every Monday. They remain open until 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time the following Friday, with the results dropping on Sunday at 9 a.m. Eastern Time. You can participate and see the results right here on our website or by visiting our Instagram page.

While you’re at it, drop us a line or leave an Instagram comment if there’s a poll you’d like to see next. Skiers have plenty of opinions and preferences, and we want to know which ones might land on top of the heap.