Avalanche Airbag Usage and Risk Attitudes of Backcountry Skiers and Snowboarders in the American West.

INTRODUCTION: Backcountry skiers and snowboarders are increasingly using avalanche airbags to improve safety. New safety devices can cause risk compensation, the concept in which users take more risks given the larger safety margin provided by the device. This may limit overall benefits. We sought to elucidate attitudes toward risk-taking behaviors and risk compensation in backcountry users relating to avalanche airbags. METHODS: A convenience sample of 144 backcountry skiers and snowboarders was surveyed after a backcountry tour in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah and the Tetons of Wyoming during the winter 2020-21 season. Demographic and experiential data were compared with risk propensity scores and attitudes toward risk compensation. Respondents were stratified into high-, medium-, and low-risk groupings based on risk propensity scores and whether an airbag was carried. RESULTS: Thirty-two (22%) respondents carried an airbag. Airbag users were more likely to endorse risk compensation behavior, ski terrain over 30 degrees, and fall into the high-risk cohort. The high-risk cohort was also more likely to endorse risk compensation behavior than medium- and low-risk individuals. CONCLUSIONS: Risk compensation was more prevalent in 2 groups: 1) those carrying an airbag and 2) those falling within the high-risk cohort. Given the prevalence of avalanche airbags, risk compensation should be considered alongside other human factors in avalanche safety and education so that users can mitigate these effects. Although risk compensation appears to be occurring, the magnitude of this effect remains unknown and likely does not obviate the safety benefits of the airbag altogether.

Avalanche Safety Practices Among Backcountry Skiers and Snowboarders in Jackson Hole in 2016.

INTRODUCTION: Carrying standard safety gear (beacon, probe, and shovel), planning a route of descent, and recreating with companions can help to mitigate the risk of injury or death resulting from avalanches in the backcountry. The goal of this study was to identify factors associated with performance of these safety practices. METHODS: A convenience sample of backcountry skiers and snowboarders was surveyed in 2016 at the backcountry gates of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. Each participant was surveyed on characteristics including skill level, sex, age, prior avalanche education, and residency in the Jackson Hole area. Safety practices were also measured against avalanche hazard forecasts. Correlations were assessed using Fisher's exact testing. RESULTS: A total of 334 participants were surveyed. Factors associated with carrying avalanche safety gear included higher expertise, being a resident of the Jackson Hole area, and prior avalanche education. Factors associated with having a planned route of descent included higher expertise and being a resident of the Jackson Hole area. Factors associated with recreating with companions included younger age and lower expertise. Sex had no association with any of the surveyed safety practices. Participants were less likely to carry avalanche safety gear on low avalanche hazard days. CONCLUSIONS: Certain individual characteristics of backcountry skiers and snowboarders are associated with increased frequency of adherence to recommended safety practices. These findings suggest that particular categories of backcountry recreationists may benefit from further avalanche safety education. The results of this study could help direct future educational efforts among backcountry recreationists.

The Minne-Loppet Motivation Study: An Intervention to Increase Motivation for Outdoor Winter Physical Activity in Ethnically and Racially Diverse Elementary Schools.

PURPOSE: To test the effectiveness of an intervention to increase motivation for physical activity in racially diverse third- through fifth-grade students. DESIGN: Natural experiment. SETTING: Elementary schools in Minneapolis, Minnesota. PARTICIPANTS: Two hundred ninety-one students in 18 Minne-Loppet Ski Program classes and 210 students in 12 control classrooms from the same schools. INTERVENTION: The Minne-Loppet Ski Program, an 8-week curriculum in elementary schools that teaches healthy physical activity behaviors through cross-country skiing. MEASURES: Pretest and posttest surveys measured self-determination theory outcomes: intrinsic exercise motivation, intrinsic ski motivation, autonomy, competence, and relatedness. ANALYSIS: Hierarchical linear regression models tested treatment effects controlled for grade, race, sex, and baseline measures of the outcomes. RESULTS: Minne-Loppet program students showed significantly greater motivation to ski (ß = 0.95, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.15-1.75) and significantly greater perceived competence (ß = 0.78, 95% CI: 0.06-1.50) than students in control classrooms. Treatment effects for general exercise motivation and perceived competence differed by race. African American students in Minne-Loppet classes showed significantly greater general exercise motivation (ß = 1.08, 95% CI: 0.03-2.14) and perceived competence (ß = 1.95, 95% CI: 0.91-2.99) than African American students in control classes. CONCLUSION: The Minne-Loppet program promoted perceived competence and motivation to ski. Future improvements to the Minne-Loppet and similar interventions should aim to build general motivation and provide support needed to better engage all participants.

Utah ski patrol: assessing training types and resources.

BACKGROUND: Skiers and snowboarders incur a variety of injuries and medical emergencies each year at ski resorts. The ski patrol is primarily responsible for initial triage, assessment and stabilization of these problems. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to subjectively evaluate the type of training, resources, and equipment available to local ski patrols within Utah. METHODS: Ski patrol directors at ski resorts in Utah were asked to complete a voluntary computerized survey. RESULTS: Of the 14 ski areas in Utah, ski patrol directors representing 8 resorts responded. The majority of patrols in Utah use Outdoor Emergency Care (OEC) as their primary education and certification source. Most programs also include site-specific training in addition to basic certification. All responding resorts had basic first responder equipment, including splinting devices, basic airway management, and hemorrhage control. Six of 8 responding resorts had affiliated clinics, and all had access to aeromedical transport. All of the responding ski patrol directors believed the current training level was adequate. CONCLUSIONS: Utah area ski patrollers frequently see trauma-related injuries and have the resources to assess and provide initial immobilization techniques. Many resorts have affiliated clinics with advanced providers, and all have access to aeromedical support to rapidly transfer patients to trauma centers. Medical directors may be of use for training as well as developing extended scope of practice protocols for advanced airway use or medication administration. Patrols may benefit from additional resort-specific training that addresses other frequently seen injuries or illnesses.

Relations of biomotor structures and performance of technical elements of alpine skiing in Croatian ski instructors.

With the aim of identifying the factors of alpine skiers' biomotor status in predicting their specific skills, three variable sets were used, comprised of the total of 24 measures (9 variables for assessing anthropometric characteristics, 8 variables for assessing motor abilities and 7 variables for assessing specific ski skills of alpine skiing), on a sample of 79 ski instructor candidates. After preliminary analysis procedures which included descriptive operations and factorization of each separate space, relations between the obtained latent dimensions were established by correlation analysis. The extracted varimax factors were defined as follows - three factors in the morphology space: V1 - Voluminosity and transverse dimensionality of the skeleton, V2 - Longitudinal dimensionality of the skeleton, V3 - Subcutaneous fat tissue; 2 factors in the space of motor abilities: V1 - Agility and explosive power, V2 - Static strength and balance; while a general factor of Specific motor skills of alpine skiing was isolated in the space of motor skills. Statistically significant positive correlation was found between agility and explosive power and general factor of skiing skills, which means that agility and explosive power are the basis for quality performance of advanced and cbmpetitive techniques in alpine skiing. Namely, in realization of advanced and competitive techniques of alpine skiing, which imply a high level of skiing skills acquisition and full automatization of performance, all actions are performed by fast and explosive movement direction changes.

Evaluation of a ski and snowboard injury prevention program.

The objective was to study the effectiveness of a brochure and video at improving skiing and snowboarding knowledge. Sixty-nine Grade 7 students were randomised to an educational intervention (n = 35) or control (n = 34) group. The intervention group viewed an injury prevention video aimed at improving skiers and snowboarder's knowledge, attitudes and behaviours about ski and snowboard safety and received a brochure. The control group participated in a teaching session and had a simple question and answer session about snow sports. Pre- and post-tests were administered and injuries during four trips were documented. Pre-test scores were similar between the two groups. Compared with the control group, there was a significantly greater improvement in post-test scores among the intervention group (WMD: 2.1; 95% CI: 0.19-4.01). There was no significant difference in injury rates (RR: 0.49; 95% CI: 0.04, 3.39). All injuries were minor and did not require medical attention. The intervention aimed at youth skiers and snowboarders appears to be effective at improving knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of skiing and snowboarding safety.

Effect of snowboard-related concussion safety education for recognizing possible concussions.

AIM: The aim of this study was to examine the understanding of snowboard-related concussion and to measure the recognition of possible concussion occurrence after an intervention of snowboard-related concussion safety education in snowboarding. METHODS: Incidence cohort design. SETTING: 2008-2009 season Gangwon-do Ski resorts, South Korea. A total of 208 university students (female-72; male-136; age-18 to 32) who registered for a snowboarding class and received credit participated in this project. Snowboard-related concussion safety education class was administered for 30 minutes before the snowboard class began. The knowledge of snowboard-related concussion before and after the safety education was evaluated. Concussion data were collected via a self-report case form at the last day of snowboarding class. The incidence of possible concussion and factors associated with concussions were analyzed by χ2 test. RESULTS: The mean score of snowboard-related concussion knowledge improved from fifteen points to eighteen points out of 20 total points possible. Overall the incidence of concussion was 10 per 100 snowboarder-exposures. χ2 tests showed concussion rates to be significantly different in female snowboarders (P=0.00) and in helmet users (P=0.02). CONCLUSION: The incidence of possible concussion is high among snowboarding class participants. Emphasis should be given for instituting pre-participation balance training, especially for females to reduce falling in snowboarding. To verify the effects of pre-participation balance training and falling results in a concussion, more research is needed in the future.

Risk assessment in winter backcountry travel.

OBJECTIVE: Risk assessment is an important part of safe backcountry travel in avalanche terrain. The purpose of this study was to determine and compare the ability of backcountry travelers to accurately estimate the avalanche danger for their destination and time of travel. METHODS: We surveyed 353 winter backcountry users, asking them to rate the avalanche danger for their destination that day. We then compared this estimation to the Utah Avalanche Center daily advisory for that specific location, aspect, and elevation. Tendency to underestimate the avalanche danger was then compared across 6 different sports (backcountry skiing, backcountry snowboarding, snowshoeing, snowmobiling, out-of-bounds skiing, and out-of-bounds snowboarding) as well as across age, gender, and subject participation in an avalanche safety course. RESULTS: A comparison across different sports, adjusted for age and gender, showed that snowshoers were 7.11 times more likely than skiers to underestimate the avalanche danger (95% CI, 2.95, 17.11). This difference was maintained after adjusting for past education in an avalanche safety course (odds ratio, 5.74; 95% CI, 2.28, 14.46). Snowmobilers were also significantly more likely to underestimate the avalanche danger when compared to skiers (odds ratio, 3.11; 95% CI, 1.12, 8.24), but these differences ceased to be significant when the data were adjusted for avalanche safety course (odds ratio, 2.39; 95% CI, 0.84, 6.74). While there was a trend for women and older age groups to underestimate the avalanche danger when compared to men, these trends were not significant. CONCLUSIONS: Snowshoers and snowmobilers are groups that tend to underestimate avalanche danger when traveling in the backcountry. These groups may be unknowingly assuming a higher risk and should be targeted for avalanche education and awareness.

Practice effects on local and global dynamics of the ski-simulator task.

This experiment examined the acquisition of the global and local dynamics of the changes in the total body center of mass-platform and inter-limb coordination motions over the course of practice (20, 30 s trials each day for 7 days) in the ski-simulator task. Four blocks of trials, representative of early, moderate, and extensive practice were analyzed through power spectrum and coherence analyses. The oscillation frequencies of the knee joints became tuned to that of the platform-performer system and there were changes due to practice in the lower inter-limb coordination dynamics independent of the center of mass and platform coordination pattern. Acquisition of global level dynamics occurs to achieve a stable task solution that can allow for degenerate frequency- and phase-locking of the mechanical degrees of freedom at both the local intra- and inter-limb levels.

The evolution of oscillatory behavior during learning on a ski simulator.

Recent experiments on the ski simulator produced ambiguous results and raised unanswered questions concerning the true nature of "novice" behavior and the occurrence of behavioral changes during learning. The aim of the present experiment was to analyze the evolving behavior of three beginners during six practice sessions on a ski simulator The position of the apparatus platform was recorded as time series and used for constructing dynamical models, including stiffness and damping functions. The results showed that novices tended to exploit a Rayleigh damping behavior during the first trials and then transition toward a van der Pol damping. These results replicate previous observations by Nourrit, Delignieres, Caillou, Deschamps, and Lauriot (2003) and suggest the transition to the expert behavior could arise early in practice, when the task is of moderate difficulty. The discussion focuses on the properties of the observed learning dynamics and proposes a global conceptualization for acquiring complex motor skills.

Applying contextual interference to snowboarding skills.

This investigation was designed to apply contextual interference to acquisition of snowboarding skills. 20 participants completed several acquisition stages lasting about 2 hours while either alternating the direction of the turn within each stage or completing the whole stage while attempting turns in one direction, then repeating the stage for the other direction of turn. Following acquisition, all participants returned 1 wk. later for a retention test. Alternating practice yielded better performance during acquisition and retention as measured by the arc and form attained within the turns. Because this differs from typical contextual interference effects, it is suggested that the relation between the skills may have affected the results. Negative transfer operating within blocked practice and increased between-task comparisons within alternating practice may be related to the similarity between the tasks.

Specific fitness training and testing in competitive sports.

Improvements of athletic capacity in high-performance sport are mainly achieved through an increase of the quality of training. In physical preparation, the quality of training can be improved by developing highly specific means of training. The aim of this paper is to present three examples of how highly specific means of fitness training of world class athletes can be developed. The first example presents a test profile of specific motor abilities of top class tennis players, the second one deals with the improvement of specific strength training methods for ski jumpers, and the third deals with the development of specific training devices of Alpine ski racers.

Risk factors associated with alpine skiing injuries in children. A case-control study.

We investigated the relative contribution of four risk factors to the occurrence of injuries among alpine skiers aged 12 years and younger (3 to 12 years old; mean age, 9.43 years). The risk factors selected were deficient binding adjustment, absence of formal training, low skill level, and use of rented equipment. A group of injured skiers (N = 41) and a control group of uninjured skiers (N = 313) were recruited among young skiers at one major alpine ski center in the Quebec City, Canada, area during the 1995 to 1996 season. No significant group differences were found for mean age or sex distribution. The adjusted odds ratios for injury were 7.54 (95% confidence interval [2.57, 22.15]) for skiers in the low level of skill category relative to highly skilled skiers, 7.14 (2.59, 19.87) for skiers who rented their ski equipment compared with skiers who owned their equipment, and 2.11 (1.02, 4.33) for skiers with ill-adjusted bindings compared with skiers with better-adjusted bindings. Only formal training did not meet the 0.05 significance level for entry into the model; this is probably because of methodologic limitations. Implications of these results for the development of a prevention program aimed at young skiers are discussed.

Echocardiographic examination of cardiac structure and function in elite cross trained male and female Alpine skiers.

OBJECTIVE: To assess cardiac structure and function in elite cross-trained male and female athletes (Alpine skiers). METHODS: Sixteen athletes (10 male, six female) and 19 healthy sedentary control subjects (12 male, seven female) volunteered to take part in the study. Basic anthropometry determined height, body mass, body surface area, and fat free mass. Cardiac dimensions and function were determined by two dimensional, M mode, and Doppler echocardiography. Absolute data and data corrected for body size (allometrically determined) were compared by two way analysis of variance and post hoc Scheffé tests. RESULTS: Absolute left ventricular internal dimension in diastole (LVIDd), septal and posterior wall thickness and left ventricular mass were larger in athletes than controls (p < 0.05) and also increased in the men (p < 0.05) compared with women (except for septal thickness in controls). An increased LVIDd, septal thickness, posterior wall thickness, and left ventricular mass in athletes persisted after correction for body size except when LVIDd was scaled by fat free mass. Cardiac dimensions did not differ between the sexes after correction for body size. All functional indices were similar between groups. CONCLUSION: There is evidence of both left ventricular chamber dilatation and wall enlargement in cross trained athletes compared with controls. Differences in absolute cardiac dimensions between the sexes were primarily due to greater body dimensions in the men.

Treadmill roller ski test predicts biathlon roller ski race results of elite U.S. biathlon women.

This study evaluated ski-specific laboratory testing and the relationship of test parameters to biathlon race performance. Since the ski skating technique used exclusively during biathlon racing requires a large upper body contribution, treadmill roller ski test parameters may provide relevant information for ski-specific training and ski performance. Seven top U.S. female biathlon skiers performed lactate threshold and VO2 peak tests running (TR) and roller skiing (skating technique, RS) on a motor driven treadmill. In addition, a constant workload (14 km.h(-1), 6% grade) roller ski test to exhaustion at race pace (ET) on a motor driven treadmill, and a short-term double pole power test (DP) were also performed. Results indicate that lactate threshold VO2 and HR were significantly lower during RS than TR, DP power (w.kg(-1)) was related to RS VO2 peak (r = 0.90), but not to TR parameters. ET time to exhaustion was related to gross efficiency during ET (r = -0.86), RS VO2 peak (r = 0.80) and DP HR (% peak HR, r = 0.80). These results suggest that ski-specific laboratory testing provides better insight to ski performance than treadmill run testing.

Ergonomic analyses of downhill skiing.

The purpose of this study was to provide electromyographic feedback for (1) pedagogical advice in motor learning, (2) the ergonomics of materials choice and (3) competition. For these purposes: (1) EMG data were collected for the Stem Christie, the Stem Turn and the Parallel Christie (three basic ski initiation drills) and verified for the complexity of patterns; (2) integrated EMG (iEMG) and linear envelopes (LEs) were analysed from standardized positions, motions and slopes using compact, soft and competition skis; (3) in a simulated 'parallel special slalom', the muscular activity pattern and intensity of excavated and flat snow conditions were compared. The EMG data from the three studies were collected on location in the French Alps (Tignes). The analog raw EMG was recorded on the slopes with a portable seven-channel FM recorder (TEAC MR30) and with pre-amplified bipolar surface electrodes supplied with a precision instrumentation amplifier (AD 524, Analog Devices, Norwood, USA). The raw signal was full-wave rectified and enveloped using a moving average principle. This linear envelope was normalized according to the highest peak amplitude procedure per subject and was integrated in order to obtain a reference of muscular intensity. In the three studies and for all subjects (elite skiers: n = 25 in studies 1 and 2, n = 6 in study 3), we found a high level of co-contractions in the lower limb extensors and flexors, especially during the extension phase of the ski movement. The Stem Christie and the Parallel Christie showed higher levels of rhythmic movement (92 and 84%, respectively).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)