SessionI ride with armor, otherwise known as my manly exterior. But seriously no. Though it's odd I wear more protective gear to play paintball than to travel at high rates of speed in close proximity to tree's and other unmoving objects.
I mean hey, if you play paintball, you will be shot guaranteed, so makes a lot of sense. If you're skiing, you're really not supposed to ping pong off of trees, so....
But it is funny to think about it that way.
Though to be honest, you could have on the knight armor suit pictured above and if you collide with a tree going 35 mph, it simply doesn't matter if you have a helmet and all the padding on. Not going to stop the massive deceleration injuries (ruptured aorta, bursting organs, ribs breaking and piercing lungs/organs, breaking your neck, massive brain trauma, etc.) so it really doesn't matter all that much.
I think helmets and back protectors (and knee pads for tele skirts especially) are great ideas and can help. But, I really hope that this younger generation growing up in a ski culture where helmets are totally ubiquitous understands how limited the protection that helmets provide actually is. Sure, helmets can prevent your scalp from sustaining a nasty avulsion injury from a tree branch, or certain puncture injuries, and you're better off hitting your head on a rock wearing one than not.
Helmets are rated 15-20 mph for 1 impact. And even then, helmets do not prevent coup contrecoup injuries sustained from the brain impacting the skull and then rebounding and impacting the other side of the skull (you can hit a tree and because your skeleton stops basically immediately from a high rate of speed, your brain and various organs that are more or less "floating" in cavities continue moving and impact each other and bones, etc.).
I'm not directing all this at you Session, just sort of making this post to everyone.
The majority of traumatic ski deaths in the last several years the victim was wearing a helmet. I'm just pointing this shit out because I encounter a lot of people......I mean a LOT....that are under the impression that helmets are almost magical in how they protect the head and they simply are not.
If you fuck up at a high rate of speed and hit a tree....you're in big trouble. Helmet, spine protectors, pads, whatever. Please don't ski harder or faster or more confidently because you're wearing those things.