A Five-Year Study of Mortality in a Busy Ski Population

• Published in: Journal of forensic sciences 1977-01, Vol.22 (1), p.222-230
• Main Authors: Weston, JT, Moore, SM, Rich, TH
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Athletic Injuries - mortality; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Risk; Skiing; Utah
• ISSN: 0022-1198; 1556-4029
• DOI: 10.1520/JFS10390J

In the late 1920s there were approximately 30 000 active skiers in the United States, of whom the vast majority were outdoorsmen, many identified with outing clubs within northeastern universities [1]. In this country today there are more than 4 million active skiers involved in this participant sport with more than 800 resorts in North America. For every active skier in the 1920s there are more than a thousand in this sport in the 1970s. Skiing, perhaps better than any other sport in contemporary society, reflects the trend from spectator to participant sport, and within the latter from a less active and perhaps less dangerous participant adventure to one with increased activity and greater danger than many of the others. Skiing is considered today to be, with tennis, the most rapidly growing participant sport in the nation. Recognizing the already identified and exhaustively reported morbidity associated with this sport the authors deemed it desirable to review a large active ski population where it is possible to determine with a reasonable degree of accuracy the number of individuals at risk, and identify the number and nature of mortalities associated directly or indirectly with this sport.