Safety Tips: Skiing (for Teens) (2024)

FAQs

How to ski safely for beginners? ›

Learn the Proper Ski Stance

Keep your shoulders slightly in front of your hips with weight centered over both feet. Keep your arms slightly out in front and off to the side. Hold your poles with the tips pointed back, behind your feet. Look toward where you're going, not down at your skis.

Skiing & Snowboarding Safety Tips

Always wear a helmet designed for skiing or snowboarding. Protect your skin and eyes from the sun and wind. Apply sunscreen and wear ski goggles that fit properly with a helmet. Make sure your boots fit properly and bindings are adjusted correctly.

Safe Slopes

Know which slopes are right for your skill level and ski only on those. If you find yourself on a slope that is too difficult, keep your skis on and sidestep down the hill. Don't ski alone. Stay on marked paths and never go past the ski area boundary or into a closed area.

Shift your skis to the left or right to alter your direction and reduce speed. Then, in that relaxed state we spoke about earlier, drop onto your side, ensuring as much of your body hits the ground at the same time, much like a goalkeeper does when they dive to save the ball.

84 percent of all skiing injuries are self-inflicted and occur after falls. Only six percent of skiing accidents occur after a collision with other skiers. On the one hand, this means that the slopes themselves are safe and modern ski equipment prevents many more serious accidents.

Every year, approximately 600,000 people in the U.S. experience skiing-related injuries. As a result, there are approximately 2 to 3 injuries per 1,000 skier days. Snowboarders face an even higher injury rate of 30%.

The overall rate of injury in alpine skiing is high for many types of injuries. One study, following elite competitive alpine skiers, found the rate of injury to be as high as 184.1 injuries per 100 athletes per season with 75% of athletes suffering a traumatic injury, and 52.3% suffering an overuse injury [14].

Throw your limbs out wide to stop the tumble. If we are still sliding, then it's time to get our feet downhill and squeeze the brakes on. Throw your hands and arms up the slope. Sure, you can try to get a grip with your fingers or drag a pole if you still have one.

The best way to do this is to adjust the turn length and turn shape, as well as the direction of your torso. If you want to slow down, point your skis and torso perpendicular to the hill and not toward the bottom of the hill. Make your turns a bit longer as well so you are traversing further across the mountain.

How many days in a row can a beginner ski? ›

With each successive day on the mountain fatigue within the muscles will build up and this accumulated fatigue will decrease the quality of your skiing. The amount of days you can ski in a row will depend on your fitness and experience level; on average, 4-days in a row is the limit.