Marmot Basin has a new helmet policy for the 2009/10 season.

All children under the age of 12 participating in any snow sport lessons will be required to wear a helmet during the lesson, said Marmot Basin’s snow sports school director Colin Borrow.

Borrow added that all participants in any youth group program will also be required to wear a helmet. At Marmot Basin a youth program participant is defined as somebody that has a lift ticket and a lesson and who is 18 years and younger. However, the policy will also apply to teachers, organizers and chaperones taking part in the lesson. 

“Those are primarily school groups... and other bona fide youth organizations, a youth group from a church or boy scouts, girl guides” he explained, “so, if a school teacher wants to participate they have to wear a helmet.”

According to Borrow, the reason for this particular policy is for ease of implementation. He notes the difficulty of enforcing the policy if it were to expand to include the ski area, but only for particular age groups. 

“Without identifying all of our guests, we need to keep very simple guidelines,” he said, adding, “when they are in the lesson they must (wear a helmet), because we can’t control and police them when they’re not in a lesson.”

To effectively enforce the new policy, without passing on an extra cost to customers, Marmot Basin will be supplying helmets for all those required to wear them.

“We’ve taken it one step further. We’ve supplied, free of charge for the first time, those helmets. We’re not tacking on additional costs, we’re going to give you those helmets for free,” he said.

Skiers and boarders will be given the helmet for the entire day, added Borrow. “We encourage them to wear it.”

In order to accommodate the new policy, the ski hill has ordered in hundreds of new helmets to meet the demand.

Also, to lead by example, all youth program instructors will also be required to wear a helmet.

Furthermore to ensure all instructors are able to teach youth programs without prior warning, Borrow will be making all of his employees wear a helmet – no matter what age group they are teaching. 

“Our board of directors has thought that we will lead by example,” said Borrow, “so any time you see any of my instructors, they’ll be wearing a helmet. 

While anyone not in a lesson will still be able to ski or board without a helmet, it is still recommended that everyone wear a helmet. 

“We highly recommend it,” said Brian Rode, sales and marketing manager for the ski hill. 

“Our number one concern always has been, and continues to be, the safety and well being of our customers. It’s also important to us that people have the opportunity to make personal choices. So, we are not yet prepared to make mandatory use of helmets to all our customers,” he explained. 

The decision to enforce a new helmet policy comes as ski hills across Canada reassess the necessity of helmets. However, the industry has yet to pass down firm policy to individual areas.

“There’s no clear guidelines coming out from the industry right now with respect to firm recommendations for ski areas, so ski areas are making decisions, obviously, at their own discretion,” said Rode.

Borrow added that, from his knowledge, Marmot Basin’s policy is in line with the rest of Western Canada so far. “There maybe an exception, but for the most part from what I’ve seen, we are leading the way or we are right there with everybody else with implementing these polices.”